Artist: Joni Mitchell · Album: Hejira · Year: 1976 · Label: Asylum · Rank: 133 / 500
Hejira is Joni Mitchell in transit, physically and emotionally. The album moves like a long drive at night — introspective, unhurried, and quietly revelatory.
Jazz-Tinted Minimalism
With Jaco Pastorius on bass, the music becomes fluid and open-ended. Structures feel loose, almost conversational, allowing lyrics to unfold without constraint.
Writing as Observation
Mitchell writes not to resolve emotion, but to understand it. Love, independence, and loneliness are examined with patience and clarity.
Legacy
Hejira remains one of the most sophisticated travelogues in popular music — an album where movement becomes self-knowledge.