This is Carly Simon's best pop album in many a year. Perhaps the reason Carly is not acknowledged as a "rock and roll legend" is because of her dual career with earlier albums like the immediate predecessor "Film Noir" or "My Romance" and "Torch."

This diversity keeps many from being big fans, I feel.

As others have said, her voice is better than it's ever been. Her music is solid and fantastic. Her lyrics are insightful and clever as always.

Best tracks muscially: "Our Affair," "So Many Stars," "Actress," "We Your Dearest Friends."

Best tracks lyrically: "So Many Stars," "Big Dumb Guy," "Scar," "Cross the River," "Actress," "We Your Dearest Friends."

Songs I could do without if I had to leave some: "I Forget," "Whatever Became of Her," "In Honor of You (George)." (After several listenings, I can't even play these in my head).

This CD is much better than expected. It's better than 1994's "Letters Never Sent" or even such commercial favorites as "Coming Around Again," in my opinion.

It's her best work since the early '80s.

I am surprised, pleased, and not at all embarrassed to be a very big fan.

She's come a long way since "They're puttin' out too many phonograph records/I think I'm gonna have a baby."

Now she just wants to kick away her mouse pad and greet a "big dumb guy."

The emotional insecurity of her early work is thankfully absent, as is the overt eroticism we have seen from her.

"The Bedroom Tapes" (a reference to the empty-nested daughter bedroom where she wrote the songs) as a title is a playful acknowledgment of her sexy image, no doubt, but she's toned it down, while keeping it romantic in nature.

All in all, this is a Carly Simon must for long-time fans and a pretty good listen for even the casual music fan. This should be a nice comeback saleswise. Out of the box (debuting Billboard #90), to this end it's looking promising.

This is an astonishingly passionate and personal CD with consistently great songwriting by Carly Simon throughout. While she turns her witty and wry focus on some terrific "characters" as in "Actress", "Cross the River", and the lovely "What Ever Became of Her", the songs about herself are deep and revealing -- and liberating -- and as resonant as anything she has ever done. All the familiar rock/pop/folk sensibilites are there in "Our Affair", "So Many Stars" and "Big Dumb Guy" -- great catchy tracks that many fans will love (as I do too), but it is the achingly painful and gorgeous songs "Scar", "I Forget" and "In Honour of You (George)" that will stop you in your tracks. This is not a "singles" album" but a CD that demands your complete attention from beginning to end. Her singing is glorious -- emotional, raw and passionate. The songs she sings are her most fully realized and personal ever. Without any reference to current trends, it's like a breath of fresh air. It's real -- never synthetic. It immediately ranks as one of the most intimate and revealing singer/songwriter albums ever.

Carly Simon quite possibly puts forth her best effort ever on "The Bedroom Tapes," as she wrote almost all the material, performs almost all the vocals, plays almost all the instruments, and did almost all the production herself. It's obvious that this album was a labor of love. As usual, she opens up to her listeners, especially in the beautiful and confessional tracks "Scar" and "I Forget." Of course, Carly has fun as well, with "Our Affair," "Big Dumb Guy," and "Actress." "So Many Stars" is also a standout, and its title is fitting because Carly shines in so many ways on this album. Whatever you love about Carly, you will find it on "The Bedroom Tapes."

This is Carly Simon at the top of her form. She ranges from the wonderfully ironic "Actress" to the nearly sardonic, "We Your Dearest Friends". The stunning and deeply insightful cut "Scar" is without equal in recent musical history and the sheer inventiveness and beauty of "George" is a unique ode to another great artist. "Big Dumb Guy" is so timely and hip that it surprises and reveals our most hidden sense of what is happening to us all. Her voice and the overall production are sensational. I would offer a warning to anyone reading the Amazon reviewer's comments that the only one who seems to be "going through the motions" is him. To use such a tired cliche about one of our great American artists is an insult to Carly Simon and the listening public who both deserve better than that comment indicates.

Twenty-nine years into anyone's career at anything and it stands to reason that casual slip-ups can be made. Carly Simon, however, displays her usual sure-footedness and flair on "The Bedroom Tapes." Conceived and created in the comfort of her own home, the album benefits from a rough-around-the-edges sound that can only be created when an artist is in their element, hanging loose and letting the creativity flow naturally. (A stylistic kindred spirit would be Sheryl Crow's "Tuesday Night Music Club.")

While the production may sound a little more like sitting in on a jam session than your basic Carly Simon record, one thing that hasn't changed is her gift for songwriting. "Our Affair" rocks with a gentle insistence and sultry lyrics ("don't you feel like you're coming down with something/some big fancy flu/don't you feel like you're coming down with me/and it don't get sicker than you"), "So Many Stars" finds our heroine trying to go about an ordinary day while plagued with the end of another love affair, and "Whatever Became of Her" is a bittersweet ode to both youth and love gone by.

"Cross the River" features a lightly funky musical backdrop underneath the sort of touching, storytelling lyric Simon afficiandos have come to expect -not to mention one of her best choruses- and "We Your Dearest Friends," a cunning, thinly-disguised satire of music critics, benefits not only from a tasty, Beatlesque verse but the ingenious pairing of the catchiest of hooks with the most biting of lyrics ("we're gathered here in faithlessness/to undermine your happiness"). The end result is priceless and one of Simon's finest moments.

What will no doubt move longtime fans are the songs that were fairly obviously created in response to the singer's recent bout with cancer: "Scar" finds strength in adversity, "I Forget" is a touching retreat into fear and uncertainty, and "I'm Really the Kind" shows that finding either total strength or utter helplessness depends entirely on what day it is. In the hands of a lesser craftsman, such explorations could drown in self-pity; luckily Simon hasn't lost her ability to not only recognize but embrace the fears and uncertainty that even our bravest moments can breed.

The only moment that doesn't quite work is the album's closer, "In Honor of You (George)." Simon is understandably fascinated with an George Gershwin, and in theory a musical letter to him is a smart and sweet idea. However, the only musical hook that stands out is Gershwin's own "Embraceable You," sung here in sporadic passages...a simple cover of that song may have been more fitting. Hitting the target dead-on, however, is "Big Dumb Guy," a bluesy rock number with a sleazy groove and a clever Internet-themed lyric that could mean a number of things: is it a satire for the "tech-heads" that are brilliant with technology but socially disabled? Is it poking fun at the technology that we've been led to believe can make our lives so much better? Either way, Simon has never sounded sexier. (Warning: her growl at the end of "get it on, get it on, get it on BAY-bay" isn't recommended for those not fond of chills.)

"The Bedroom Tapes" trumps the other also-fabulous mid-life releases of recent years (looser than James Taylor's "Hourglass," more varied than Joni Mitchell's "Taming the Tiger"), but what's most impressive is, twenty-nine years into her major-label recording career, Carly Simon still has a knack for hooks that soar, grooves that fit, and lyrics that touch. The only way to find fault with "The Bedroom Tapes" is if you weren't a Carly Simon fan in the first place.