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Eleanor Rigby 14 · 09-06-2021, 01:36 PM

Tapestry by Carole King

TRACKLIST
1. I Feel The Earth Move
2. So Far Away
3. It's Too Late
4. Home Again
5. Beautiful
6. Way Over Yonder
7. You've Got A Friend
8. Where You Lead
9. Will You Love Me Tomorrow
10. Smackwater Jack
11. Tapestry
12. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman

Tapestry has to be one of the most complete albums ever released, and probably my favourite one by a female artist (depending on the day). It mainly covers genres such as soft-rock, pop and even blues at some points. Before listening to all the songs on this album, I was already familiar with a couple of them and had always admired Carole King's songwriting skills, and I was very aware of her songwriting partnership with Gerry Goffin, as together they had written hits from the 60s such as Loco-motion by Little Eva, Goin’ Back by Dusty Springfield, Will You Love Me Tomorrow by The Shirelles and my favourite one (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman by Aretha Franklin (the last 2 were later recorded by Carole King herself on the album I’m gonna review), among others.
But now I’m just gonna start reviewing the album song by song; notice that every track on this was written by her.

Ok, so the opening track is just great. “I Feel The Earth Move” is an upbeat and very-well written song, and the vocals are really good, it's definitely one of the best known songs by Carole King. The second track, “So Far Away”, is a slow piano ballad that Carole sings very well, but I don’t consider it to be really good, not as good as the previous song or other ones of this album. It’s not really “filler”, it’s nice to hear and you don’t wanna skip it and move on to the next song, it just doesn’t stand out very much. Now we arrive to another one of my favourites. The third track is probably her biggest hit: “It’s Too Late”. I don’t think I need to say much about it, it’s a kind of slow soft-rock song, it’s not a ballad, unlike the next song: “Home Again”. My thoughts about this one are the same as the ones about “So Far Away”, with the difference that the latter is a better song in my opinion. Now, I’d take the next track, “Beautiful”, over these two any day. In the beginning it is a little bit similar to “I Feel The Earth Move” in some aspects, with the difference that after a while it becomes a more ballad-type song. “Way Over Yonder” is the sixth track, a bit filler too, I’d say, but I think every song on this album is listenable, there’s actually nothing boring or annoying here. And we arrive to my favourite one. “You’ve Got A Friend” is my absoulte favourite song by her. I’ve been listening to it since I was 9, and it’s a very special song for me, even though the first version I heard was James Taylor’s and I didn’t quite like it. The lyrics, the music and her voice just make an incredible combination. It seems like a slow sad song at first, then, during the chorus it becomes more…I wouldn’t say happy, because it’s a song about trusting your friend and let her help you, you know, stuff like that. But the next track is pretty amazing too, coming at number 8 we have “Where You Lead”, a song I’d never openly admit is great mainly because it was the “Gilmore Girls” theme and I have some friends obsessed with that series. The next song is a hit that launched her and her husband to fame back in the sixties. I’m talkin’ about "Will You Love Me Tomorrow". The original song was a bit in the vein of hits by other girl bands, such as “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes. But Carole King’s recorded version is slightly slower, and again, it’s a piano ballad, like most of the stuff here. It’s pretty interesting to hear though, it brings another different feeling to the song. The tenth track begins with a piano and organ intro I really like, and again, at first seems to be like “I Feel The Earth Move”, but no, “Smackwater Jack” is completely different, it’s like a typical American upbeat song, with some elements of country, perhaps? It has a short guitar solo, too. It’s OK, in general. Coming next, we have the title track ("Tapestry"), which, ironically, is the “worst” song here, another piano ballad, but still I’ve never felt like wanting to stop hearing it and jump to the final track. This album ends as greatly as it started, with another essential hit. “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” had previously been recorded by the great, one and only Aretha Franklin. I think it’s obvious that Aretha was a MUCH BETTER vocalist.
But still, Carole King has a very “personal” way of singing, I’d say it’s very expressive and she had a unique voice.
Overall rating: 9.25/10
That’s all, it’s the first time I write such a long review, I hope you didn’t get bored after the first 3 sentences, or at least you didn’t look horrified at the grammar mistakes I might have done.

09-06-2021, 01:36 PM	#2 (permalink)
Eleanor Rigby 14 Music Addict Join Date: Jan 2021 Location: Madrid, Spain Posts: 413	Tapestry by Carole King TRACKLIST 1. I Feel The Earth Move 2. So Far Away 3. It's Too Late 4. Home Again 5. Beautiful 6. Way Over Yonder 7. You've Got A Friend 8. Where You Lead 9. Will You Love Me Tomorrow 10. Smackwater Jack 11. Tapestry 12. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman Tapestry has to be one of the most complete albums ever released, and probably my favourite one by a female artist (depending on the day). It mainly covers genres such as soft-rock, pop and even blues at some points. Before listening to all the songs on this album, I was already familiar with a couple of them and had always admired Carole King's songwriting skills, and I was very aware of her songwriting partnership with Gerry Goffin, as together they had written hits from the 60s such as Loco-motion by Little Eva, Goin’ Back by Dusty Springfield, Will You Love Me Tomorrow by The Shirelles and my favourite one (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman by Aretha Franklin (the last 2 were later recorded by Carole King herself on the album I’m gonna review), among others. But now I’m just gonna start reviewing the album song by song; notice that every track on this was written by her. Ok, so the opening track is just great. “I Feel The Earth Move” is an upbeat and very-well written song, and the vocals are really good, it's definitely one of the best known songs by Carole King. The second track, “So Far Away”, is a slow piano ballad that Carole sings very well, but I don’t consider it to be really good, not as good as the previous song or other ones of this album. It’s not really “filler”, it’s nice to hear and you don’t wanna skip it and move on to the next song, it just doesn’t stand out very much. Now we arrive to another one of my favourites. The third track is probably her biggest hit: “It’s Too Late”. I don’t think I need to say much about it, it’s a kind of slow soft-rock song, it’s not a ballad, unlike the next song: “Home Again”. My thoughts about this one are the same as the ones about “So Far Away”, with the difference that the latter is a better song in my opinion. Now, I’d take the next track, “Beautiful”, over these two any day. In the beginning it is a little bit similar to “I Feel The Earth Move” in some aspects, with the difference that after a while it becomes a more ballad-type song. “Way Over Yonder” is the sixth track, a bit filler too, I’d say, but I think every song on this album is listenable, there’s actually nothing boring or annoying here. And we arrive to my favourite one. “You’ve Got A Friend” is my absoulte favourite song by her. I’ve been listening to it since I was 9, and it’s a very special song for me, even though the first version I heard was James Taylor’s and I didn’t quite like it. The lyrics, the music and her voice just make an incredible combination. It seems like a slow sad song at first, then, during the chorus it becomes more…I wouldn’t say happy, because it’s a song about trusting your friend and let her help you, you know, stuff like that. But the next track is pretty amazing too, coming at number 8 we have “Where You Lead”, a song I’d never openly admit is great mainly because it was the “Gilmore Girls” theme and I have some friends obsessed with that series. The next song is a hit that launched her and her husband to fame back in the sixties. I’m talkin’ about "Will You Love Me Tomorrow". The original song was a bit in the vein of hits by other girl bands, such as “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes. But Carole King’s recorded version is slightly slower, and again, it’s a piano ballad, like most of the stuff here. It’s pretty interesting to hear though, it brings another different feeling to the song. The tenth track begins with a piano and organ intro I really like, and again, at first seems to be like “I Feel The Earth Move”, but no, “Smackwater Jack” is completely different, it’s like a typical American upbeat song, with some elements of country, perhaps? It has a short guitar solo, too. It’s OK, in general. Coming next, we have the title track ("Tapestry"), which, ironically, is the “worst” song here, another piano ballad, but still I’ve never felt like wanting to stop hearing it and jump to the final track. This album ends as greatly as it started, with another essential hit. “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” had previously been recorded by the great, one and only Aretha Franklin. I think it’s obvious that Aretha was a MUCH BETTER vocalist. But still, Carole King has a very “personal” way of singing, I’d say it’s very expressive and she had a unique voice. Overall rating: 9.25/10 That’s all, it’s the first time I write such a long review, I hope you didn’t get bored after the first 3 sentences, or at least you didn’t look horrified at the grammar mistakes I might have done. Last edited by Eleanor Rigby 14; 09-07-2021 at 01:17 PM.