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Customer Reviews
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A fun trip down memory lane
This is a good representative group of songs from her career beginnings to fairly recent. I found myself singing along in my car at the top of my lungs, surely amusing other drivers on the road! If you want a small sampler of Carly's hits, this would be it.
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carley simon
shes at her best on this cd and the wife thought it was so romantic
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Reflective On Reflections.......... ;)
Well, well. Yes,yes. Just for the record, your beloved Seer did an interview many years ago for Seering Stone magazine. Most of you probably don't remember it. That's o.k. I barely do. I do recall the writing staff looking stunned as I walked into their offices with my Seer's hat dipped below my third eye and wearing an apricot scarf. And when they asked about my travels and I told them I just took my carpet up to Nova Scotia, all pandemonium broke loose. They all ran to the phones to contact Carly Simon to come in and interview with me. I suppose this will always be a mystery to me. ;)
But, what about Carly and the selection here? Well, I will tell you that for years I have always enjoyed her music. And she's had so many hits and good tunes that I wondered why I couldn't get all that on one release? Very frustrating to a Seer who holds no sway with music executives. However, good fortune finally came around and they released this excellent compilation "Reflections".
Carly came up with the confessional singer-songwriters in the 70's. Mega-talented, she wooed her lover (and us) with that beautiful angelic voice. She inhabited the landscape of vulnerable, independent women whose quest was always for finding that ideal love. Despite the disappointments and illusions, she continued to learn about life and relate her lessons back to us. I think that is one aspect about her music that always rings true. She paints the gems here with eloquent, lyrical finesse and genius. The compositions are always measured and arranged with melodic enjoyment as first and foremost. This c.d. is pure pleasure from the first til the last.
In "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" she's afraid of losing herself in expectations and conventions. With "Anticipation" she questions the unknown future and how things can change the way she is feeling at the moment. Her classic line "These are the good old days" relates to the now. The good old days are at this moment.
Need I explain the irony of "You're So Vain"? The kicker is that of course the song is about him. Very clever put down. The theme from The Spy Who Loved Me, "Nobody Does It Better" is genius because of it's universal appeal. Each and every song here reveals an emotion, a thought, a yearning in the most equisite terms.
Carly employs some of the finest musicians for accompaniment. She plays piano or guitar on the cuts. But, also assembled here are some of the best session players on bass, drums, lead guitar and sax. No folks, there is not a false note and they all exude the highest professionalism bringing these songs to life. I will also mention that James Taylor even makes an appearance here and there. But, you knew that.
Before I go, I should mention a song that awes me time and time again. That would be "Like a River", a lush and resplendent ode to her mother. Never slipping into the maudlin, it is sentimental with the joy of memory. Which is exactly how we should feel about loved ones who are gone.
In closing, this is a sure winner. Easy listening but done with such class and expertise. A real joy. Seriously. I am glad that someone had brains in that ivory tower. Now folks, forgive me but I must leave. I have a meeting this afternoon with a little filly in Saratoga. ;)
Coming Around Again --- Metamorpho
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Carly at Her Best
This is a wonderful album of Carly's best songs. Her voice against a very rich musical background is enchanting. I love this CD! It is a very good value too, as there are 20 great songs on it. I could, and do, listen to it for hours at a time.
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strong that way
Every once in a while an anthology covering the high points of an artist's career simply dazzles with the accumulated weight of one memorable musical statement following upon another. The danger of beginning a review of Carly Simon's REFLECTIONS with such an observation is that it may understate her achievement.
Upon a fifth or sixth listening to this greatest hits album, one is left wondering how she did it. There must have been very few years without a CS tune at the top of the charts thoughtfully probing what love means, why men are like are they are, and why women love them anyway.
It is bad math and sad psychology to size up an artist's soul by counting the themes she devotes on a greatest hits album to the distinct themes about which her music resolves. But it's hardly a worthless enterprise, so here we go:
On six tracks, Carly traces the tortured landscape of family and relatiional strife: Beginning with the ironic 'That's the Way it Should Be' and continuing on to her inimitable duet with Jagger 'You're So Vain', Simon shows herself well acquainted with all the reasons not to love, yet indicates in the end that none is decisive. 'Jesse' is in fact a humorous statement of just that injudicious element of the human condition.
The gorgeous, lilting 'Coming Around Again', the heart-rending (can one still use that word without melodrama?) 'Better Not Tell Her' and the poignant 'LIke a River' round out this introspective vein in Simon's collected works.
Just as there is loneliness in life, so one track exposes the loneliness of life in the spotlight: 'Legend in Your Own TImes'.
Finally, and in roughly equal measure to her contemplation of the pain of it all, Carly sings of the sheer delight of love and, of course, the anticipation of it: 'Anticipation', 'The Right Thing to Do', 'Mockingbird', the ineffably beautiful 'I Haven't Got Time for the Pain', 'Nobody Does it Better', 'The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of', and 'Give Me All Night'. These are the tunes that work themselves into one's soul and rise, unbidden , to the lips.
Yet until one meets them in one collection, it is possible not to notice their cumulative force.
Carly Simon was one of the second half of the twentieth century's definitive vocal artists. Like this reviewer, you might not have recognized that, enthralled as we were by each facet of the gem. One at a time. But, put together, how they sparkle!
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