Carole King - Fantasy
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Free Music Notes for Fantasy
Free Music Review: a fantasy yes, but reality says it's brilliant
Hit: 5 Stars
You know, everyone tells me Tapestry is the best Carole King album, but to me the songs on that album just don't have that special something the ones on Fantasy have. This is truly a forgotten masterpiece. Carole King's style of blending country western, blues, and rock and making the formula work is mind-boggling to me. Now throw in memorable songwriting and you have yourself a winner folks.
Fantasy is fantastic from beginning to end. Each song is highly melodic and soothing and takes you back to the early 70's. The peaceful vibes that breathe all through the album totally convince me Carole King deserves to be remembered forever. I say get Tapestry AFTER you get Fantasy. I love the album cover of Fantasy with the face looking at me and the western town and people, and I love the music too.
The first time I heard this album was on a very hot summer night here in southeast Pennsylvania in my bedroom. The bugs were crawling all over the windows, and the humid air was making it hard to concentrate. However, that didn't stop me from giving Fantasy a chance. It was great. To me, while a small memory to many that might not mean a whole lot, to me that was a great time and I will never forget the memory I had that night playing this album and feeling what it was like to be alive back in the 70's and living in s small midwestern town.
Free Music Review: An absolute hidden gem
Hit: 5 Stars
Hey, now she's branching out! "Directions" sounds like Curtis Mayfield! And "You've Been Around Too Long" and "Haywood" could be Isaac Hayes tunes! And "Being at War with Each Other" sounds like Carole King, but that's okay since it's very well-written. The focus of the lyrics is not on love here, but rather on social statements about the state of the world, including a sympathetic portrait of a young single mother ("That's How Things Go Down", with amazing keyboards; "Weekdays", a jazz-pop sketch of suburban life and love; the dramatic, sax-packed "Welfare Symphony" suite is about exactly what you'd expect). Even song fragments like "A Quiet Place to Live". Believe it or not, the weakest track is the hit ballad, the country-folk love song "You Light up My Life". I could do without it, but it's not a bad song by any means. Just nothing she didn't do better on Tapestry, that's all. Much better is the driving Latin-funk number "Corazon". And the jazzy optimism of "Believe in Humanity". I think this is slightly better than Tapestry (and way better than Jackson Browne, unless Lawyers in Love turns out to be the best album ever made by anybody, which I doubt), because there's no "Smackwater Jack" gumming up the works.Free Music Review: love it
Hit: 5 Stars
Find Me: How Psychic Detectives from Around the World Have Banded Together to Find Missing People Co-author of Find Me
Love Carole King
Free Music Review: "What's The News Across The Nation?"
Hit: 5 Stars
When I listened to "Fantasy" again after all these years, it was like picking up a 1973 newspaper and reading story after story. Social Change was still in vogue, and the spirit of the 60's had not yet been extinguished. People confronted those in power ("You've Been Around Too Long") and asked that changes be made, and soon ("Directions"). Married women were questioning their lives ("Weekdays"), and unwed mothers were wondering if they could make it ("That's How Things Go Down"). There were problems in the ghettos ("Haywood" and "Welfare Symphony"), and the world's environment and very existence were in jeopardy ("Being At War With Each Other"). Carole relates all of this news with her superhuman skills, writing all lyrics and music, playing all keyboards, singing everything including background vocals, and arranging and conducting the strings and horns. This is a tightly produced album, more so than her previous three, and the result is excellent. Some may argue that the lyrics, and the solutions offered, are too simplistic, but I feel comfortable being presented with situations unaccompanied by too many details. We all know the problems exist - we just need a reminder. Near the end of the album, Carole presents a beautiful, heartfelt ballad ("You Light Up My Life") and then a rocking Latin number loaded with Carole's signature piano playing ("Corazon"). She ends with the best track of all, "Believe In Humanity", in which she and her piano remain in the groove while she states that she'd rather not hear the worst, or she might lose her faith in mankind, and she doesn't want that to happen. In a way she's right, because if you lose that, the game is pretty much over. We still have the same problems to cope with today, and more, but I still get the same uplifting feeling when I hear this album as I did in 1973. So, it's another timeless classic from the prolific Ms. King. If she can make ME feel better about the world situation, then she must know what she's talking about.Free Music Review: My pick for the best of the post-"Tapestry" King albums
Hit: 4 Stars
"Fantasy" was the Carole King album after "Tapestry" that most broke the mold. Of course, the fact that in 1973 "Tapestry" was till high on the Billboard charts when this album came out. The productions are more polished that before and the tone is more soulful than warm and cozy, which is rather surprising since Lou Alder is still the producer. There is even a touch of the Latin with "Corazon." The two best tracks are "You've Been Around Too Long," which has nice guitar work by David T. Walker, and "Believe in Humanity," which is as overt of a message song as King ever wrote or recorded. Ultimately, because this is the King album least like "Tapestry," it is my second favorite because the comparison is no longer inevitable (and therefore not automatically fatal).