"Rhymes & Reasons" is the next installment in a string of brilliant songwriting and recording projects by Carole King following her phenominally successful "Tapestry" album. The songs here are highly personal, introspective, spiritual at times. Musically, one song weaves into the next so effortlessly...each song so thoughtfully arranged with the same soft, accoustical, textural sound. It is such a carefully crafted album project in fact, that when King's boxed set "A Natural Woman" was released a few years back, one could immediately identify the two songs excerpted from "Rhymes & Reasons" and could recognize that the two tracks belonged originally on this album. King is quite simply at her most prolific here. It doesn't get much better than "Rhymes & Reasons". A brilliant project.

"Rhymes & Reasons" is another chapter in a string of songwriting and recording successes by Carole King following her phenominal "Tapestry" album. The songs here are highly confessional, introspective, spiritual at times. Musically, one song weaves into the next so effortlessly (each song so thoughtfully arranged with the same soft, accoustical, textural sound.) It is such a carefully-crafted album project in fact that when King's boxed set "A Natural Woman" was released in the early 90s, one could immediately identify the two songs excerpted from "Rhymes & Reasons" and could recognize that the two tracks belonged originally on this album. King is quite simply at her most prolific here. It doesn't get much better than "Rhymes & Reasons". A brilliant project.

This piece is very close of being as good as Tapestry.Highly recomended.

When this smooth voice and melodic piano are joined great songs appaear.

That's what this album is about. Carole was on her ups.

The vocals here are always soft, very few high notes.

Some lyrics talk about weakening problems in life, others about things to

be done with a lover.(No sex,polluted minds!)

Near perfection; track 6 is the weakest compared to the rest, but still good.

Most beautiful parts:

-Carole singing "Oooh, I'm counting on you" in Feeling sad tonight.

- The melody in the lines "She's gone, gone, she's gone, she's flown away"

in My, my , she cries

-Been to Canaan entirely, we all need a promised land, she says.

-The piano in The first day in August

-The piano solo in the middle of I think I can hear you.

Rhymes and reasons only deserves praises.

I agree with the other reviews of this CD. Carole King has a gift for making her music both memorable and meaningful. Every song is terrific. By the time you get to the 12th track, you will want to start again!

"Rhymes & Reasons" was the second album Carole King released after the monumentally great "Tapestry." This time only sues one of the songs she co-wrote with Gerry Goffin when they established themselves as one of the premier songwriting teams in music, with songs like "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" and "(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman." Without almost exclusivley new songs, several of which were written with a new partner, Toni Stern, the result is less than satisfying. But, to be fair, we are talking about a singer-songwriter who put out one of the best selling albums of all time. If there had never been "Tapestry" I do not think that my rating would have changed, but the change in perspective would probably allow me to enjoy the album more. "Been to Canaan" was the biggest success on the album, making it to #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart but only #24 overall. The album made it to #2 on the charts, although this was undoubtedly due more to the large residue of affection from the success of "Tapestry" (when you sell that many albums you can do one-tenth as well and still have a "hit"). Still the Carole King albums before and after this one both hit the top spot. That being said, the key thing is how big of a fan you are of Carole King's work, because while it is not a great album it is still a pretty good one.