Judy Collins

In My Life is like Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home: it documents a young folkie prying open her tradition's insular aesthetic. But instead of rock 'n' roll, the lovely Ms. Collins gets arty, exploring theatre music, modern British pop, and then-unknown singer-songwriters like Randy Newman and Leonard Cohen (whom she covered first). Joshua Rifkin's austere arrangements are beautiful. But the most gorgeous thing on In My Life is Collins' crystalline voice. Its purity stuns the ears.