Tapestry

Had this when first released on vinyl, heard a track on the radio one day and decided to drift back to the early 70's. Still great listening, in fifty years time will people fondly recall the dross of today, I doubt it.

Carole King earned her spurs as a production line Brill Building songwriter, producing a string of memorable hit songs for a range of other artists during the 1960's. For this, her debut solo album in her own right, she produced a cracking set of strong memorable songs, and it was an instant massive hit with the record buying public.It sold by the truck load , remained in the charts for literally years, a lovely set of strong personal songs, such as Will You Love Me Tomorrow?; (You Make Me Feel Like ) A Natural Woman; You've Got A Friend; and It's Too Late. Definitely one of the all time classic singer songwriter albums of all time, much loved, incredibly influential, the best album she ever released, absolutely stunning. She tends to use the piano as the lead instrument, rather than guitar, Danny Kootch was on electric guitar, and James Taylor on some tracks on acoustic guitar. On a few tracks there was more lush orchestration, to adorn these great songs, and Carole's singing is clear, true, sincere, the thread at the centre of things that ties it altogether beautifully. Along with Neil Young and Joni Mitchell who produced similarly fantastic albums early in their careers, this period was the strong peak for singer songwriters, and this is up there right at the top as one of the absolute best of all time.I originally had this on pre recorded cassettee (remember them) and only recently acquired this on CD, where it has been remastered, and has a couple of extra tracks added. it is like having one of your best friends come round to see you again after a long absence, and you pick up where you left off, a comfortable homely relationship, something special to treasure and cherish. Verry very highly recommended.

Love this recording, but I was disappointed to get a warped album. Played OK, but either a bad pressing or poorly stored. Albums are becoming a bit of a crap shoot, especially new pressings. You never know what you will get so I'm buying original albums as much as possible. Granted there is more static and the occasional skip, but the fidelity is better. I don't trust these companies to actually be reproducing analog recordings. I think a lot of these new albums are pressed from digital recordings. Careful what you buy.

This is an album I grew up with on the radio. This 1999 remaster has failed. More bass has made the sound mushy and yet intrusive to the point where it is annoying.The sound quality is barely reasonable on the simpler tracks. Even on those tracks the over enhanced bass sound is just too unsubtle. This recording lacks delicacy and finesse. Better clarity and transparency would have revealed more detail.As a classic this is just an acceptable recording. To be be fair the original on vinyl does not sound as good as I remembered but it’s better than this recordingI have not set out to write reviews of the music content as “beauty is in the ears of the listener”. These reviews are about the quality (or not) of the recorded sound. To read about how the reviews are done please see my profile. • Clarity - reasonable • Channel separation – artificial, just sounds strange • Channel balance – oh dear what were they thinking this sounds so strange. The bass has been massively upped but only on the right channel, it’s so bad that its annoying • Sound Stage – artificial and very variable. The bass has been insensitively remastered, sounds boomy and artificial mostly from the right channel. The effect is that the sound stage sounds unbalanced • Distortion – non audible • Compression – very one volume fits all, lacks range, sounds heavily compressed. The higher frequencies seem to be missing so probably equalised , the recording sounds lifeless. • Atmosphere – none, strange, the sound stage sounds so artificial and unbalanced • Bass – low frequencies – “hey lets boost the bass” it’s 1999, the bass sounds terrible. The kick drum sounds like wet cardboard and that’s the highlight. After that they enhanced bass to the point where it is essentially un-listenable on headphones and annoying on my main system as it sounds so artificial and boomy • Treble – high frequencies – weak, very little frequency range and fails to soar. The piano lacks vibrancy. One volume fits all. The midrange sounds like an aural mush, lacks interest and real definition of instruments • Vocals - OKCD Review: 1999 reissued and remasteredAs a general rule of thumb recordings from the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s are nearly always better on the original vinyl. Remasters often fail to please as it’s just not possible to make a silk purse from a sows ear, i.e. the original recording lacks the necessary detail to be processed digitally and show an audible improvement. Indeed such processing can make the sound worse.Modern recordings which have been processed digitally from start to finish can be as good as vinyl. CD’s are often unfairly criticised for being poor quality. This is not the case, it is the original recording or the process which is to blame. Modern “remasters” can both enhance and degrade a recording. The statement GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out) is the limiting factor. Ignore this at your cost.

Already had a copy of this album on CD but for years wanted a remastered version as the original pressing too flat. This version has been brilliantly remastered from the original tapes and comes complete with two extra tracks. The only flaw is the booklet. The original was made to look and feel like a tapestry whereas this one opens up into a poster type insert. Minor point I know and not to detract from the focal point, namely the music, which will forever reverberate with the generation of young people growing up in the 70s and beyond. One of the all-time classic albums.

No need to say anything about the astonishing beauty and creativity of the musical content, which has been reviewed very fully already. This CD seems to me a great pressing and the remastering reveals a sound stage I had not noticed before on my old vinyl - deep, clear and rich. As usual the 'bonus' track adds little or nothing and spoils the integrity of the album; on the other hand, a genuine bonus for me was the full lyrics included in the fold-out, despite the silly formatting making them harder to follow.