It took a while for a lot of people to get to Joni Mitchell. Listening to her albums was a frustrating experience if you weren't a convert in front. You could tell that Blue, for instance, was an important record and the songs were truly fine, but somehow it seemed almost too personal, too consistently down. Also, her propensity for seemingly cramming every syllable she possibly could into each line became irritating after awhile, at once melodically overcomplex and a conversation style taken to an extreme….

[For the Roses is] the best album Joni Mitchell has ever made and, even beyond the songs themselves, it's a sound record….

Joni takes the riskiest propositions and somehow pulls them off without a trace of banality. Whoever thought they'd wanna hear another song about groupies and musicians on the road? But "Blonde in the Bleachers" gets it down with some kind...