One of popular music's most esteemed vocalists and songwriters, Carly Simon delivers the highly anticipated This Kind of Love, her first album of all-original music in eight years and her debut recording for Hear Music. On the label she joins an equally elite roster of artists, including Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. Co-produced by Simon, Frank Filipetti, and Jimmy Webb, who also wrote or co-wrote most of the arrangements. The CD-intimate, sexy, impassioned, joyful-features 10 new songs written or co-written by the leader, one song each from her children, Ben Taylor and Sally Taylor, and a samba by Webb.

Inspired by and subtly infused with the rhythms of Brazilian music, This Kind of Love explores a wide swath of emotion-romance, reflection, melancholy, anger and humor. It's at once one of Simon's most personal albums as well as one of her most stylistically diverse outings, with songs that include the gently swaying, samba-washed title track, the gorgeously melodic "In My Dreams," the r&b-styled "So Many People to Love" and the percussively funky "People Say A Lot"-a song that traverses expansive musical territory, including an orchestral interlude that leads to a snippet of dialogue from the classic 1950 film All About Eve, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Bette Davis, Anne Baxter and George Sanders.

In the liner notes to This Kind of Love, Simon reflects on the rich array of music in her house when she was growing up, noting that "there was always a celebration of Brazilian music in our music bin...[with] recordings by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfa, Maria Toledo and Laurindo Almeida." She also writes that discovering the beauty and melodic longing of the classic 1959 film Black Orpheus and its Jobim-Bonfa score was a life-changing experience that made her realize "that music could evoke passion and tragedy more than painting or dancing or any other form of art."

While Simon was thinking along Brazilian lines in preparation for this album, out of the blue, she says, Webb called her and suggested going in that same direction. "I'm not sure he realized the synchronicity of our golden idea," Simon writes in the liner notes, "but I was flattered that he did." She previously worked with Webb on Film Noir, her 1997 album of standards that he produced and co-arranged with her. On the same project she also worked with Filipetti who mixed and mastered the album. He serves in the same role on This Kind of Love. "Frank's input in making this album was invaluable," Simon says.

This Kind of Love features a core band of guitarists Peter Calo and David Saw, bassist Lincoln Goines, drummer Robbie Ameen, and percussionists Cyro Baptista and Ricky Marotta, all of whom, Simon says, formed "the groove from which we could make up songs... departing from a traditional Brazilian rhythm." Webb contributes on bass, piano and synthesizer, and Teese Gohl orchestrates most of the tracks. Special guests include Ben Taylor on guitar, Aaron Heick on saxophone, alto flute and English horn, Steve Gadd on drums and William Galison on harmonica. On selected tunes, Simon plays guitar, keyboards, bass and percussion. The album was recorded at Legacy Recording Studios in New York, with some parts recorded in Simon's kitchen on Martha's Vineyard and one track, "So Many People," produced by Wade Robson, in Los Angeles at his WaJeRo Sound Studios.

1. This Kind of Love
2. Hold Out Your Heart
3. People Say A Lot
4. Island
5. How Could You Ever Forget
6. Hola Soleil
7. In My Dreams
8. When We're Together
9. So Many People
10. They Just Want You to Be There
11. Last Samba
12. Sangre Dolce
13. Too Soon to Say Goodbye