要怎么听Joni Mitchell这张发表於1971年的Blue专辑？或许有人是冲着All Music Guide乐评五颗星满分高评；或许听的人是因为知道这是张入选为「葛莱美名人堂」（Grammy Hall of Fame）大奖、被认为具有恒久不变的品质或具有历史意义的作品；也或许有人知道滚石音乐杂誌不仅早就给Blue这张专辑五颗星满分殊荣，还在去年年底公布的史上五百张最佳摇滚专辑里选进Blue：名列第叁十名，是女艺人最高名次。但这些头衔、评比其实只是锦上添花。听Mitchell这张Blue专辑其实可以再简单一点。每个习惯用文字整理自己生活、感觉的人，在期待记录自己的生命之餘，多少也有一点宣泄情绪的渴望。听者也可以用这种方式去听Blue—出自一个诗人、一个画家、一个歌手、一个善於自省的人、也是一位女性之手，最细緻动人，也最敏感纤细、最赤裸、最脆弱的一张专辑。也或许藉着这个方式，听者更能觉察出经由Mitchell这类创作者、逐渐界定出来的singer/songwriter的本质。

这张专辑在滚石杂志选出的500张历代最强专辑中排名第30位。

Sad, spare, and beautiful, Blue is the quintessential confessional singer/songwriter album. Forthright and poetic, Joni Mitchell's songs are raw nerves, tales of love and loss (two words with relative meaning here) etched with stunning complexity; even tracks like "All I Want," "My Old Man," and "Carey" -- the brightest, most hopeful moments on the record -- are darkened by bittersweet moments of sorrow and loneliness. At the same time that songs like "Little Green" (about a child given up for adoption) and the title cut (a hymn to salvation supposedly penned for James Taylor) raise the stakes of confessional folk-pop to new levels of honesty and openness, Mitchell's music moves beyond the constraints of acoustic folk into more intricate and diverse territory, setting the stage for the experimentation of her later work. Unrivaled in its intensity and insight, Blue remains a watershed.