Carly Simon Albums (24)
'This Kind of Love'
Release Date 4/29/2008
Tracks 13
Label Hear Music
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What The Critics Say
This Kind of Love is Carly Simon's debut for Starbucks' Hear Music imprint, and it is even stranger than 2007's Into White, where the seed for this recording was sown. Simon was approached by no less than songwriter Jimmy Webb to make a Brazilian record. According to her notes, this was an event of pure synchronicity, as she had been listening to a great deal of Jorge Ben's and Caetano Veloso's music. That may be, but it was on Into White where she recorded Luiz Bonfá's classic "Manha de Carnaval," the theme from the film Black Orpheus. Webb arranged and co-produced the album with Frank Filipetti, who also engineered the session, with musical direction by longtime collaborator Peter Calo. Some of the session players include the great percussionists Cyro Baptista and Rick Marotta; drummer Robby Ameen; bassist Lincoln Goines; Calo, Ben Mauro, David Saw, and others on guitars; and Webb doing everything from playing bass and acting as concertmaster to playing synth and piano. Simon is part of the band as a player this time out as well, playing piano and Fender Rhodes. Teese Gohl is back again doing orchestrations and Elena Barere acts as concertmaster on most tracks. Inspiration and intention aside, this is not a bossa nova record, nor is it a samba date. Not in the least. Brazilian musicians may be here, but they serve to enhance the spiritual aesthetic of this recording. Brazil and its music are present primarily as inspirations and references to the textures, sounds, atmospheres, and colors that evoke the lush sensuality of its landscape, music, and people. There are Brazilian-style cuts here, such as "Hola Soleil," written by Simon, her son Ben Taylor, and Jacob Brackman. The guitars are pure samba, and the contrapuntal percussion lines of Baptista and Marotta wrap themselves around the sensuous guitar lines that rely as much on jazz as samba, as Simon's vocals are underscored and highlighted by strings and an 11-member children's choir. In contrast, Webb's "The Last Samba," written especially for Simon, uses a stripped-down band led by Webb with Marotta on cahones, a lilting flute solo by Aaron Heick, and a lovely upright bassline by Goines. The rhythms may be samba crisscrossed with bossa, but the melody is pure Webb adult pop. It's slow and sexy, and Simon in her lower register is positively elegant in her delivery. Ben Taylor wrote the truly beautiful "Island," among the album's highlights with its shimmering acoustic guitar lines, percussive interplay by Ameen and Baptista, and the rock-solid bottom bassline of Goines. Simon pulls out the depth of feeling in the tune; she underscores every single sorrowful line with the professionalism and honesty that only a real songwriter can deliver. Daughter Sally Taylor wrote more in the Bahia vein on "When We're Together," which would also be a great selection for Michael Franks to cover. The Dobro touch by Calo is unexpected and quite pleasant, Simon's vocal quavering in its delivery here, offering a scintillating portrait of the first flush of new love. But the real delights are Simon's own songs -- she wrote or co-wrote ten of the 13 on the disc. The aching "So Many People to Love" is a sparse, spontaneous, sadly sweet finger-popping swing tune she wrote with Carole Bayer Sager. It doesn't sound like anything else here, but that's because Wade Robson, who did the vocal arrangement, also produced it and recorded it in a different place. This is the kind of pop song that is perfect for Simon's voice; it slips and slides in the same way Rickie Lee Jones' voice does. And the small graininess in her delivery brings out the soul that none of her standards records could. The skeletal guitar that accompanies her on the first lines of "Hold Out Your Heart" are quietly stunning. When the strings and backing vocals enter, they wipe away the years of "pop music progression" and take listeners back to a purer time -- when lyrics would communicate in sync with music written specifically to offer a dramatic aural portrait of an emotional slice of life or an episodic one. It's graceful and quite beautiful when it reaches up and everything swells. The only thing that doesn't work here is the weird take on rap that is "People Say a Lot," a jumble of Dobro, big strings, programmed loops, and Simon's delivery -- a square, stiff reading of old-school rap for the entire intro that becomes a vocal counterpoint exercise in show music. It should have been left off the set, period. Her wily flamenco-tinged "They Just Want You to Be There," while using simple vernacular, more than makes up for it, though. The set closes with "Too Soon to Say Goodbye," written as a eulogy for Art Buchwald at his request. It's a slow '70s-sounding singer/songwriter balladic waltz, kissed by the New York cabarets and Broadway. For Carly Simon's fans, this will ultimately be a most welcome return to her songwriting form. This is the best album of mostly original material she's cut since 1979's Spy. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Listening to Into White, it's difficult to find a place where it begins and ends. Unlike 2005's Moonlight Serenade, or her many other standards records, this is a set that doesn't feel like one. For starters, Carly Simon has come full circle. There is no symphony orchestra here, none of the schmaltz and syrup that have plagued almost every one of her recordings since 1997's Film Noir (2000's Bedroom Tapes was an exception). This does not mean that the album is void of sentimentality. How can anyone record Stephen Foster's "Oh Susanna" or Jimmie Davis' "You Are My Sunshine" or the eternal lullaby "I Gave My Love a Cherry" without it? For starters, there is the song selection. But these songs are woven into a strange, multi-colored, intimate fabric with Lennon and McCartney's "Blackbird," and the title cut (written and performed so wonderfully by Cat Stevens on 1970s Tea for the Tillerman; it need never be done again). Simon is backed by a close-knit studio band of friends and family, from co-producer and engineer (and often duet and backing vocalist) Jim Parr, her children Ben and Sally Taylor (with James Taylor; they perform gorgeously on Taylor's "You Can Close Your Eyes"), keyboardist Teese Gohl, and others. This sense of intimacy is both a good and bad thing. Eternal songs such as Foster's or "Jamaica Farewell" deserve to be treated as both classics and prime material for experimentation, where original interpretation is a must if the song is to be pulled off. Simon fails on both of these. Her reading of "Manha de Carnival," the haunting and beautiful theme from the film Black Orpheus (written by the late guitarist Luiz Bonfá), fares much better because Simon is able to reach into her lower register and float the tune's rhythm. Her treatments of both "Scarborough Fair" and Yip Harberg and Harold Arlen's "Somewhere over the Rainbow" add to each song's immortality. The reason for this is a life-long fascination with the material that has no doubt been tried in many contexts before. There is a new version of Simon's "Love of My Life" from the film This Is My Life. It takes on new depth and dimension here. The album's closer "I'll Just Remember You," co-written by son Ben, could have been written in the '40s. Its pronounced melody and subtle atmospheric backdrop lend itself to the stuff of great balladry. In sum, Into White may be the best record Simon's made since the Bedroom Tapes, and it takes a place in her catalog alongside Torch and Boys in the Trees, though it is very different in feel and texture from either. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Moonlight Serenade, Carly Simon's fourth collection of standards in 25 years, digs a little deeper than her previous outings. Perhaps it's the plethora of standards outings by popular artists -- Rod Stewart's done three in a row -- perhaps it's because of her pedigree and background; perhaps it's simply because she thinks she can pull it off; and indeed she can. She delivers these 12 songs with panache, savvy, and just a touch of sass. Produced by Richard Perry, these tracks are not so much elegant as enigmatic. Simon appreciates the swing inherent in delivering a standard, even if it's a ballad. Her smoky voice lends itself well to "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "My One and Only Love," and her sense of theatrics is drop-dead gorgeous on "I Only Have Eyes for You," which is a bit of a radical reworking that actually works. The slippery delivery on these songs -- her read of "All the Things You Are," for example, may be considered vulgar by some, but it's utterly lovely and brave -- is what lends them their unique, sexy character. This isn't for everyone, but it's a winner nonetheless. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Christmas Is Almost Here'
Release Date 10/22/2002
Tracks 11
Label Rhino
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What The Critics Say
Christmas albums by major veteran pop stars long past their commercial prime are usually not highlights of their catalogs, and for the most part this isn't an exception. There are, too, some of the failings common to these kinds of projects: unmemorable treatments of songs that have been heard too often (like "O Come, All Ye Faithful" and "Silent Night") and some bland, middle-of-the-road arrangements. Yet for at least some of the time, this is definitely an above-average holiday offering. Don Was' presence as co-producer ensures some creativity and diversity to the sound, as do the contributions of top session players like Jim Keltner, Billy Preston, and Benmont Tench. Simon's vocals are strong, and most surprisingly, one of the two originals, "The Land of Christmas (Mary)," is not only pretty straight-ahead and gutsy, but sounds a lot better than most of the contemporary material she did on her secular records in the 1980s and 1990s. Some mild blues gospel overtones make it into "Twelve Gates to the City" (the one song to feature Billy Preston, on organ and vocals), and a reggae beat is set to "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." A couple of unclichéd selections make it into the program with Willie Nelson's "Pretty Paper" (on which Nelson himself duets with Simon) and John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)." It's not an exciting release by any means, but it's not as immediately forgettable as many holiday efforts by similar performers are. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Accomplished singer/songwriter Carly Simon gets back to where it all started on her first brand new release of original material in six years, The Bedroom Tapes. She taps into the realm of traditional American music, continuing to draw inspiration from Broadway show tunes, jazz blues standards, folk-pop, and rock & roll. She is as a raw as she was on 1975's Playing Possum and just as sweet as 1987's Coming Around Again, but Simon is fresh. Although in her mid-fifties, she is still a charmer. Always frolicking with romance and the despair it sometimes brings, songs like "Our Affair" and "Cross the River" salt the wounds. She isn't entirely melodramatic, she also makes room to poke a little fun. "I'm Really the Kind" sashes at her witty self, critical of her own desires. "We Your Dearest Friends" is a haunting look at how personal judgment comes full circle. The Bedroom Tapes is pure, and Carly Simon proves herself to be well grounded. Not that listeners didn't already know that. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
For Carly Simon, Film Noir is a way to explore traditional pop classics. Using smoky saloon songs like "Ev'rytime We Say Goodbye" as a blueprint, Simon and producer Jimmy Webb create a seductive, intimate atmosphere. Simon's vocals aren't naturally suited to this material, but she acquits herself well, and the two duets -- one with Webb and one with John Travolta ("Two Sleepy People") -- are charming additions to an ingratiating album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Like many singer/songwriters of her lineage, Carly Simon has learned to stretch out her albums of new songs while still maintaining a steady release schedule. She put out eight such albums in the 1970s and another four in the '80s. But in the three-and-a-half years between 1987's Coming Around Again and 1990s Have You Seen Me Lately, there was a live album and an album of standards. After that, Simon released a soundtrack and a "family opera" performed largely by others. Letters Never Sent is her first new studio album in more than four years and only her second of the '90s. In Simon's case, though, this is a good idea. In the '70s, she tended to record too frequently, before she'd written enough strong material, resulting in uneven albums. And with Have You Seen Me Lately, which was freighted with the concerns of middle age, she seemed to have written herself into a corner. Letters Never Sent represents a fresh start, with little reference to aging, other than a song addressed to her late mother. Rather, Simon has returned to passion as her main subject matter, confessing, "I can never be in love, I can only be in heat." She gives off that heat in many of the album's songs, though she doesn't quite fulfill the promise of the title, which implies lots of secret revelations. Instead, there are mostly generalized songs of romance, delivered by Simon with a large cast of supporting players, including her children, a niece, and seemingly every musician who played on previous Simon albums. It's an unusually coquettish performance for a woman of 49, and practically weightless. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Carly Simon's Romulus Hunt: A Family Opera'
Release Date 1/1/1993
Tracks 21
Label Angel
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What The Critics Say
Fitting into that category also occupied by Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio, Carly Simon's Romulus Hunt: A Family Opera is a 46-minute musical about a 12-year-old upper-class boy living in New York City who tries to effect a reconciliation between his divorced parents. The music is pop-classical, and the singing is done by a cast of five. Simon certainly knows the material, and it gives her a chance to stretch musically, but it might better have been rendered as an after-school TV-movie than as an operetta. (Simon herself appears only at the end, singing one of the songs as a bonus track.) ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Singing on soundtracks had been very good for Carly Simon, who scored four chart hits with movie themes between 1977 and 1989, so it's surprising she never did a full score until this, Nora Ephron's directorial debut, about a single mother who becomes a standup comic. (Ephron had written the screenplay for Heartburn, which featured Simon's comeback hit, "Coming Around Again.") Simon contributed five light songs and some instrumentals, in what for her was an unusually relaxed, playful style. In retrospect, maybe she wishes she'd waited and scored Ephron's second feature, the hit Sleepless In Seattle, the following year. ("Love Of My Life" hit Number 16 on the Adult Contemporary chart, but the album itself did not chart.) ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Have You Seen Me Lately?'
Release Date 1/1/1990
Tracks 11
Label Arista
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What The Critics Say
Have You Seen Me Lately? was Simon's first studio album of original material in three and a half years. Simon has always written songs for her age group; here, it's the fortysomethings of the 1990s. "I've been doing a lot of thinking/About growing older and moving on," she sings, and in her world that entails "protein shakes," "twelve-step groups," and stays in clinics. Some relief is provided in the single "Better Not Tell Her" and "Fisherman's Song," on which Simon duets with Judy Collins. But you can't help thinking that the ongoing life story portrayed in Simon's songs has become somewhat limited. At the end, "We Just Got Here" provides the summer's-end metaphor for middle age, and we are left with the impression that there's nothing ahead but cold weather. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
