James Taylor produced a typical collection of familiar-sounding songs on
New Moon Shine, his concerns ranging from romance to the life of the working man to political issues like war and civil rights on which he took the expected liberal positions. The album was written, played, and sung with typical craft and care, and was a worthy addition to
Taylor's catalog.
Taylor's reliability means that his records do not disappoint his faithful audience, but neither do they provide any revelations.
New Moon Shine provided four Adult Contemporary chart entries in "Copperline," "(I've Got To) Stop Thinkin' 'Bout That," a cover of
Sam Cooke's "Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha," and "Like Everyone She Knows," and the album went gold, staying in the charts more than nine months, a good showing for a record that essentially repeated previous efforts. (
New Moon Shine was eventually certified platinum.) ~ William Ruhlmann