Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Robert Christgau | B− |
| Rolling Stone | (positive) |
Initial reviews for No Secrets were mixed mostly in an ironically positive vein. Robert Christgau, writing in Creem, rated the album only a B− and stated that "if a horse could sing in a monotone, the horse would sound like Carly Simon, only a horse wouldn't rhyme "yacht," "apricot," and "gavotte." Is that some kind of joke?" Stephen Holden in Rolling Stone was ironic in his praise concluding that "what finally makes No Secrets so refreshing is her singing, which conveys the finest spirit of patrician generosity."
A more recent review from Allmusic's William Ruhlmann along with a high rating reflects a more positive regard for the album. Ruhlmann noted that "You're So Vain" "set the album's saucy tone, with its air of sexually frank autobiography and its reflections on the jet-set lifestyle." He also stated that "now that she felt she had found true love, she was as willing to acknowledge her own mistakes and regrets as she was to point fingers." But even he concluded on the note that "Perry paid particular attention to Simon's vocals in a way that made her more engaging (or at least less grating) to listen to."
You're So Vain is ranked at #72 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of All-Time. The song was also voted #216 in RIAA's Songs of the Century. It remains Simon's biggest hit and is considered her signature song.
Read more about this topic: No Secrets (Carly Simon Album)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)