Mistaken Identity (MFSL)

Kim Carnes | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl
• Label: Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs
• ASIN: B001Z5VWJM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #693,582 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Why buy this when you can have it "supersized"?, May 16, 2005

By 

Greg Brady "columbusboy" (Capital City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mistaken Identity (Audio CD)

Razor and Tie Records has reissued this album as "The Mistaken Identity Collection" (ASIN B00000IAZR). Their version not only includes EVERY one of the tracks found here, but it adds some other hits from Carnes including her top 10 cover of Smokey Robinson's "More Love", a fine duet with Kenny Rogers on "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" that was a #3 country chart hit, and "Crazy in the Night", a #15 hit that's probably forgotten by most but shouldn't be. #40 hit "Invisible Hands" (1983) makes an appearance in a dance remix version. "I Pretend" was a #9 hit on the Adult Contemporary charts in 1983. You also get #28 hit "Voyeur".

BOTTOM LINE:
Buy the Razor and Tie version instead and you not only get Kim's best remembered album but also what amounts to a pretty good "Greatest Hits" that's really only missing "What About Me?" (with Kenny Rogers and James Ingram), "Make No Mistake, He's Mine" (with Barbra Streisand) and "You're a Part of Me" (with Gene Cotton) to be comprehensive. This one's been replaced by a better model.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Carnes, June 17, 2006

By 

Jeremy Gloff (Tampa, Fl United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mistaken Identity (Audio CD)

Length:: 1:39 Mins

The release of Mistaken Identity changed Kim Carnes career forever. To many she is remembered only as a one hit wonder...due to the runaway success of the album's lead single "Bette Davis Eyes".

I heard Kim's VOYEUR album before I ever heard this one in its entirety. I had read in many reviews that Kim had tried to duplicated the success of MISTAKEN IDENTITY with VOYEUR. This couldn't be further from the truth. If you are a fan of VOYEUR, you will be disappointed when listening to MISTAKEN IDENTITY. MISTAKEN is a very soft and warm album. If anything, MI is the bridge between the country California pop of Kim's previous albums, and the darker new wave direction of her next three.

This album is a solid album from start to finish. I would like to review it song by song.

"Bette Davis Eyes" - what needs to be said? We all know this song. We all once thought the words were "she knows what it takes to make a crow blush" until a smug person in the know quietly took us aside and said "umm...it's PRO blush". No denying, this is the perfect pop single. And any proud gay man like myself can't help but listen to Kim say "she's FEROCIOUS" over and over and over. Further evidence of the decline of pop culture--I can't even imagine a pop song using the word "precocious" in its lyrics...much less a number one hit. For a good laugh check out Jackie DeShannon's original version--it's terrible.

"Hit and Run" - the album's second track was another DeShannon/Weiss collaboration. Sonically, this song has nothing in common with "Bette Davis Eyes". This song is a countryish rocker with gorgeous harmonies and distinctive Waddy Wachell acoustic strumming. I read in the AllMusic review that the entire MISTAKEN IDENTITY album pales in comparison to "Bette Davis Eyes". I disagree. I think this song is just as strong, and would have made a spectacular second single. When Kim shouts out "you're grabbin' at straws...you do it again!" you can feel the desperation...cause we've all done it...we've all lived that.

"Mistaken Identity" - This third single was a moderate success, but not one of my favorites on the album. In the liner notes of her GYPSY HONEYMOON album Kim shares the story of how this track was originally a rocker...but a late night studio session resulted in this slowed down jazzy version. This song has grown on me eventually. It feels very late 70s/early 80s to me. I can imagine sitting listening to this on a whisky drenched late night on a plaid couch.

"When I'm Away From You" - another brilliant track. More sunny California pop. Like I said earlier, this album perfectly balances where Kim was artistically and where she was going. This song would have easily fit on the ROMANCE DANCE album, and that's a good thing. I've woken up for work many days, grouchy as hell, and drove to work listening to this song. It's upbeat bittersweet optimism is infectious.

"Draw Of The Cards" - I can't believe they made this song the second single from the album. Of course I love this song...it's campy vampiness at its best. But "Hit and Run" and "When I'm Away From You" could have been FM staples in 1980. This song--I would think it would appeal more to the underground arty crowd--you know..the kind that doesn't buy a lot of records but tapes them off their friends. Anyhow, this is Kim at her most Kim. People already familiar with this track already know about her sinister laugh at the fade of the track. But equally fabulous is her growl of "ACES HIGH!!! DEUCES LOW!". A camp classic.

"Break The Rules" - Not a huge fan of this track, but back in the vinyl age it would make a great start to side two I suppose. Being a Stevie Nicks fan I have a special place in my heart for Waddy Wachell, who sings harmony on this song. This song it standard shuffle-beat early 80s rock. If you go to any bar in a small town with a house band, you probably can still hear music like this being played.

"Still Hold On" - Sometimes songs have to sneak up on you. The first time I heard this track was as a bonus live version on VOYEUR. It didn't grab me at all. When I heard the studio version, I already had a disinterested disposition to the song. But then I started listening closer. And then even more closely. This song may be one of the best in Kim's entire catalog. Achingly emotional...gorgeous three part harmonies. This song perfectly captures the desperation of hanging on to the last thread of a tattering relationship. This song fits on the more 70s side of the coin of this album. A must hear.

"Don't Call It Love" - we are swooped back into the 80s with the synths on this song. A pleasant pop song that is unobtrusive enough to listen to every time. Not classic, not filler either...

"Miss You Tonight" - This song is pretty raw. I haven't been able to find much press on Kim, but I do wonder where she finds the inspiration for her songs. I know she has been married for years and years, and I assume it's a happy marriage. But in songs like this...the sadness..the ache...it sounds and feels so real. I can only imagine Kim had to have lived this sometime in her life. A slow ballad that builds from a simple synth riff into an emotional bloodshed. "I miss you tonight...oh baby..."

"My Old Pals" - The album's closer...stark, naked emotion. Kim actually plays piano on this one...and anyone who has left a small town for a bigger life...then gone back...can relate to this one. This song is the perfect cap to a high octane emotional album. Feelings of regret, loss, hope, love, and joy permeate through these ten tracks. And to end with Kim and her piano...rivetting.

Forget what people say. It was awesome that "Bette Davis Eyes" gave Kim a permanent place in the hallways of pop culture--but let's not forget the scope and emotion of the album from which the song was culled.

(this album was reissued with bonus cuts in the late 1990s...it's worth the cheap price of the reissue simply for the liner notes and the wonderful photographs not included in the first CD pressing. also, the initial pressing of this album was mixed much lower than the reissue...)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No mistakes!, March 22, 2005

By 

W. Wilkinson (Colonie, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mistaken Identity (Audio CD)

This 1981 album made Kim Carnes a star, but was also her undoing, as she found it impossible to follow up. The big hit here, of course, was "Bette Davis Eyes," while "Draw of the Cards" also charted.

Basically, this album worked as sort of a transition for Kim; the songs are a somehow comfortable blend of country and pop. It's also a precursor to the crazy-80s-synth tunes Kim would come out with next, before meandering back to country at the end of the decade.

All the songs on this album are good, but keep in mind I'm a big Kim fan and like ALL her 80s stuff. If you're a big 80s fan, too, then this should not disappoint.