Customer Reviews

Spy

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Many of Amazon's reviewers don't seem to know what to make of "Spy," and one has to wonder if they've ever read the album's liner notes. "I am an international spy in the House of Love," reads the album's epigram (a quote from Anais Nin), and therein lies the answer to all these questions about the musical variation and "inner meanings" of the songs themselves. I regard "Spy" as Carly's most creative "concept" album, as well as one of the most musically compelling titles in her catalog.

Secrecy, adultery, sincerity, lies, fantasy, sympathy, proprietary emotions and desperate freedom...these themes are all represented as Carly traverses a spectrum of intellectual idealism to spiritual hedonism. Granted, it takes a lot of reading between the lines to find all these subjects, but they are there...just as Carly intended. Following the traditional romanticism and sweet reminiscinces of "Boys In The Trees," "Spy" represents an emotional progression that is surprising in it's clarity; in other words, if "Boys..." was a statement of marital solidarity, "Spy" is a reflection of her dissatisfaction with her role as wife and mother. "Spy" seeks to circumvent the limitations of marital convention, and experiments with various fantasy roles and predicaments.

Though Carly has written songs that tap into a number of the themes used in "Spy," never has she put together such a potent statement, lyrically speaking. The music of "Spy" is pure late-70s Pop, with elements of mainstream rock and lite jazz, often laid over a disco-friendly rhythm track. The combination of her words and music is remarkably fitting...the snarling guitars paired with her assertive sentiments on "Vengeance," the sexual whimsy of "Pure Sin"'s words paired with the song's airy synthesizer and ticking cowbell, etc.

Amid all the conflicting desires (confident monogamy, one night stands and afternoon delights) that pop up on "Spy," the single most potent craving would seem to be contentment. In "Never Been Gone," Carly discards her fantasies and "would-be's" for the security and warmth of home. Though the song would have made a logical closing sentiment, she wisely places it in the middle, and thus avoids a predictable "no place like home" moral to this musical adventure.

Despite a couple of clinkers (the over-wrought "Coming To Get You" and the overlong "Memorial Day"), "Spy" is one of Carly's most captivating and enduring musical accomplishments. It's a shame that few people appreciate it for the classic it truly is.

I brought this album shortly after I saw
Carly perform "Vengeance" and "We're So Close"
on the Midnight Special when I was 12. It was
my first contemporary rock album i bought and I wore it
out, invented harmonies to sing along with her
to every track I could. Definitely an exciting
time for my musical developing ear. Before this
Streisand was my only musical muse. This album opened me
to an idea I still have to this day. Good music
is universally able to transcend boundaries of race,
class, and age. Looking back at her catalog "Memorial
Day" is still an epic of mystery to me-a road Carly
went down artistically that she arguably hasn't been
to since.

When this first came out, it was one of my favorite albums from Carly. Now, 20 years later, I see many flaws my youthful exuberance didn't notice. While the disc certainly has some great tunes, there are some that just manage to irritate me now. For instance, I used to really like "Memorial Day", but on listening to it now, it seems to make little lyrical sense, and it is just too long. Even the drum solo at the end now seems so pedestrian and ostentatious. I never did care much for "Coming to Get You" with its feminist bravado and irritating melody line. Carly seems like she's screaming on this one. I dislike it even more now. However, thank God, the other tracks still stand tall. "Vengeance" uses a feminist motif too, but it is quite different. The vocals are earthy and the metaphors work so well. "Love You By Heart", "We're So Close," and "Spy" are also still top-notch Carly. Definitely a must for Carly fans, just not as good as some of her other releases.

Carly Simon's record SPY is probably the best album she has released, strange since it isn't a very popular album but that would be typical. Just about all the songs-say with the exception of COMING TO GET YOU, are pretty easy to listen to and are good pieces of music. The songs still have a feel of Carly's older records of the 70's and before the early 80's almost killed her career. Of the songs VENGENACE is a very decent rock song, JUST LIKE YOU DO is pretty good too even though it doesn't have the rock beat of VENGENACE, MEMORIAL DAY is a bit long but stick with it, the drum solo at the end is terrific. WERE SO CLOSE is the undisputed gem of the album, and is probably one of her best. It is a song about togetherness no matter where you live or what happens in your life together. All of the other songs on the album are good too. If your a fan of Carly Simon, you need this album on your shelf. Get ahold of it as soon as you can.

Let me first warn you that I am a huge Carly fan, so I am a bit biased. This is a strange album, a blend of the clasic haunting Caly love songs of regret like "we're so close", perhaps one of her most heartfelt songs on any album, a few rocky numbers perhaps made with an eye on the charts , like "vengeance", with Tim Curry of "Rocky Horror" fame and the truly bizarre almost experimental "memorial day"...hey, whoever told Carly that her fans would like a drum solo??????. Like I said, a mixed bag. Carly fans will get a lot out of it, newcomers to Ms Simon
should start with the sublime achievement that is the album "Boys in the Trees"

Carly Simon's "SPY" is not a great album by any means. But hey. It is Carly Simon, so you can't loose. She always offers something worthwhile on each release, though there are only two standout tracks on this particular album. The first is "Vengeance", which sounds so much like classic Carly Simon, in the tradition of "You're So Vain", that it's hard to fathom why it wasn't a big hit as well. The other one, THE best song on the album, is the haunting, beautiful "Never Been Gone". This may be a minor Carly Simon album, but these two tracks are reason enough to pick it up.

Were so Close is the greatest song ever made. I could play this song untill I die,and it will never get old.This Song is clearly the death of her marriage to JT. The Alto Sax of David Sanborn made me a fan of his also.But Pure Sin really Rocks.I heard this song on a hard rock station when the album came,I couldn't beleive it was Carly.There are a couple of lossers on this Album,but no Guts,no Glory,and Carly has always had the Guts to try new trends in Music.

Length:: 1:58 Mins

"Spy" is one of my favorite Carly Simon albums. "We're So Close" and "Vengeance" are among her best songs; the sentiments on the first are brutally honest and the singing on the second is tough as nails. Again, the songs provide intelligent and passionate insights into adult relationships. "Spy" would have been stronger without "Coming to Get You" and "Memorial Day," but the rest of the record is a complex delight. Few pop singers can convey contradictory emotions as well as Carly Simon can, and "Spy" is, at once, angry, passionate, loving, and despairing.

I've been on a Carly Simon kick for the past few months and there aren't any plans of slowing down yet. One of my favorite songs as a kid was Carly's 1979's single "Vengeance" - a song I remember loving but couldn't for the life of me remember how it went. Well, the minute I got the parent album Spy, I put on the song and not only remembered why I loved it but remembered singing it when I was a very little tyke - running around to neighbors "It's Vengeance he saaaaid, that's the law..." how frickin' cute I must've been. In the here and now, I was excited to hear the album not only because of the single (with backing vocals by Tim Curry!) but because the whole Spy album was a concept of sorts based on the novel A Spy In The House Of Love, I knew there'd be mystique and sex and that Simon wit, and I was not disappointed - in "Pure Sin" set to a Rolling Stones-esque back drop and once again featuring Curry, she sings to her lover - a painter painting her portrait that he is getting paint all over the floor and she wonders why he doesn't just get to the point and "splatter it all over my face." Oooh goodness, there's a strange ending cut that lasts for over 8 minutes called "Memorial Day" that is a tad on the pretentious side and a strange ditty called "I'm Coming To Get You" which is filled with strange lyrics about her man being caught in Arkansas with her in-laws, but somehow the woman makes it work. The hightlight to me besides the sheer brilliance of "Vengeance" is a very sad little cut called "We're So Close" where her man passes off the distance, lack of words of love etc. as the result of them being so close, "we're so close, we don't need love at all," it brings a tear to the eye as does a superb ballad (and I'm not one on ballads) called "Never Been Gone" complete with a beginning chorus as she heads home to the island beach. Excellent, once again and now I'm off to collect the rest of Simon's (I'm sure) interesting back catalog.