Getting Your Hands on Joni Mitchell Complete So Far
I bought the first copy of this box set at a record store in Oakland back in 2007. It was on sale, which was the main draw. The thing about Joni Mitchell Complete So Far is that it does one job very well and fails at several others. It compiles her Reprise-era work up through the mid-2000s, but the track sequencing feels arbitrary and the liner notes are thin. Not terrible, just thin. The set came out in 2007 with three CDs and one DVD. Disc one covers the early years from 1968 to 1974 — Blue, Clouds, Ladies of the Canyon, For the Roses. Disc two picks up from Don't Stop and goes through the Electric Ladyland sessions and the Hejira period. Disc three is mostly later material and some rarities. The DVD has the concert film from her 1974 tour with David Crosby and Graham Nash, plus a handful of music videos from the 1980s and 90s.
Joni Mitchell Complete So Far: What You Need to Know Before Buying
I've listened to this set probably a hundred times since I got it. The main practical problem I ran into is that disc three is mostly filler. Tracks like "Both Sides Now" from the 2000 recording session are fine, but they're not essential. If you already own Blue and For the Roses on their original CD pressings, disc one duplicates what you already have. The real value in this box set is disc two — specifically the inclusion of the "Out in the Woods" sessions and some alternate takes that aren't on the standard album releases. There's no official digital download available. Warner Bros. hasn't released this box set in any downloadable format. You can find individual albums from that era on streaming services, but the specific track listings and alternate takes on Complete So Far aren't digitized as a package. Spotify has most of the albums in the correct chronological order if you build a playlist yourself, but you'll miss the bonus tracks. The audio quality on the CDs is competent but not reference grade. It's remastered from the original analog tapes, but the remastering engineer seemed to push the compression a bit hard on the later tracks. If you listen on good headphones, you can hear the digital ceiling on songs from the Turbulent Indigo era. The 1970s material sounds fine — warm enough, with decent stereo separation. Don't expect audiophile-grade vinyl remasters here.
I tried using a disc ripper to convert the CDs to FLAC files so I could listen on my phone. The ripping software kept misreading the pregap on disc two, track four. It would skip about two seconds of the intro on "Coyote" every time. I ended up having to manually adjust the offset in dbPowerAmp and re-rip that track three times before I got a clean read. The issue seems to be specific to my drive, but it's worth knowing if you plan to digitize this set. If you want to save money and don't mind missing the rarities, you can stream individual albums. Apple Music and Tidal have the core catalog, and Tidal's hi-res tier actually sounds better than these CDs on the older material. The Complete So Far box set is worth it if you want the physical collectible and the bonus disc two content. Otherwise, build your own playlist and skip the $40 price tag.
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