Known more as one of the great singer-songwriters, I think an underrated side to Joni Mitchell is her role as storyteller. Her songs are like stories put to music, not just lyrics. They involve you. They immerse you. They paint a picture for you, like all the great novels do. “Cactus Tree” paints the portraits of five characters with exceptional musicality and just enough ambiguity to make you wonder if their lives are somehow interconnected.

“There's a man who's been out sailing in a decade full of dreams.”