Night Ride Home

Night Ride Home
Studio album by
ReleasedFebruary 18, 1991 (UK)
March 5, 1991 (US)
Recorded1989–1990
StudioA&M (Hollywood, California)
One on One (North Hollywood, California)
The Kiva (Encino, California)
GenreAdult alternative
Length51:43
LabelGeffen
ProducerJoni Mitchell, Larry Klein
Joni Mitchell chronology
Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm
(1988)
Night Ride Home
(1991)
Turbulent Indigo
(1994)
Singles from Night Ride Home
  1. "Night Ride Home"
    Released: February 1991 (UK)
  2. "Come in from the Cold"
    Released: June 1991
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Entertainment Weekly
Los Angeles Times
Rolling Stone

Night Ride Home is the fourteenth album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released in 1991. It was the last of four albums she recorded for Geffen Records.

Songs on the album include "Cherokee Louise" about a childhood friend who suffered sexual abuse, "The Windfall (Everything for Nothing)" about a maid who tried to sue Mitchell, and the retrospective single release "Come in from the Cold" about childhood and middle age. The title song "Night Ride Home" (originally titled "Fourth of July" and first performed during promotion for her previous album in 1988) was inspired by a moonlit night in Hawaii. Though the album contained no charting singles, it received critical acclaim, and the track "Come in from the Cold" received airplay on AOR stations.

This was Mitchell's first album not to be distributed by the WEA family of labels. She had been signed to WEA's Asylum and Reprise labels in the past, and Warner Bros. Records had been the distributor for Geffen Records from 1980 to 1990. That year, Geffen was sold to MCA Music (now Universal Music Group), as a result, the album was distributed by Uni Distribution Corp. (the distribution arm of MCA Music), which also took over the rest of the Geffen catalogue.

A home video release, Come In from the Cold, was released the same year and features promo videos for five tracks from the album along with an interview with Mitchell discussing the inspiration behind them.

As of December 2007, the album had sold 238,000 copies in the US.