Customer Reviews

Coming Around Again

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Carly Simon straddled the world between folk and pop music in the early 1970s and gradually emerged from the shadow of other folk titans to become a pop singer of verve and moment, earning 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 album, released after a long absence from the scene in the mid-eighties, represented her re-emergence onto the scene after the break-up of her long stormy marriage to James Taylor. And was this ever a smash, with several hits, including "Coming Around Again", which was specifically written for the soundtrack for the movie "Heartburn" starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.

Yet there are also a number of other interesting, provocative, and beautiful selections here, including "The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of", a song that also received a lot of air play, and "Two Hot Girls", a racy sexy song about two thirty-something women out "looking for love". My personal favorite here is "Do The Walls Come Down', a plea to keep the passion in a love affair as the two get a little too familiar to keep the mystery going, and also the finale of "Itsy Bitsy Spider", which starts out school-kiddish but segues into a reprise of "Coming Around Again", giving a feeling of a completed journey on the album and a nice sense of artistic closure to the song cycle. "Coming Around Again" was her very successful vehicle for regaining her audience and popularity, which she used to great advantage in the years since. It is one of her best and most autobiographical confessional albums, and it gives us an interesting vantage point with which to understand her better. This is a great album by a maturing artist who is often under-appreciated. This is one I heartily recommend. Enjoy

My review must be biased because I really love the title track, about love coming around again - the tune is hauntingly beautiful and sad, but with hope floating above it. The other excellent tracks off the album must be "Give Me All Night" and "All I Want Is You". I must agree with a previous reviewer that the rest of the tracks do seem to become less interesting after some time, and hence the four star rating. Nevertheless, the good tracks mentioned make this CD worthwhile, and I recommend it strongly.

If you are new to Carly Simon, then this is as good a place to start as any I think. Expect soft-pop female vocal, with good production, but perhaps a bit too common and commercial-sounding in some areas.

A delicious blend of Carly's amazing voice and rich imagery. From the hauntingly sad "Coming Around Again" to the sparkling "Two Hot Girls (On A Hot Summer Night)"..."like crystal and pennies...", this album is a beautiful lyrical and musical achievement. Carly glows! Includes the beautiful, classic "As Time Goes By" ~ joyous celebration of resilient love and time honored romance. Rich with emotional honesty about the complexities of vulnerability and hope as well as disappointment and hurt. Eloquently balanced. Highly, highly recommended.

I had heard several of the songs on this album on our local soft-rock stations, and simply had to have it. My favorite songs are "Coming Around Again," "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of", and "All I Want Is You." I really like Carly's voice--so strong and yet mellow--and the songs are funny and sad and sexy and singable all at the same time. I definitely recommend this CD for anyone who likes a soft-rock/pop format, but wants a little more "edge" to the music.

Carly's first album for Arista Records is a valiant effort that succeeded in putting her back on the charts, but has too much mediocre material to be an essential part of any Simon collection. This process of mixing hits and misses may work for most Pop artists, but with a writer/performer like Carly, it is a disappointment.

The "losers" in this collection are easy to spot: "Do The Walls Come Down" is bad poetry set to big beats, "It Should Have Been Me" is a Bryan Adams original that he should have kept to himself, "You Have To Hurt" is cliche', and "Two Hot Girls" is lukewarm at best. The absolute worst arrives on her remake of "Hold On To What You've Got": Carly's spoken encouragements are un-intentionally hilarious, if not just painful to listen to.

Balancing all these pallid excuses for Pop Music is a set of tight, tuneful performances that remind you why you can never count Carly out of the running. The title tune (echoed in "Itsy Bitsy Spider") tackles domestic disharmony without sounding preachy or pat. "Give Me All Night" is a blissfully direct song about satisfaction and self-assertion. "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of" leans toward conventional romanticism, but it's unrelenting melodic hook will win you over any way. My personal favorite is Andy Goldmark's uptempo "All I Want Is You," a potent mix of lust and love featuring Roberta Flack in the airy vocal backdrop.

Unlike some of Carly's earlier albums, the lyrical focus of a lot of these songs is on helping others to understand or adapt to life and love. In essence, Carly plays "big sister" to her listeners, offering hard-won insights in an effort to spare them similar heartaches. This is a commendable position to take, especially for an artist who has often titillated and/or intrigued her fans with songs that amounted to "kissing and telling."

"Coming Around Again" isn't a watermark or instant classic, and could well be 'passed on' in favor of a compilation that includes it's best tracks. Those of you who enjoy hearing her original songs in context probably already own this CD; if not, it's worth checking out just for the unsettling interplay of hits and misses.

-Mic

You know the stereotype about Carly Simon--talented, intelligent, sophisticated and a bit of lightweight. Not a genius like Joni Mitchell (oh, please!). Well, I'm here to tell you that she's been underestimated by the critics and by a good many in the general public too. This album, her 80s comeback, demonstrates a keen intelligence and genuine musicality.

Another standard line about Carly is that her vocals waiver in quality. I used to maintain the same thing, but can you imagine anyone else doing justice to "Coming Around Again." And what a classic Carly Simon song that is, well, sung wonderfully and with genuine conviction.

"Coming Round Again" was her post-break-up-James LP and some of the tracks have an edgy, bitter feel. There's an ironic commentary at the end of her version "As Time Goes By" that undercuts the romance of the song. And "Do The Walls Come Down" is rueful. Other songs, including the title track and "The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of" express the hope of renewal and of new love. But an air of melancholy reigns throughout.

The tentativeness of some of Carly's vocals matches the emotionally tentative state she so often describes. It makes her work all the more touching, her insights on male/female relationships all the more genuine. I like this woman--and I like and respect her music.

"Coming Around Again" was Carly's comeback album after about 7 years of no major hits in the US (the last before this being "Jesse"). The album is chock full of hit singles, but at the same time lacks the same cohesive feel that other Carly albums held. There are two old classics remade, "Hold What You've Got" and "As Time Goes By". ATGB is redone well, with a Martha's Vineyard-ish feel and is sensitive to the old song, while HWYG sounds more like a choppy spoof with spoken lyrics. My favourite is the sexy dancy hit "All I Want Is You", with an instantly memorable chorus and hooky key change at the end. Another favourite is "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of", a perfect anthem for middle age romance. Other hit singles were the title track, too slow and mellow for my taste, and "Give Me All Night", a hard-rock-ish number. "Do The Walls Come Down" and "It Should Have Been Me" are intense ballads, and "Two Hot Girls" is a sparse and humid tale of sultry love.
This album contains real gems, but on the whole doesn't stick together like other Carly albums. Even so, it's a great example of Carly's 1980's work.

I just read the book "Girls Like Us" about Corole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon. I had the LP of "Coming Around Again" and realized that I would likt to own it again. I love the song "Coming Around again" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and also b/c they remind me of a great movie and book, "Heartburn" This album was considered a comeback album for her. Some of us think that she never went away.

Length:: 1:55 Mins

"Coming Around Again" was Carly's first album for Arista Records and her strongest selling album for at least eight years at the time of its release (1986). Carly invests the songs with passionate vocals and she showed her commercial and artistic chops as a writer by producing a program of insightful and memorable songs. The songs loosely follow the plot line of the movie "Heartburn," for which the song "Coming Around Again" was the theme.

Having heard most of Carly's releases, I believe that this is one of her strongest, most cohesive albums -- and also one of her most accessible. "Coming Around Again" ranks with her best work, including "No Secrets" (1972), "Boys In the Trees" (1978), "Spy" (1979), "Have You Seen Me Lately?" (1990), and "Letters Never Sent" (1994).