Carly Simon

Popularized by the No. 1 hit "You're So Vain," Carly Simon's third album is a career highlight. Simon matches her confessional singer-songwriter vibe with bright soft rock underpinned by girl-group pop. While "You're So Vain" contains plenty of bile, the majority of this set is more upbeat than her previous material. Still, Simon excels at turning torturous emotions into melodic sing-alongs, and her gift for melody carries her thin voice through. Beyond the era-defining music, the coltish cover shot was cherished by schoolboys, and Simon's style was copied by girls for the rest of the '70s.

Carly Simon's third album comes handsomely dressed by super-producer Richard Perry
and boasts many illustrious helpers. In the degree of its intelligence and forthrightness it is
the equal of its predecessors. Regardless of the quality of her songs -- they range from fair
to excellent -- everything Carly does is likable for her radiant vocal personality. She has
the whitest of white voices and uses it well, singing full throat with faultless enu... More >

If a horse could sing in a monotone, the horse would sound like Carly Simon, only a horse wouldn't rhyme "yacht," "apricot," and "gavotte." Is that some kind of joke? Why did Mick Jagger want her? Why does James Taylor want her? Come to think of it, why does she want either of them? (Grade: B-)