the phenomenal success of Tapestry (still on the charts after five years and moving up again), King's skeletal piano and vocal approach has been enriched in various ways, almost always at the expense of freshness. A triumphant return to the basics makes Thoroughbred King's finest album since Tapestry, and though none of the ten new tunes carry quite the melodic clout of "You've Got a Friend," "Up on the Roof" or "A Natural Woman," taken together they form one of the most emotionally charged pop albums in quite some time. King's new songs are her typical slow-to medium-tempo ballads. They restate the dominant theme of all her work—the relation between romantic love and friendship—though she has never before worked with it so directly.

The emotional extremes of the earlier songs are gone, replaced by a new maturity and vibrancy. Four of the new songs reunite her with Gerry Goffin, her most reliable collaborator: their "We All Have to Be Alone" evokes a universal experience in affectingly plain language. And "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" and "Daughter of Light" express adult sentiments remarkably untinged by anxiety and filled with hope.

For me, "So Many Ways" most intensely distills the album. Recorded with just voice and piano (King's masterful pseudoclassical arrangement has a strong devotional fervor), the song celebrates a romantic partnership in broad, urgent strokes. King sings with a verve and confidence she has seldom exhibited before, and the fact that a flat note in her upper register is allowed to stand somehow makes the performance all the more gripping. It is no small gift that King can write and sing basic pop lyrics in a way that makes them feel like much more:

We have so much in common

Although we come from places worlds apart

When you reach out and touch my hand

Without a word you say I love you

You're beautiful

You are in my heart

Lou Adler's outstandingly spare production is propelled by King's excellent keyboard work and the ideal bass-drum combo of Leland Sklar and Russ Kunkel. David Crosby, Graham Nash and James Taylor contribute beautiful background singing to Goffin and King's transcendental love song, "High Out of Time" and again on King's "I'd Like to Know You Better." Taylor duets movingly with King on "There's a Space between Us