Carole King returned with her sixth studio album during September of 1974 with the release of Wrap Around Joy.<\/i> It was not as diverse or adventurous as her previous release, Fantasy,<\/i> but it proved to be more popular, topping the Billboard Magazine<\/i> Pop Album Chart and remaining her last number one album to date.<\/p>\n
The biggest change from previous releases was her use of lyricist Dave Palmer on all of the tracks. It would signal the beginning of her dependance on outside lyricists to a larger extent than in the past. While the album had a cohesiveness that was missing from some of her prior releases, it was not as intimate or personal as the words were not her own. Still, it was a polished rock\/pop album that remains an enjoyable listen nearly four decades later.<\/p>\n
She used several dozen support musicians, including full horn and string sessions. Included among the background vocalists were daughters Louise and Sherry Goffin. King also expanded her instrument of choice from just the piano, as she also played the synthesizer and guitar.<\/p>\n
The album returned her to the musical mainstream, with \u201cJazzman\u201d (#2) and \u201cNightingale\u201d (#9) both becoming hit singles and receiving extensive radio airplay. \u201cJazzman\u201d was a relaxed and smooth song, notable for Tom Scott\u2019s sax lines. \u201cNightingale\u201d included forceful piano playing from King.<\/p>\n
One of the highlights was the back-to-back songs \u201cYou Go Your Way, I\u2019ll Go Mine\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019re Something New.\u201d The first was a breakup song and the second was a joyous love song.<\/p>\n
It would be interesting to have a history of the recording process to learn if Palmer and King wrote together and if not, who wrote first. Whatever the process, there were a number of gentle songs with many exploring the joyous side of love. \u201cYou\u2019re Something New,\u201d \u201cYou Gentle Me,\u201d \u201cSweet Adonis,\u201d and \u201cA Night This Side Of Dying\u201d all looked at relationships, which she adopts as her own.<\/p>\n
The last track, \u201cThe Best Is Yet To Come,\u201d concluded the album on a positive note as she looks toward the future with hope.<\/p>\n
Wrap Around Joy<\/i> is often overlooked in her Carole King\u2019s catalogue of releases. It may not be her most creative or interesting album but when taken on its own merits, it emerges as polished and in some places sophisticated pop. It is perfect for a lazy afternoon listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":31010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7703],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42693","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-carole-king","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42693"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}