AMG Review of Clouds in My Coffee 1966-1996

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

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.