Carole King – Writer: Carole King

It may just be that, back when I was collecting records in the ’70s and ’80s, I really wasn’t looking for any Carole King. Since Tapestry was ubiquitous and its music inescapable, and I was very much rejecting the folk/rock/pop that had dominated my teen years, I’m sure I’d have skipped right over her while trying to find something by, say, The Kinks. (Though I skipped over plenty of theirs, too, truth be told.) But even so, I cannot even recall seeing this album cover before I found it in the bins at Forever Changes in May 2023. I must have, of course, but I have no memory of it.

This was King’s debut solo album, and while it’s not quite what would come, it’s still very, very good. It’s still an album full of Goffin-King songs, it’s still her great piano and delivery, and on this album in particular, I thought Danny Kortchmar was allowed to shine on the guitar. This is just a little before his style would practically define an entire genre, in a way that is sometimes so laidback and subtle that you hardly notice it.

Since I bought this, I clearly have not given it enough listens, but I simply have to clear the new acquisitions shelf.