Subtle Uniqueness

James Taylor certainly isn't the only mellow man to have ever picked up a guitar-- you can listen to the Beach Boys for a very long time indeed without worrying about anything or stressing-- but James makes his music really therapeutic. Maybe it's because of his deep personal experience with depression, that his music is especially capable of serving as a coping mechanism when the simple frustrations of life become an obstacle. The Byrds also deserve laurels for producing soothing art, but James Taylor's personality does come through in his work, leaving me with a sense of his great humility and simple faith in the power of love. His greatest hits album is an especially nice distillation of the products of his talents, and it has an interesting flavor in that, like the White Album, it is somewhat less about love in a relationship and more about the simple love of life.

(9/10)