Lori wrote, responding to Bruce: "I do the same thing. It DOES seems that Blue should have come after FTR. Perhaps it's because, to me, the vocal and musical style of FTR seems to fit nicely between LOTC and Blue. In some ways, Blue seems to be more "mature" than FTR [. . .]"
Geez, it's amazing that two (or three) diehard fans can disagree so completely! I don't see this at all. I regard "Blue" as the expansion and culmination of the Clouds/LOTC era, and FTR, by contrast, as essentially "Court & Spark I." To me, FTR has much more in common with respect to vocals, lyrics and overall vision to C & S than with anything that went before it. FTR looks ahead to where Joni would eventually go with C & S and HOSL. I guess I see Joni's career as a series of related projects: 1) STAS (the superb introduction that stands alone); 2) Clouds, LOTC, and Blue; 3) FTR, C & S, and HOSL; 4) Hejira, DJRD, and Mingus; 5) WTRF, DED, and CMIARS; 6) NRH, TI, and TT, and finally, 7) BSN and Travelogue. I'm only considering the original studio albums here, not the live albums, or compilations of arrangements that first appeared elsewhere. But this "order of things" in Joni's work is very, very strong to me. Mary. P.S. Lori, we agree on one thing tonight: these acronyms are a helluva lot of fun! ;-)
