Some of these voices are very good such as early Joni Mitchell's. Her early songs match
her musical qualities.

What happens is that many of the singer/songwriters are better in the vocal department
then they are in the songwriting. A lot of the introspective ruminations of the songwritiing tend to be masked by a veneer of pretty sounds but the content is lacking.

Some of it is pseudo-new agey and pretentious philosophizing by young women who
haven't really lived that long and speculate from a position of delayed adolescence.

Joni Mitchell seemed to defy that. Her earlier songs contained a maturity the contrasted
her age when she wrote them. "Both Sides Now" is a classic example.

I think this is true of Janis Ian as well. "Society's Child" was remarkable for a young girl
her age and really struck a nerve with the public. "At Seventeen" was another that communicated a sophistication and maturity.

Each song should be taken independently of the singer and evaluated.

Frank Hamilton