This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
“This album is a collection of songs I wrote alone or with other songwriters,” Carole King helpfully informs us on her new CD — presumably allaying any fears we might have had that she had started writing songs with neighbourhood dogs or random strangers.
Then again, for all I know she could have; Love Makes the World is only her fourth studio album in a couple of decades, and comes a full three decades after her commercial and creative triumph Tapestry. Make no mistake: This is no Tapestry II. While King can still craft a melody and sell it in her warm, expressive voice, her musical muscles seem stiff from disuse on this mediocre collection of goopy romantic ballads and forgettable contempo-pop fluff. And littering this disc with the usual slate of stunt performers — Celine Dion, k.d. lang, David Foster, even Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, fer cryin’ out loud — only makes her seem more in need of help. Looks like Carole’s gone to the dogs after all.
