Genre: American pop/rock
Places I remember: Chaldon Books and Records (Caterham on the hill)
Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: My New Boyfriend
Tired Of Being Blond
Gear costume: Everything else - Spoiled Girl, Come Back Home, Tonight And Forever, The Wives In Connecticut, Anyone But Me, Interview, Make Me Feel Something, Can't Give It Up.
Active compensatory factors: Five stars? Really?? - I can hear you now. But I have no hesitation showering this album with pure pop classic status.
Roger Marbeck started the ball rolling by giving me a load of old recorded cassettes, this album was on one side of a C90. I played it in the car endlessly. My children will know all of these songs!
I eventually found a proper cassette version, then a CD, and now the vinyl from up the road at Chaldon Books and Records. When I bought it the old guy who owns the shop ('nothing good came out after 1956') said, "Oh I love Carly Simon!"
The best pop record of the eighties? I know that's a big call but for me, it's a resounding, 'Oh Hell Yeah!!'
And I should hate it! Drum machines when there aren't eighties drum sounds, Linn drums, eighties synths, schmaltzy ballads that have all of those things (Make Me Feel Something/ Tonight And Forever), but the songs are so damn catchy, the singing is so brilliant and the production creates such a great warm sound, that I can't think of an eighties album that I play more than this one.
One of the things I love about these songs is their intelligence. Carly doesn't suffer fools and her stance throughout the album is solidly #Metoo before that concept existed. Song after song is female-centric in a totally refreshing way.
The lasting impression is one of Carly having fun, so I always have a great big grin on my face whenever I listen to it. It makes me feel great - hence it being thrashed on road trips.
Where do they all belong? This was her last peak - so I suggest going back to Anticipation or No Secrets or just put Spoiled Girl on again!
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