Blue: Joni Mitchell (Reprise MS 2038)

The darling of country the country folk set, Joni Mitchell has 10 new ubiquitous songs gracing her fifth album.

The album is marked by simplicity. Most tunes find Miss Joni singing along with only her guitar or piano as company. Other tunes, which have more accompaniment are kept equally simple, but some musicians giving aid include James Taylor and Stephen Stills, Russ Kunkel and Sneeky Pete

The album is aptly named, even though there is a song in it named "Blue" for the context of the music is melancholy remembrances.

To be quite honest, most of the songs in the album are real dogs. They are disinteresting and pretentious pieces of her past which are totally irrelevant to us.

But there are also a few of real interest, like "All I Want," a very nice folk ballad, and "River," another nice ballad.

Even a few of her highly personal songs are initially interesting musically, but when you start really listening to them and hear what they have to say, you lose interest.

Two stars.