James Taylor: Gorilla

JAMES TAYLOR pretty much wrote the book for the singer/songwriters of the Seventies. That may be a dubious distinction but Taylor's early work, characterized by subdued singing and restrained, clean backings, was also marked by an undercurrent of extreme agitation and angst. It was this sense of powerful emotions barely held in check that gave Taylor's music its dramatic tension. When that undercurrent diminished and disappeared after the definitive Sweet Baby James, Taylor's music lost its urgency. Thus began a gradual process of personal reorientation and musical redefinition. The most fascinating part of Taylor's more recent albums has been their suggestion of a search for a new raison d'être.