Joni Mitchell is an individual who defies conceptualization, and in that defiance comes into her own brilliantly. Her second album, Clouds …, is one of the most lyrical, skillful, and utterly distinctive presentations of great talent that has ever had to stand on its own. A superlative song writer, Miss Mitchell is fascinated with womanhood. Her songs explore the joys and travails of being loved and unloved, of looking at the world through the eyes of a female.

Clouds shows considerable growth and improvement over her first album; the songs are stronger, the changes braver, her voice more flexible and relaxed. While the first album seemed understated, Clouds, which does not have any accompaniment other than that which the artist herself supplies, is a stronger, more personal effort, fuller and richer for what she has put into the songs. (pp. 51, 57)

Ellen Sander, in Saturday Review (© 1969 by Saturday Review, Inc...