James Taylor

James Taylor – JT (1977) [Reissue 2002]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 & DST64 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 37:28 minutes | Scans included | 3,20 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | 38:01 min | Scans included | 744 MB

On his last couple of Warner Brothers albums, Gorilla and In the Pocket, James Taylor seemed to be converting himself from the shrinking violet, too-sensitive-to-live “rainy day man” of his early records into a mainstream, easy-listening crooner with a sunny outlook. JT, his debut album for Columbia Records, was something of a defense of this conversion. Returning to the autobiographical, Taylor declared his love for Carly Simon (“There We Are”), but expressed some surprise at his domestic bliss. “Isn’t it amazing a man like me can feel this way?” he sang in the opening song, “Your Smiling Face” (a Top 40 hit). At the same time, domesticity could have its temporary depressions (“Another Grey Morning”). The key track was “Secret O’ Life,” which Taylor revealed as “enjoying the passage of time.” Working with his long-time backup band of Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, and Russell Kunkel, and with Peter Asher back in the producer’s chair, Taylor also enjoyed the playing of music, mixing his patented acoustic guitar-based folk sound with elements of rock, blues, and country. He even made the country charts briefly with “Bartender’s Blues,” a genre exercise complete with steel guitar and references to “honky tonk angels” that he would later re-record with George Jones. The album’s Top Ten hit was Taylor’s winning remake of Jimmy Jones’ “Handy Man,” which replaced the grit of the original with his characteristic warmth. JT was James Taylor’s best album since Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon because it acknowledged the darkness of his earlier work while explaining the deliberate lightness of his current viewpoint, and because it was his most consistent collection in years. Fans responded: JT sold better than any Taylor album since Sweet Baby James.

(more…)

James Taylor – JT (1977) [MFSL 2011]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 37:54 minutes | Scans included | 1,52 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 732 MB
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab # UDSACD 2070

On his last couple of Warner Brothers albums, Gorilla and In the Pocket, James Taylor seemed to be converting himself from the shrinking violet, too-sensitive-to-live “rainy day man” of his early records into a mainstream, easy-listening crooner with a sunny outlook. JT, his debut album for Columbia Records, was something of a defense of this conversion. Returning to the autobiographical, Taylor declared his love for Carly Simon (“There We Are”), but expressed some surprise at his domestic bliss. “Isn’t it amazing a man like me can feel this way?” he sang in the opening song, “Your Smiling Face” (a Top 40 hit). At the same time, domesticity could have its temporary depressions (“Another Grey Morning”). The key track was “Secret O’ Life,” which Taylor revealed as “enjoying the passage of time.” Working with his long-time backup band of Danny Kortchmar, Leland Sklar, and Russell Kunkel, and with Peter Asher back in the producer’s chair, Taylor also enjoyed the playing of music, mixing his patented acoustic guitar-based folk sound with elements of rock, blues, and country. He even made the country charts briefly with “Bartender’s Blues,” a genre exercise complete with steel guitar and references to “honky tonk angels” that he would later re-record with George Jones. The album’s Top Ten hit was Taylor’s winning remake of Jimmy Jones’ “Handy Man,” which replaced the grit of the original with his characteristic warmth. JT was James Taylor’s best album since Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon because it acknowledged the darkness of his earlier work while explaining the deliberate lightness of his current viewpoint, and because it was his most consistent collection in years. Fans responded: JT sold better than any Taylor album since Sweet Baby James.

(more…)

James Taylor – Hourglass (1997) [Reissue 2001]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 54:50 minutes | Scans included | 4,13 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | 53:42 mins | Scans | 1,13 GB

James Taylor stopped pushing himself into new musical and lyrical territories in the late ’70s, so it doesn’t come as a great surprise that Hourglass, his first studio album in six years, doesn’t offer anything new — it’s a collection of pleasant, melodic, simple songs about love, family, and social activism. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since Taylor has a gift for such material, and on Hourglass, he sounds as good as ever. The music, in many ways, has greater depth than previous records, since it features cameos from such heavy hitters as Stevie Wonder, Yo-Yo Ma, Shawn Colvin, Michael Brecker, Mark O’Connor, and Branford Marsalis. There are a few songs that fall a little flat, failing to make much of an impression one way or the other, but on the whole, Hourglass is a nice addition to his catalog.

(more…)

James Taylor – Flag (1979) [MFSL 2011]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 42:59 minutes | Scans included | 1,73 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 788 MB
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab # UDSACD 2071

James Taylor followed his double-platinum Columbia Records label debut, JT, with this hodgepodge of a record. There are pointless covers of the Beatles’ “Day Tripper” and the Drifters’ “Up on the Roof,” a remake of Taylor’s own “Rainy Day Man,” songs written for the failed Broadway musical Working, and a few inconsequential new Taylor compositions. The usual brain trust (producer Peter Asher), and the usual backup team (Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar, Dan Grolnick, Leland Sklar, Russ Kunkel) were on board, but the cruise was a snooze.

(more…)