Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
One of the most popular artists of the early-'70s singer-songwriter explosion, Carly Simon made her reputation by combining radio-friendly musical values with lyrics that tackled issues of romance and family with a frankness that's still disarming. In the time since, she's explored a variety of styles, all of which are represented on this nicely packaged 3 CD, 58-song set, which offers a good overview of her catalog, with a disc of her best-known hits (including 'You're So Vain,' 'That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be,' 'Anticipation,' 'You Belong to Me,' and 'Let the River Run'), a disc of ballads, and a disc of rare and previously-unreleased material. --Scott Schinder









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Disc 1:

1. Let the River Run
2. You Belong to Me - Carly Simon, McDonald, Michael [
3. Nobody Does It Better - Carly Simon, Sager, Carole Bayer
4. Coming Around Again
5. Jesse
6. The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of
7. You're So Vain
8. Touched by the Sun
9. Haven't Got Time for the Pain
10. Better Not Tell Her
11. Legend in Your Own Time
12. Mockingbird - Carly Simon, Foxx, Inez
13. That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be
14. All I Want Is You
15. The Right Thing to Do
16. Like a River
17. Anticipation
18. Give Me All Night

Disc 2:

1. Angel from Montgomery - Carly Simon, Prine, John
2. Raining
3. I'm All It Takes to Make You Happy
4. Easy on the Eyes
5. Turn of the Tide
6. Libby
7. Have You Seen Me Lately?
8. My New Boyfriend
9. Voulez-Vous Danser
10. The Night Before Christmas
11. Halfway 'Round the World
12. Life Is Eternal
13. We Have No Secrets
14. Why - Carly Simon, Edwards, Bernard
15. Take Me Out to the Ball Game - Carly Simon, VonTilzer, Albert
16. Back the Way
17. The Itsy Bitsy Spider
18. Play with Me
19. My Luv Is Like a Red, Red Rose - Carly Simon, Simon, Lucy

Disc 3:

1. It Happens Everyday
2. Boys in the Trees
3. Julie Through the Glass
4. Orpheus
5. Never Been Gone
6. Happy Birthday
7. Devoted to You - Carly Simon, Bryant, Boudleaux
8. Davy
9. Do the Walls Come Down
10. Danny Boy - Carly Simon, Weatherly, Frederic
11. Dink's Blues - Carly Simon, Traditional
12. We're So Close
13. Someone Waits for You - Carly Simon, Allen, Peter
14. Born to Break My Heart
15. Time After Time - Carly Simon, Styne, Jule
16. What Shall We Do With the Child? - Carly Simon, Holmes, Nick [2]
17. I've Got a Crush on You - Carly Simon, Gershwin, George
18. Something Wonderful - Carly Simon, Rodgers, Richard
19. You're the Love of My Life
20. I Get Along Without You Very Well - Carly Simon, Carmichael, Hoagy
21. By Myself/I See Your Face Before Me - Carly Simon, Dietz, Howard

Rating: - Love Is Immortal
While waiting for Carly's new 2008 CD "This Kind of Love" to be released, I decided to fill the changer with Simon discs on a drive to South Carolina. For about eight hours behind the wheel, I had her all to myself! :) All three discs of "Clouds in My Coffee" played. Although I bought this boxed set upon its release in 1995, I found myself amazed at the depth of her material.

"Do the Walls Come Down" from 1986's "Coming Around Again" captured my ear as if I were hearing it for the first time. What a delightful tune! "You're the Love of My Life" from 1992's "This Is My Life" is a simple piece, but one so warm and tender that it speaks volumes in the 16 years since it was released. "Life Is Eternal" has to be one of my favorite spiritually uplifting songs of all time, "Life is eternal, love is immortal & death is only a horizon." "Halfway 'Round the World" from her 1994 CD that I loved, "Letters Never Sent," impressed me with its strong dramatic quality and the way the music mirrors the imagery in the lyric. John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery" that was previously unreleased is given an expressive delivery by Simon.

From the first disc are her marvelous hits like the breakthrough single "That's the Way I Always Heard It Should Be" with its lush arrangement and haunting melody, "Anticipation" that sounds fresh despite a gazillion ketchup commercials, "You Belong to Me" with its driving rhythm and addictive chorus and the gorgeous "Let the River Run" from the "Working Girl" soundtrack for which she won the Oscar in 1988. I'm amazed at how well these better-known tracks blend seamlessly with lesser known tracks like "Touched By the Sun," "Coming Around Again" & "Like A River." While the fickle finger of radio airplay has not been kind to our veteran musicians -- particularly women -- Carly Simon has continued to grow with remarkable consistency. "Clouds In My Coffee" is an excellent compilation that always thrills me each time I pull it from the shelf. Enjoy!

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Rating: - A Really Nice Experience
I bought this set for my wife for Christmas. She loves Carly. I have always had mixed feeling about Simon's music. Some of her stuff is so filled with insight and feeling that it makes me want to cry and I am convinced she is truly an artist on songs like "Raining" or "The Stuff That Love is Made Of". However, when she gets to going with the children's choirs and all that, she grates on me like a sandblaster. I can only listen to so much and then it is time for some serious music. As I said, my wife loves her, so Carly is OK by me, but I have to be in a mood for my feminine side to come out to get into her.

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Rating: - Too much un-memorable material
Carly Simon, who emerged in the early 1970s as one of the leading female singer/songwriters of the period, became the most commercially successful of all with the hit single "You're So Vain" and her album No Secrets in 1973. Despite critical derision, she maintained a loyal following even as her commercial fortune declined after another major hit album Hotcakes and a 1975 compilation that did not include her Australian hit "I've Got To Have You".

"Clouds in My Coffee 1965-1995" was her first compilation since then, and at the time adoring "You're So Vain" I was eager to see more of her work from that era and beyond. However, "Clouds in My Coffee 1965-1995" shows that there was little of note in Carly Simon's work apart from the brilliant lyrics of her most famous song. Whilst many other songs show Carly Simon a very cerebral lyricist - which is no doubt why Tori Amos covered "Boys in the Trees" frequently during the time "Clouds in My Coffee 1965-1995" came out, very little of the material has melodies sufficiently moving or passionate to keep the listener interested. The lavish arrangements of "You're So Vain" and "The Right Thing to Do" are very touching, "Jesse" is somewhat (though not wholly) uplifting, and "Touched By The Sun" truly beautiful, but the second and third discs of "Clouds in My Coffee 1965-1995" are almost uniformly lame. The title "Cry Yourself to Sleep" really is very apt at describing what this music is about, with the songs close to generic easy listening without the intense atmospherics or brilliantly-played rhythms that saved something like Avalon from this fate.

Overall, this compilation is more than enough to show Carly Simon as at best a second-tier singer/songwriter. Very little of the material here is worth your time.

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Rating: - If you really want to understand.......
.....what all the fuss has been about, this collection is for you. Carly Simon has been the voice of the "baby boomer" generation for a long time, and, for many of us, she still is. Carly has been known for three things: [1] Some really big hits...however you define the term, they're all here, and all on disc #1. [2] "Confessional" songs...heart on sleeve...pain displayed for all to see. Heaven knows, Carly has felt some pain...divorce...broken romances...illness in her kids...drugs...the loss of her Mom ["Like a River"]...breast cancer; whatever the pain, she has put it out in the open. Maybe we, her listeners, have been part of her therapy. I hope so. This approach turns some folks off, but, in America, nobody has to listen. Disc #3 is mostly her tear jerkers. [3] Sexually enticing album covers...sorry, not here.

Disc #2 deserves special mention: it is made up of lesser known and unreleased material, though two of my personal favorites are on it..."Angel From Montgomery" and "Life Is Eternal". My one regret is also on Disc #2...the version of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" is NOT the one that was used for the closing credits of the Eighth Inning of the Ken Burns "Baseball" series...THAT version would melt the heart of a stone statue.

This is an absolutely wonderful, superbly presented, box set...it only covers up to 1995, but that's OK. The book of essays, with plenty of pictures, is a great supplement to over three and a half hours of wonderful music. I, for one, appreciated the thematic, rather than chronological, division of the discs. This set is essential for anyone who is even remotely a fan of Carly.

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Rating: - Clouds in my enthousiasm
Now don't get me wrong here, I really loved this box sett when I received it, and still do. But after the enthousiasm, realism came in and I had to admit that a lot of stuff was missing on this box sett. I mean, cd 2 only contains 3 previously un-released tracks. Okay, there are a lot of rare recordings on the second disc, like "Take me out to the ballgame (a song I really dislike, but that's just my opinion). But where is a track like "It's hard to be tender"? My god, it's one of Carly's finest recordings and the lyrics are just amazing. Why is this track always overlooked? I mean, when the Anthology cd cam out, I hoped that one would contain the track, but again it was overlooked. And I know Carly herself likes the song in fact, so... why is it never included on any compilation?
Yet there are so many other overlooked recordings that could have been included on this box set. One night surfing on kazaa and looking for rare Carly stuff I found her recording of Mama Cash's song "Dream a little dream". It's not even listed on Carly's official web-site, but it's definately HER voice! And her version is so great, so amazing! Why isn't that one included her? Normal songs like "We have no secrets" and "Have you seen me lately" are included instead, songs we allready have on her regular albums.
That really lowered my enthousiasm. But still this is a great set, the greatest hits disc features all her hits up to then, and the third disc is a ballad compilation, and really included her most romantic tunes, allthough I missed Hurt and her self penned "From the heart" or her version of "In the wee small hours of the morning". But I guess there's always something to wish for, right?
Allthough this review may seem like a negative one, it's not supposed to be negative. I really feel like this is a great box-sett, a must have for any Carly lover, I just hope one day there will be another box-sett which will concentrate more on her rare and un-released recordings!