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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Terrific Early Album By Carly Simon!, August 21, 2000
Carly Simon straddled the world between folk and pop music in the early 1970s, and forged herself a place in the pantheon of very successful singers like Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, and a number of others like Carol King who were on the pop charts and in the folk clubs earlier in their career. This was her first big album in terms of success, and had the smash hit "Anticipation" on the album pushing it up the charts. Yet there are also a number of other interesting, provocative, and beautiful selections here, including "Legend In Your Own Time", a song obviously about her then-beau and soon to be husband James Taylor, whose professionally educated parents (his father was a physician) strongly disapproved of his non-academic and quite unprofessional choice of careers. My personal favorite here is "The Garden", which never got any air-time, but is a moving, intimate word picture of a song with a lovely melody, evocative lyrics, and an absoluutely haunting vocal. "Anticipation" was one of her first autobiographical confessional albums, and it gives us an interesting vantage point with which to understand her better. This is a great early album by an artist who is often under-appreciated. This is one I heartily recommend. Enjoy
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A quietly moving folk-rock masterpiece, May 11, 2000
In retrospect, Carly Simon's second album showed so much songwriting prowess that the future likes of "You're So Vain," "The Right Thing to Do," and "Let the River Run" should have been easy to see coming. In this gentle, flowing acoustic set Simon's always-impressive writing, as well as her remarkable voice, is in absolute top form."Anticipation" and "Legend in Your Own Time" were strong enough to become and remain radio staples, but these songs only scratch the surface of the depth of material here. "Our First Day Together" and "The Garden" are stark and beautiful ballads on a stylistic par with early Joni Mitchell. "Three Days" and the playful, near-Beatlesque "The Girl You Think You See" were definitely missed opportunities for singles, ditto for a stunning cover of Kris Kristofferson's "I've Got to Have You," which features the album's only electric guitar. "Share the End" is a bit unusual, with its apocalyptic lyric and bizarre banshee wails...it's one of the rare moments in Simon's career that's hard to figure. Elsewhere, the drop-dead gorgeous, Bossa Nova-ish "Summer's Coming Around Again" (not to be confused with "Coming Around Again," Carly's theme for the 80's film "Heartburn") is a revelation, and the lovely "Julie Through the Glass" is a touching ode to a newborn baby. Some of Carly Simon's other albums are better known and may feature more charted singles, but "Anticipation" stands up as a strong artistic statement that gave ample indication of the distinguished career that lay ahead.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
TALENT CRYSTALLIZED INTO THUNDERING CINEMA, November 22, 2000
Between Les McCann, Weather Report, Yes and Spirit's 12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus, it was a strange favorite amongst the bunch in 1972. Carly had grabbed ears a year earlier on AM radio with "That's the Way I ALways Heard It Should Be" with her self-titled debut, but the album was all over the place, an imperfect mixture of East Coast folk and oddball country. But someone focused her many talents by the next year when "Anticipation" arrived with its shiny cover and odd dozen batch of beguiling songs, and not a dud amongst them. The production was even more stelllar than the first album, and the whole thing seemed infused with a cinematic grandness (and not grandiosity) that made the whole things SOUND and FEEL bigger than life.Even the hard rock kids wanted to hear it. People have described the songs better before me, but the hit title tune has regrettably been spoiled by that ketchup commercial in years past. Nevermind. The sun-dappled and shimmering "Summer's Coming Round Again" is worth the price of the CD itself, and little else in the folk-country canon has been more EROTIC than "(If I Have Known You Only) Three Days." Feeling ennui and lacking that zest for life? Spin "(Come into) The Garden" and be transported to Nirvana instantly. Last but not least was the maturing fledgling's cover version of Kris Kristofferson's "I've Got to Have You." Ooooooooooh! This is still a scorcher! Carly comes off as the 50 Foot Woman in the best way imaginable, and the production gives voice to sexuality and angst rarely heard in folk or country. If any album from this period so effectively captured a dance with the Passions, it was "Anticipation", and time has not spoiled its great power as a pop accomplishment. And this is where we parted ways, but I will always say Thank You.
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by Carly Simon 
