Coming around again --- Carly Simon --- 1987 (Arista)
Not an artiste I would normally be that interested in, my curiosity was piqued when a friend spun the album for me, and I was quite surprised at how good it was. I'm not a Carly Simon fan, have none of her albums bar this one, and in all likelihood will probably not buy any more, but I did like this one. I think it was the surprise factor that did it for me, the fact that as an album it's really solid and has really very few if any bad tracks.
As you might expect, it's music that's best described as adult contemporary: you're not going to get any mad guitar solos, long keyboard passages or very deep lyrical themes on this, but for what it is it's very good. The opening track is also the title, and is a mid-paced ballad, which not incongruously sings of the normal, everyday trials of middle-age, with its opening lines
”Baby sneezes/ Mommy freezes/ Daddy breezes in/ So good on paper/ So romantic/ So bewildering.” It's a song of love found in ordinary places, and of perhaps accepting what you have. It's carried on nice acoustic guitar and keyboards, and Carly's voice is still strong, clear and passionate, even sixteen years later(at that point) and twelve albums prior to this, and she still has a lot to say.
With a songwriter of her calibre and pedigree, it will come as no surprise that she writes or co-writes most of the tracks on the album, with some star help here and there. “Give me all night” is another ballad (there are rather a lot of them), but with a harder edge, thumping drums and electric guitar giving the song a lot of heart, and it kind of breaks out into a type of AOR tune, boppy in a mid-paced way and very catchy. The standout is her cover of the classic song from that classic film “Casablanca”, and she does a really fine job with “As time goes by”, featuring Stevie Wonder on piano and harmonica. You can just see her in a long red dress, smoking a cigarette in those then-fashionable holders they used to use, stretched on a piano as the song plays.
“Do the walls come down” is carried on gentle guitar with some nice keyboard and piano, a gentle yet insistent ballad with great backing vocals and a great beat. “Stuff that dreams are made of” is a little faster, but still laid-back, as most of the tracks here are. Again it's a song of making the best of what you have, instead of flying off to pursue unattainable dreams, of finding your heart's desire right where you least expected to, as she sings
”What if the prince in the fairytale/ Is right here in disguise?/ And what if the stars you've been reaching for/ Are shining in his eyes?” Sobering words, indeed.
The whine of a familiar electric guitar introduces the only song written by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, and “It should have been me” has their fingerprints all over it. Yet another ballad, it has a rockier edge, a very power ballad feel, with the obligatory guitar solo, while “Two hot girls (on a hot summer night)” is just great fun, jazzy and funky with some smooth sax: you can almost hear the streets steaming in the hot summer air, the moon low in the sky over the city, cats prowling the darkened alleys in search of prey, or shelter from the heat.
“You have to hurt” is another cautionary tale set to music, as Carly foresees disaster as her friend tells her she is in love, and the older, more mature woman knows how it's going to go. Nice piano line and some decent guitar, with a certain amount of bitterness in the lyric, which is one of the two on which she had no input:
”It was good to see her/ Believe me/ But I couldn't stand to hear this anymore!” After the somewhat bitchy snap of this song, “All I want is you” is a more uptempo celebration of love, with an almost Bruce Hornsby sound, a lot more positive now that Carly is again calling the tune, then the pure gospel of “Hold what you've got” would have been a fantastic closer (though it's not the last track), with Carly stretching herself and showing that age has not dulled her voice or her enthusiasm one bit, with her holding court from the pulpit on the importance of loving the one you're with. Hallelujah, sister.
The closer, when it comes, is odd, and yet strangely appropriate. “Coming around again/ Itsy bitsy spider” is a combination of a sort of reprise of the title track allied to the children's nursery rhyme, which in itself sort of takes the album full circle, as the
”Itsy bitsy spider/ Climbed up the spout again.” Never give up seems to be the theme of the album, displayed in the most offbeat and yet deepest fashion in this strange little finale.
This is an album to relax to, not to dance around the room to. I wouldn't relegate it to the status of background music, but it certainly can be listened to without too much attention having to be devoted to it. And it improves on subsequent listenings. You may not listen to it that often, but on occasion you'll find yourself digging it out, and reminding yourself why Carly Simon is the renowned and respected artiste she is, and has been for over forty years now.
TRACKLISTING
1. Coming around again
2. Give me all night
3. As time goes by
4. Do the walls come down
5. Stuff that dreams are made of
6. It should have been me
7. Two hot girls (on a hot summer night)
8. You have to hurt
9. All I want is you
10. Hold what you've got
11. Coming around again/Itsy bitsy spider