In Brief

Carly Simon, “Letters Never Sent,” (**) Arista. The voice still shimmers and the tunes often hum along smoothly, but Simon’s stab at high concept--the songs are letters written through the years but never mailed--falls victim to distracting interludes and recurring musical themes used in a misguided attempt at cohesion.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).