Clouds (Joni Mitchell album)
| Clouds | ||||
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| Studio album by Joni Mitchell | ||||
| Released | May 1, 1969 | |||
| Studio | A&M Studios, Hollywood, California | |||
| Length | 36:52 | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
| Producer | Joni Mitchell, Paul A. Rothchild | |||
| Joni Mitchell chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| MusicHound | 3/5 |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  |
| Pitchfork Media | 7/10 |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| The Village Voice | C |
Clouds is the second studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released on May 1, 1969, by Reprise Records. After releasing her debut album to considerable exposure, Mitchell recorded the album at A&M Studios in Hollywood. She produced most of the album and painted a self-portrait for its cover artwork. Clouds has subtle, unconventional harmonies and songs about lovers, among other themes.
Clouds charted at number 22 in Canada and number 31 in the United States. It has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of 500,000 copies in the US. Clouds was generally well received by music critics.
After moving to New York City and signing to Reprise Records in 1967, Mitchell recorded her 1968 debut album Song to a Seagull with producer David Crosby. The album was a mostly acoustic set of songs, some of which were subsequently covered by more successful singers. Consequently, Mitchell received more outside exposure and began to earn a strong cult following.
Mitchell recorded Clouds at A&M Studios in Hollywood and played acoustic guitar and keyboards; she was joined by Stephen Stills on guitar. She produced all of the album's songs, except "Tin Angel", which was produced by Paul A. Rothchild. She also painted the album's cover artwork—a self-portrait.
Two songs, "Chelsea Morning" and "Both Sides, Now", had already been recorded by other singers by the time Mitchell started work on the album. Mitchell wrote "Both Sides, Now" after reading Saul Bellow's 1959 novel Henderson the Rain King on a plane and drawing on a point in the novel where the protagonist is looking at clouds from a plane. The coincidence inspired the song's lyric about looking at clouds from both sides as a metaphor for life's ambiguities and mysteries, as she explained in a 1967 interview, "I dreamed down at the clouds, and thought that when I was a kid I had dreamed up at them, and having dreamed at the clouds from both sides as no generation of men has done, one should be able to accept his death very easily."
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