Gorilla by James Taylor (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: Gorilla

Artist name: James Taylor

Year: 1975

Number of discs: one

Label: Warner Bros.

Collection: Selman

Distinguishing characteristics:

Sticker on front: PROMOTIONAL COPY / NOT FOR SALE

Written on sticker: Selman

Printed on both sides of LP: PROMOTION NOT FOR SALE

Written on side 1 of LP: Selman

Buy it on Amazon: $26.01

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I listened to Sweet Baby James by James Taylor last month and was not that impressed, but I’ve never heard of this record before, and the only song I know by name is Marvin Gaye’s How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You).

What I expected

More 1970s singer-songwriter easy listening.

What it was actually like

This was an extremely bland record, with hardly any personality. It mostly wasn’t bad, but there was one offensively bad song: You Make It Easy, which was made far worse by its saxophone.

How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You) was pretty faithful to Marvin Gaye’s version, but why not just listen to that one, which has a remarkably fun sound for a love song?

Angry Blues was part funk and part country, which might have been interesting if it had been explored some more.

I started to write that Mexico sounded like a Jimmy Buffett song, but then checked, and it actually was covered by Jimmy Buffett!

Grade

2/5: weak, but I was able to listen to the whole thing