Come Upstairs

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Come Upstairs is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 10th album, and ninth studio album, released in 1980. It is the first of her three albums for Warner Bros. Records and it featured a harder, rock-oriented sound than her previous albums. Whereas those earlier records were prime examples of the singer-songwriter genre, with soft-rocking arrangements primarily built around piano and/or acoustic guitar accompaniment, Come Upstairs featured electric guitars and synthesizers prominently. In the vernacular of the time, Come Upstairs was a "new wave" album, and it followed the lead of new bands such as The Knack and Talking Heads. The album was generally well received, and many critics thought that Simon proved herself more than capable of this artistic leap. Oddly, however, the first single released from the album was "Jesse", an acoustic ballad that was a throwback to Simon's earlier works rather than an example of her new abilities. "Jesse" proved to be a major hit, staying on the singles charts for 6 months and achieving gold status (sales of more than 1,000,000 copies), but fans apparently chose to buy this single rather than the album, which did not "go gold" and quickly went out of print. It was one of the last of Simon's early albums to be released on CD.