As the social queen of East Coast pop-rock, Carly Simon can be counted on to put out well-tailored product that defines "class" (lots of money tastefully spent) to the industryites and consumers who regard the pop world as a toney horse race. With their tense fake-natural glamor, Simon's albums amount to aural fashion shows. Each year, an expensive name producer is engaged to design a collection that cautiously incorporates the latest trends and squeezes one or two hits out of the star's new material, thus validating her writing talents and recertifying her first-lady status commercially. (p. 50)

I've long thought that if Simon would scrap all but the best of her own songs and concentrate on singing other people's material, she might actually come up with a great album, instead of the tasteful teases we've grown used to.

Spy, Simon's latest, is no breakthrough…. [It's] typical Carly Simon—trendy-sexy...