Moonlight Serenade

Since 1981's TORCH, Carly Simon has recorded three more collections of pre-rock standards. 2005's MOONLIGHT SERENADE is the best of the lot, and one of the best albums of standards yet recorded by a singer of Simon's generation. It beats the pants off of similar sets by Linda Ronstadt and Rod Stewart, for example. For one thing, Simon is simply a great singer, even at this late stage in her career; she's taken care of her instrument, and her tone throughout MOONLIGHT SERENADE is superb, as is her increasingly jazzy and unconventional phrasing. (Listen to her subtle but effective vibrato on "All The Things You Are," for starters.) More importantly, Simon chooses songs to suit her voice, not her audience's expectations, which means that along withsuch familiar tunes as "I Only Have Eyes For You," listeners are treated to readings of relative obscurities like "My One and Only Love" instead of the umpteenth rendition of "Stardust."