The technique does not truly hit home until tracks 5 and 6, when such a level of pure melodic bliss is reached that I cannot help but to be utterly bowled over. Elias regarded "Believe" as being the best song on the album, saying that "all of the elements coalesce and might make listeners wish they took the harder sound and well-meaning messages even further, even for the hell of it.

Unusually, this takes the form of a literal fantasia; a steady, safe, stream-of-consciousness flow of moreish MOR. While several of the tracks went in different directions, such as “Being At War With Each Other” and “Welfare Symphony,” even they had a calm and peaceful feel to them. Despite the fact that the songs are almost always constantly drifting, the sheer loveliness of her trademark singing style and the ornate, quasi-classical nature of the album guarantees this as a very decent listen.In the opening and title cut of Carole King‘s first, and I hope last, “conceptual” album, the format is made crystal clear: “I may step outside myself/And speak as if I were someone else/ … In fantasy I can be black or white/A woman or a man. This one feels a little underrated to me - it is perhaps Carole's other best album behind Tapestry, Whereas Tapestry perfects a certain sound, Fantasy is almost a break away from it. The more ambitious arrangements did have negative repercussions (see Wrap Around Joy), but for this album the string and brass arrangements work; most effectively on “Welfare Symphony,” which is almost the Carole King version of prog rock in the way it develops from a spare vocal/organ track to a full-blown orchestral piece. You’ve Been Around Too Long” expresses an early civil rights mentality: “… you’ve been around too long/Not to realize what’s going on inside/I’m just like you/I’m doing the best that I can do to make my stride.

Apparently, Carole King has forgotten that they are, and no amount of well-meaning altruism can make up the difference. The main thesis here appears to be "bad things exist, but the best way to create a better world is to just believe in the existence of a better world, in a very abstract way". Record World said of the single "Believe in Humanity"/"You Light Up My Life" that "'Believe' is a fine rocking tune with great orchestrations, while 'Light Up My Life' is a gently wistful ballad.Up through Rhymes And Reasons, Carole King wrote songs that, in their specificity of detail, personal revelation, and narrative force, embodied an extraordinary populist feeling and musical vitality.

People confronted those in power ("You've Been Around Too Long") and asked that changes be made, and soon ("Directions").Funk and soul were beginning to come into their own as artists from Detroit,Chicago and Memphis began expressing themselves more freely in the creative sense,and taking more control over their music. The music overshadows the lyrics in many places, which are simpler and more straightforward than in the past. You Light Up My Life” explored the simple pleasures of love, while “Believe In Humanity” had an upbeat philosophical message.

Fantasy is her jazziest endeavor outside of The City (whose sole album is also fantastic and overlooked). Some may argue that the lyrics, and the solutions offered, are too simplistic, but I feel comfortable being presented with situations unaccompanied by too many details. I would describe this album as the intersection between Tapestry, Make Way for Dionne Warwick, What's Going On, and Watertown. The high point of the A-side is the wondrous “That’s How Things Go Down,” perhaps Carole’s finest ballad since “So Far Away.When listening to Fantasy,you need to put your feet up, pour a glass of your favorite beverage, and relax as the music washes over you. A Quiet Place to Live” envisages a ghetto-dweller’s dream as the following: “All I want is a quiet place to live/Where I can enjoy the fruits of my labor/Read the paper/And not have to cry out loud. It's got the pleasant melancholy and strong melodies that characterize most Carole King albums, but there's an extra dose of grooviness here that, as another reviewer has mentioned, sounds inspired by Marvin Gaye's landmark What's Going On. This album is laregely remembered for it's it "Corazon'",a tune that actually fairly uncommerical in it's Brazillian jazz-funk groove kind of way.