Carly Simon
was onto something, naming her album after
Anais Nin
's book of erotic fiction
A Spy in the House of Love
, and she used the concept to come up with songs about maintaining the passion in a long-term relationship. But she didn't follow through completely, devoting two songs (including the singles chart entry
"Vengeance"
) to attempts to remake
"You're So Vain"
and returning to producer
Arif Mardin
and his New York
jazz-pop
session men for an inappropriately slick and overdone sound. (Whoever expected a
album with a drum solo on it?) Commercial considerations, in other words, marred what could have been an interesting concept album which still, despite the compromises, contained several good songs. And, of course, the commercial considerations were misplaced -- the album became
Simon
's worst seller and prefaced her departure from
Elektra Records
. ~ William Ruhlmann