A Natural Woman: The Ode Collection 1968-1976
It's astonishing how quickly Carole King slipped into relative obscurity.Tapestryhas sold in excess of 22 million copies and was the biggest selling album of all time untilFrampton Comes Alivesurpassed it in 1977, yet while the latter remains at the very least an archetypal cultural kitsch,Tapestryhas become a troublesome trivial question: "What's the bestselling album by a woman?" Part of the problem is that the singer-songwriter era she (and James Taylor and Carly Simon) came to represent hasn't aroused a whole lot of critical favor. Still, the restrained soul of King's best stuff (for instance,Tapestry, which is included here in its entirety) has it's own appeal, as do a few of the preblockbuster inclusions.--Steve Stolder