James Taylor
Live

THE REVIEW

It had been a while since an album gave me those chills on my arms and down my sides, it had been a while since I was moved to the point of feeling tears welling up in my eyes. I was talking about this with a dear friend of mine, and he handed me this double live CD. I'm against live albums; they just seem like commercial operations and nothing more, but... To make him happy, I took it and promised him I would listen to it.
I didn't know James Taylor, and I thought that if it was like that, if I had never heard of him, it meant it wasn't worth it. God, how wrong I was, God, how ignorant I was (and still am).

The album is from 1993, a Live that contains and summarizes a large part of the career of James Taylor, which began in 1969 with an album produced by Apple (the Beatles' label) and continues to this day. There are 30 songs divided into 2 CDs (there's also a one-CD reduced version available in the market containing only 15 tracks). The live versions are surprisingly better than the studio ones; the applause at the end of the tracks does not disturb the magic in the slightest; on the contrary, in some cases, it intensifies it. The album opens with "Sweet Baby James," which moved me on the first listen; I felt the hairs on my arms stand up and said to myself, "God, thank you for giving us music... what a blast").

Now... not being my job to review albums, I find myself short of words when trying to express what these wonderful "things" called songs are, which follow the first. I remember that when I listened to it for the first time after the fifth track, "Secret O' Life," I thought, "how did I manage not to know anything about James Taylor and his songs all these years?" So, don't be like me; don't let your life continue without his songs.

P.S: my wife, bless her, says she likes to listen to James Taylor when she puts vegetables in oil or makes preserves, she finds it very homely, relaxing, and pleasantly moving. I always tell her she'd appreciate it better sitting in an armchair with headphones, but I respect her way of enjoying it. In any case, it doesn't matter how, it doesn't matter where, the important thing is to still find albums that stir up storms of emotions. Leave your umbrellas at home; James will pour his music on you and soak you to the heart.