Sweet Baby James

There’s a great photo of James Taylor and Carly Simon standing against a railing, I presume on a boat - she’s in some sort of bikini, he’s in a white suit, they are both wearing leis, and they look hot as hell. I mention it because the man in that photo looks like he should make much cooler, sexier music than this pleasant but slightly bland folk rock.

I can appreciate James, I think he is an underrated guitar player and he can clearly lay on the emotion in his songwriting.

I will never purposely seek out his catalogue to listen to. I will never jump up to turn his songs off whenever they happen to come on.

meh

If you can get past Taylor calling himself "Sweet Baby James" (which is a fucking struggle, by the way) you'll realise that it's a pretty decent album with pleasant folky elements, but upbeat enough at times so it doesn't become boring. I might consider a 4 if the lyrics weren't so vomit-inducing

Pleasant

Much beloved though pretty anodyne collection of songs, and Taylor got only more boring, and more popular, from this point forward.

The songs are nice, but not particularly interesting. His mostly unchanging voice gets old fairly quick too. Overall not a bad listen but not one I overly cared for either.

This is a nice album. But nice doesn't mean great. The best moments are when James Taylor is at his most singer-songwriter-y: "Fire and Rain," "Sweet Baby James," "Country Roads." The worst moments are when he goes bluesy, which feels tonally disconnected from the rest of the album.

I like the album. But it feels too saccharine too many times. I'll always prefer James Taylor in "Greatest Hits" form.

Also, it's hilarious to name your debut album "Sweet Baby James" if your name is James.

“Sweet Baby James” by James Taylor is just as sweetly naive as the title suggests. This album probably fulfills all the clichés associated with singer-songwriters: it consists of naive poems about the author himself—more specifically, about how he felt at certain moments—which he sings himself over predictable chord progressions. What perhaps sets it apart from many others is that James Taylor is a fairly talented singer and that, despite their simplicity, the songs were professionally produced and recorded. On a positive note, you can't tell how old “Sweet Baby James” is—apart from a few wobbles in “Anywhere like Heaven,” which would certainly have been corrected before release after the advent of hard disk recording. Oh, and the last two minutes of "Suite for 20G" are nice - that's the way to play these songs!

FIre and Rain is one of the best songs ever recorded. The rest of the album pales in comparison, but isn't awful. Some doesn't age well (Steamroller Blues I'm looking at you), otherwise an absolute classic. An enjoyable listen, one of the defining albums from a master of the singer-songwriter genre, during its absolute peak era.

Arme James maakt prima muziek, maar dit is uitgebracht in de tijd dat Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Carole King, Neil Young (en ga zo maar door), die een beetje uit dezelfde vijver vissen, allemaal met knaller na knaller kwamen. Dan moet je iets heel goed doen om op te vallen, en dat doet dit album gewoon niet.

Verder best aardige melodietjes. Sommige nummers deden echt helemaal niets voor me.

Huge amount of variance in quality here. "Fire and Rain" and "Country Road" are deserving classics- arguably two of the greatest folk songs ever written. Then there's dated white-boy blues slogs all over Sides A and B that drag the experience down significantly. Still, those two big hits really do a lot of heavy lifting here, so a 3/5 is in order.

Really dull

Reminiscent of stuff I was listening to in my late teens… would probably have liked it much more then, but still enjoyed it.

The auditory equivalent of an alpaca fleece: sure, it's incredibly soft, but it's not very practical for making everyday garments. Alpaca would make a nice basic scarf to show off at the coffee shop where you're playing your acoustic guitar, though.

I’m sure most music has a place in this world but I’m not sure where this belongs. Certainly not in my world!

Solid singer/songwriter

Never liked many of James Taylor's hits, but I tried to give this a fair listen. Even I think Fire and Rain is great, and I don't think that's only because of how often I've heard it. Lo and Behold was a standout deeper cut that I'd never heard before. Better than I anticipated going in, but still didn't make me a fan.

3.36

Je heet James, en dan noem je het album Sweet Baby James...Heb je toch je eerste minpunt al te pakken...Aan de andere kant, heeft James wel zelfkennis. Hij heeft een nogal zoete stem. Hij zet die stem prima in, waarbij hij de indruk wekt dat hij zelfs wat stemkracht achterhoudt. Ook zorgt voor een prima passende of zelfs helpende muzikale begeleiding. Het rustige Amerikaanse karakter maakt mij niet gelukkig. Maar ik kan mij goed voorstellen dat dit sterren scoort bij liefhebbers van het genre.