Feeling Blue in Guyville

There are not many albums that are widely agreed upon as classics. To have two of them released on the same date years apart is pretty incredible. But that’s the case for today, June 22nd.

50 years ago, Joni Mitchell released her fourth album, Blue.

28 years ago, Liz Phair released her debut album, Exile in Guyville.

You could say very easily that Guyville owes a lot to Blue – both singers writing very personal, career defining albums. Both contain the stories of women wrestling out from under lives that men tried to define, and were met with a mixture of acclaim. Each in its own way was a confrontational album, filled with songs that dared to speak what so many women silently felt.

Blue explores various facets of relationships from infatuation on "A Case of You" to insecurity on "This Flight Tonight". Created just after her breakup with Graham Nash and during an intense relationship with James Taylor, the songs feature simple accompaniments on piano, guitar and Appalachian dulcimer. It’s an emotional, gorgeous record from start to finish with power and grace beyond its quiet musical undertones.

Björk once said that it was Joni who first “had the guts to set up a world driven by extreme female emotion.” Blue was its genesis.

Exile in Guyville was similar to Blue in that it was paired down and powerful and very straightforward. Brilliant songwriting from Phair who matched lyrics and music perfectly.

Whether it’s the spare and wobbly electro-folk of “Explain It to Me” or the crackling pop-rock of the opening cut “6’1″”, the listener feels invited into the room where these recordings were made.

“I wrote those songs during one of the hardest periods of my life,” said Phair. “I had no money, and I was lonely, confused about the future and angry about the past. The lyrics reflected my reality in an unflinching, unapologetic, and sometimes explicit way that people deeply connected with.”

In 1993, when other alternative albums raged loudly (In Utero by Nirvana, Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins), Phair took a different approach and it worked on so many levels. It was beautifully brash and gave voice to so many and opened the eyes of fans and critics.

Both Blue and Exile in Guyville helped set the stage for so many artists to follow – Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Courtney Barnett and many others. We are lucky that these great artists created such complex masterpieces.