CLOUDS IN MY COFFEE 1965-1995 is a career retrospective that includes her greatest hits, new material, live tracks and previously unreleased recordings.

Rather than focusing on hits and other material most beloved by fans, retrospectives compiled by the artists themselves tend to reflect personal favorites, overbalanced with more recent material. By organizing this three-disc set into three different, non-chronological collections, Carly Simon partially defeats those tendencies. The first disc, The Hits, performs the valuable function of bringing together most of her biggest singles, previously spread across many records on many labels. The second disc, Miscellaneous & Unreleased, seems aimed at the collector. And the third, Cry Yourself to Sleep, is the best-intentioned one of all -- though perceived as a singles artist, Simon has written some of her best and most personal music on isolated album tracks. However, her choices here are frequently not the best songs in her catalog; what is included is good stuff -- it's just that a box set can offer the opportunity to provide an alternate view of an artist who may have been misjudged, as Carly Simon has been, and Clouds in My Coffee is ultimately less than completely successful in that regard. ~ William Ruhlmann

Rather than focusing on hits and other material most beloved by fans, retrospectives compiled by the artists themselves tend to reflect personal favorites, overbalanced with more recent material. By organizing this three-disc set into three different, non-chronological collections, Carly Simon partially defeats those tendencies. The first disc, "The Hits," performs the valuable function of bringing together most of her biggest singles, previously spread across many records on many labels. The second disc, "Miscellaneous & Unreleased," seems aimed at the collector. And the third, "Cry Yourself to Sleep," is the best-intentioned one of all -- though perceived as a singles artist, Simon has written some of her best and most personal music on isolated album tracks. However, her choices frequently are not the best songs in her catalog; what is included is good stuff -- it's just that a box set can offer the opportunity to provide an alternate view of an artist who may have been misjudged, as Carly Simon has, and that opportunity has been missed. ~ William Ruhlmann

Named after a key lyric in her career-defining song "You're So Vain," the three-disc CLOUDS IN MY COFFEE offers an excellent summation of the first three decades of Carly Simon's career. Interestingly, it doesn't engage in the usual historical revisionism concerning said career, and includes a few tracks from her pre-Elektra early years.

Foregoing chronological order, the set includes one solid greatest hits disc, another of previously unreleased tracks and rarities, and a third of key album tracks. Some of the choices are a bit odd--nothing from the fine late-'70s album PLAYING POSSUM, for example--but the sequencing does the songs justice and the remastering job is outstanding. The highlight of the new material is a heartbreaking version of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery" that's among Simon's best and most sensitive covers. Casual listeners might want to stick with one of the single-disc anthologies, but CLOUDS IN MY COFFEE is essential for fans.