Carole King

Tapestry has at least four songs that you know by heart. A streamlined, fully-packed showcase of King's genre-defining gift for pop songwriting and a benchmark for '70s AM radio, Tapestry has withstood the test of time far better than Frampton Comes Alive -- the other record everybody and their brother bought in the '70s.

Carole King's second album, Tapestry, has fulfilled the promise of her first and confirmed
the fact that she is one of the most creative figures in all of pop music. It is an album of
surpassing personal-intimacy and musical accomplishment and a work infused with a sense
of artistic purpose. It is also easy to listen to and easy to enjoy. Miss King's past
accomplishments have become something of a pop music legend. She and her fo... More >

Pacific rock, sure, but with a sharpness worthy of a Brooklyn girl--if there's a truer song about breaking up than "It's Too Late," the world (or at least AM radio) isn't ready for it. Not that lyrics are the point on an album whose title cut compares life to a you-know-what--the point is a woman singing. King has done for the female voice what countless singer-composers achieved years ago for the male: liberated it from technical decorum. She insists on being heard as she is--not raunchy and hot-to-trot or sweet and be-yoo-ti-ful, just human, with all the cracks and imperfections that implies. And for the first time she has found the music--not just the melodies, but the studio support--to put her point across as cleanly and subtly as it deserves. (Grade - A-)