Name
Cloud-Illusions is named after a lyric in Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell:
"I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down
And still somehow
It’s cloud illusions that I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all”
The original studio version of Both Sides Now was released in 1969 but it's the 2004 remaster that leaves me misty-eyed every time I listen to it.
If you’ve ever watched Love Actually it’s the song that plays when Emma Thompson's character realises her husband is having an affair. She stands in their room alone as this song plays on her stereo. I've always been particularly moved by that scene, especially since she has to go back downstairs to her family on Christmas day, pretending that her entire world hasn't fallen under her feet.
I could spend my whole life dissecting Both Sides Now, but unfortunately I'm not great with words. How is it possible that Joni Mitchell has condensed the entire essence of this human existence in a song less than six minutes long? If you've never listened to it please do. You won't regret it.