Howling At The Moon - The Punk Panther's Album Reviews

  This was Carole King's debut solo album, despite her seeming to have been in the music industry for ages. It is a fine one too, most underrated and almost forgotten about in the tsunami wake of Tapestry. The album kicks off in a surprisingly solid and chunky rock fashion on the excellent Spaceship Races. Maybe it wasn't so surprising - everyone was expected to rock out in 1970, weren't they? Only Joni Mitchell was putting out introspective bedsit albums as yet. Back to this track, at times Carole's light, appealing voice doesn't quite match the strength and power of backing, but it's still a mighty good opener. It features would-be long time King associate Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar on lead guitar and  The Kootch lays some good stuff down, too. I read someone says that Carole sounds like Grace Slick here and the track sounds like Jefferson Airplane. I know what they mean. Probably the album's best-known number is the typically Carole ballad No Easy

  Leading the burgeoning female singer-songwriter boom in the early seventies was Carole King. She was already a veteran of many sixties hits written with her ex,  Gerry Goffin,  and she hit an all-time critical high with this album - one that could be found in the record collections of many female students throughout the seventies.  It is one of the best selling albums of all time but, at the time, it was not an album my early teenage self was interested in but as many years have passed, so my tastes have matured. In the meantime, here's a  nice bit of trivia for you - King's cat on the cover was called Telemachus.  It's Too Late   was the album's first well-known classic and its deep, sumptuous backing is very, very similar to that used by  Carly Simon  on her  No Secrets  album from later in the same year. She had obviously been listening to this. It is a lovely bass-drum guitar-acoustic hook line and a similarly attractive tenor saxophone. King's vocal is beauti

  It is a piece of subsequently-perceived knowledge that this album was rushed out quickly at the end of 1971 in order to cash in on the incredible success of Tapestry, without too much attention being paid to the quality as long as it sounded the same as its illustrious predecessor.  I have to say that, to an extent, it plays out a bit like a collection of tracks that didn't make it onto Tapestry, but that is to do the album a disservice. Agreed, there is no It's Too Late, (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman, You've Got A Friend or Will You Love Me Tomorrow? in terms of the sheer instancy of those songs, but a song like the totally winsome, typical Carole King of It's Going To Take Some Time is right up there with them, for me. The song was also covered successfully by The Carpenters, of course.  King also diversifies a bit, seemingly adding to Marvin Gaye's hard-hitting peace, tolerance and brotherhood message from What's Going On on the opener, Brother Br

  The third in what can be considered, I guess, as a sort of sonic trilogy, this one, from 1972 carries on where Music had left off, particularly on the opener - more piano, bass and bongos back the sleepy Come Down Easy.  Once more using her regular high quality collection of musicians it is very much "more of the same". It doesn't quite match Tapestry or Music though, despite its clear overall air of pleasantness. It is slightly more melancholic than the previous two albums, although that isn't a bad thing when you hear the thoughtful, yearning and sensitive My My She Cries or the plaintive First Day In August. Peace In The Valley has a beautiful, understated gentle rhythm to it and more meaningful lyrics. As with Music, in comparison to Tapestry, the album lacks some really catchy big-hitters, but that is no reason to denigrate it. It is still a fine collection. All the compositions were new ones, no dipping into Carole's huge back catalogue here. Bitter With T

On first listen, to be honest, this seems a bit of an odd album, in some ways. Breaking the mould of the previous three Carole attempts to give us a "concept album" - a cycle of meaningful songs that all sort of run in to each other, thirteen of them.  It is bookended by two short snippets of the same song in Fantasy Beginning and Fantasy End.They are both nice songs and similar in style to her previous material. It all changes, however, when the almost Blaxploitation-style percussion, bass and wah-wah guitar are introduced in You've Been Around Too Long. Blax-style strings are in there too, as if Superfly-era Curtis Mayfield has taken over production duties. The chorus is unmistakably Carole however, but there are definite attempts to diversify musically here. The brass injections are excellent too. All round it's just a great song. Directions is a really attractive song too, with a lovely subtle bassline and some melodic piano. I really like this one. Check out that

Another slight change in style occurred on this one, as Carole followed Joni Mitchell (see: Court and Spark) in putting out an album of well-produced, smooth, easy-listening jazzy pop material.  Nightingale kicks it off with a chart hit of a number that is a breath of fresh summer's morning air. It still had that inimitable Carole King vibe about it, though, just as the gentle strains of Change Of Mind, Change Of Heart do.  Jazzman is a superb, vibrant, saxophone-powered number that made for a fine hit single that completely exemplifies the US chart sound of 1974. Conversely, it would not have been a big hit in the UK and duly wasn't. Nevertheless it should have been, surprisingly not charting at all. I think it's great. however. You Go Your Way, I'll Go Mine is pleasant piece of AOR balladry enhanced by some solid rock guitar breaks. You're Something new harks back to that bass 'n' bongos of Tapestry et al.  We're Are All In This Together is an upliftin