Customer Reviews

Spoiled Girl

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Count me in with those who don't understand why this album continues to get a bad rap. Spoiled Girl remains one of my favorite Carly albums. It represents what I've longed for from Carly for such a long time (and we got to a degree in COME UPSTAIRS)...that Carly would at least attempt more faster-paced songs than we'd gotten in the past. In SG, we have Carly doing DANCE songs! I was in heaven! Yes, SG does have some out-and-out flops, like "My New Boyfriend" and "The Wives...", and yes, the album probably would have benefitted from fewer producers, but there are also some gems here. "Can't Give It Up" is one of my all-time favorite Carly songs. A delightful, dance-number. The title song is fun, "Tired of Being Blonde" seems like a Carly-written song (even though it isn't) and "Come Back Home" is a wonderful, mid-tempo rocker. Even Carly herself can't come up with much good to say about Spoiled Girl, but I've always believed it's due in part to its poor sales. But Carly needn't fault herself with the album's failure. Epic dropped the ball, first with not getting 100% behind it and as others pointed out, the choice of "Tired..." as the first single. Not the best choice. "Come Back Home" would have been better, to help pave the way for the album's "different" sound (for Carly) to radio listeners. Keep an open mind and give this album a try! If you pigeon-hole Carly as a "soft rock" balladeer, as so many try to do, of course you won't like this album! But Carly has shown that she's capable of SO much more!

"Spoiled Girl" is one of Carly Simon's most disliked album of her career. Many people have complained that it sounds too much like Madonna. But Carly isn't trying to be Madonna...throughout the album, she maintains her maturity and acts her age. (Not that Madonna doesn't.)
Not all the songs on this album are great, but some are the best in her career, in my opinion. "Tired Of Being Blonde", a top 100 single in 1985, has a danceable beat with good lyrics about getting back to "roots" that were once covered with fakeness. "Interview" is one of the best dance tracks I've ever heard, with neat chord changes and great (synthesized) percussion, which makes up for the lackluster lyrics. "Black Honeymoon" is a dark and brooding song about love gone cold, and the arrangement is sparse, adding a good effect. "Anyone But Me" is a dark song about jealousy, and expresses everything that jealous people (my self included) feel. The playful "The Wives Are In Connecticut", Journey-ish "Come Back Home", addictive-sounding "Can't Give It Up", and bratty "Spoiled Girl" are good too. The real clunker of the album is "My New Boyfriend", an empty tune that clashes in its style. (A Gospel opening followed by an edgy dance mix just don't go together in my opinion.)
"Spoiled Girl" is not Carly's worst album. It's a record that probably only her die-hard fans would like. If you were raised on "You're So Vain", skip this one. If not, give this one a try.

This is Carly Simon's most underrated album, and if archeologists found it a thousand years from now, they might use it to examine the emotionally wrenching consequences among those of the American metropolitan baby boom generation in the 1980s who treated sex as a cheap, but addicting commodity. In other words, this is more than an album of good songs, it is an album with stingingly accurate social commentary. Carly's has a unifying vision, and she executes it brilliantly. "The Wives Are in Connecticut" presents a recently married man who confesses "the first year I was faithful" en route to a successful seduction after work in Manhattan. He is the classic "yuppie" of 80s lore, nagged by paranoia that his wife may be consorting with who-knows-who up in suburban Connecticut. In "Anyone But Me" and "Can't Give It Up", Carly plumbs the depths of female desire for men who "can't give". "Interview" describes the playfully escalating sexual innuendoes that dominate an encounter between Carly and a young male interviewer. In "Black Honeymoon", a newlywed woman watches humiliated as her husband plots his next sexual conquest with the "girl across the room". "Make Me Feel Something" is the cry of a woman who has had sought "feeling" through pleasure and has no feeling left. "Tonight and Forever", in total contrast, and in answer to "Make Me Feel Something", is a wedding song, anchored firmly in the female frame of mind ("Oh sisters, make my wedding bed"). The groom is nowhere seen, yet is promised, in soaring voices "I am yours!" It is so antithetical to the pleasure-driven addictions of the other songs that it serves to underscore their message of alienation, while proclaiming eternal, committed love as the answer to it. And that's just the lyrics! Musically, Carly's incomparable voice is in fine form, and she latches it successfully to up-tempo beats and Russ Kunkel drum tracks without compromising any of its beauty or her integrity. I especially like her seductive low notes in "Anyone But Me", the utterly gorgeous repeating phrase "Black Honeymoon - I'll be leaving you soon" closing the album, and the gorgeous conclusion of "Tonight and Forever" - a truly ecstatic song. It may or may not be coincidental that the songs with the most interesting lyrics are also the best musically. The four songs I haven't mentioned are second or third rate, and unfortunately those are mainly the ones Amazon allows you to sample. But there is enough substance here to make this one of my favorite pop albums of the 80s.

It has always amazed me how "Spoiled Girl" has gotten a bad rap over the years. I own around 3000 cds, and this is one of the very few I own, where every track on this album could have been released as a single and had great success. I'm not sure if it was Epic, Carly, or what, but "Spoiled Girl" is a perfect Pop album. I know in 1985 this album peaked at #88 on the Billboard 200 Album chart, and "Tired of Being Blonde" peaked at #70 on Billboard's Hot 100. Now if you are looking at chart success...she has had two albums since that fell below "Spoiled Girl's" position ("The Bedroom Tapes" #90 and "Letters Never Sent" #129). So "Spoiled Girl" is not the biggest flop in her career huh..

Seriously though, I can't name the best tracks on the album because all of them are top-notch. It is nice to read on here also that Carly has changed her opinion of the album somewhat since she "revisited" it. I'm glad she has, and it is very nice to see as well how the album was re-released in 1999. Maybe given more time people will realize what a gem "Spoiled Girl" really is.

To anyone out there... go ahead and pick up "Spoiled Girl." It's at a nice price, and you will discover a classic that no one truly appreciated over 20 years ago.

This CD should have re-launched her career but was universally panned. Yes, the weak tracks are horrible (My New Boyfriend was what got everyone in a knot)--but the strength of Tired Of Being Blonde, Come Back Home, and Anyone But Me alone make the CD one of her best "middle-period" ones, while Black Honeymoon offers insight into her & James Taylor's break-up while Interview and The Wives Are In Connecticut give some thoughts on the idea of cheating (not cheating itself) from a woman's perspective. Solid B+ effort with the trio of TOBB/CBH/ABM being solid A+.

I don't know why everyone, including critics & fans, picks on this album. Perhaps its lack of commercial success makes it an easy target. And OK, it isn't the best Carly Simon album, but if you like her voice and if you like her sense of humour, you will find plenty to appreciate here. They are both in fine form. Only 'Tired of Being Blonde' strikes the wrong note for me. I think 'My New Boyfriend', 'Come Back Home', 'The Wives....' 'Anyone But Me' & 'Make Me Feel Something' show Carly in fine form.

Carly Simon said in a recent interview that "Spoiled Girl" was not a good record .I agree with her on some of the cuts,but there's alot of great music on the CD."Anyone but me" is my favorite,with Russ Kunkel on drums. I believe this song was the blueprint for Simon's huge hit the following year,"Coming around again."I've never heard Carly sing so deep,and the high's are fantastic.Carly played Synthesizer,and did all the vocals.If this number was released first,it would have made the top 10.Another favorite,"Can't give it up," with Luther Vandross on background vocals,would have also been a good single."The Wives are in Connecticut," is the fun song,with Carly's wonderfull humor about affairs in Connecticut.My 16 year old cousin,Joanie,loved this album,and Billboard Spotlighted"Spoiled Girl," predicting it to hit the top half of the charts.I'm glad this CD was re- released.I hope Carly's 1983 record, "Hello big Man," is next.

I LOVE this album! The first time I heard "Tired of Being Blonde" on the radio, I couldn't WAIT for the album to be released. Then came, "My New Boyfriend" and I was blown away! It's interesting to hear Carly in a "Dance" kind of mode similar to many of the acts in 1985 who were "dancifying" their singles by infusing them with remixed effects for the clubs. It's sad that she only had a one shot deal with Epic, because had they not dropped her, they would have shared in the hugeness of her followup, "Coming Around Again" which was with Arista.

It's awesome hearing her with (at that time) more modern production (a la "Come Upstairs")while still remaining true to her muse. The cover photograph is so sexy and is reminiscent of say, "Playing Possum," "Spy," "Come Upstairs" or "Torch." It's this kind of "artsy" sexiness which Simon has exuded for years. She's one of the few ORIGINAL (and sexy) poetesses of the 70's and there are many today whom have benefitted from her poetic example. I only wish that "Come Back Home" might have been the actual FIRST single where it's radio friendlier than "Tired of Being Blonde" and more what people would come to expect from her musically; Plus, it DOES BOAST that synthy 80's sound that was so trendy then. Don't get me wrong. "Tired of Being Blonde" is cute and catchy, but a little weak to have been the album's introductory single. She could have done better with "Come Back Home," I think. This album seems to always get a bad rap, but for ME, it's a Pop Music masterpiece. :-)

Spoiled Girl..I was elated to find this CD on your website. It is my favorite recording by Carly Simon. I love it.

This is a great album, it's one of my favorites from Carly. My New Boyfriend should have been a big hit, ditto to Come Back Home. Black Honeymoon is one of my favorite Carly songs, a real gem. Tired of Being Blonde and Interview are also great in their own right. Do not listen and go with the crowd on the "this is not good" reviews. If you appreciate Carly's amazing songwriting and singing talent, get this album!