ARRANGEMENTS IN BLUE Notes on Loving and Living Alone

British poet Amy Key narrates her memoir about love and living alone. Examining her life through Joni Mitchell's influential 1971 album, BLUE, Key relates each track from the album to a chapter in her life, finding frequent parallels between her experiences and Mitchell's. The subjects Key covers range from deeply affecting to fairly lighthearted, and while her composed delivery seems at first to be a mismatch, it ends up working well, softening some of the harsher elements in both women's lives. The emotional vulnerability in Key's writing is supported by her calm tone. While there is a fair bit of repetition between the chapters, Key's narration overall saves this work from becoming too redundant or overwrought. K.M.P. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2023]