After seven straight gold-selling, Top 20 albums,
Welcome Home
demonstrated thoroughly that
Carole King
was on the wrong track. Her third husband,
Rick Evers
, who wrote lyrics for some of her songs and is pictured with her on the record cover, died of a drug overdose after this album was recorded in January 1978, but before it was released in May, which seems emblematic of the problems here. They include
"Venusian Diamond,"
a song that deliberately borrows gimmicks from
Beatles
records, and
"Disco Tech."
That's right,
goes
disco
. There were no hits, although
"Morning Sun"
made a brief appearance in the
adult contemporary
chart, and there was certainly nothing that was up to
King
's usual standards. The album failed to make the Top 100 and effectively removed
from the top echelon of
pop
artists. ~ William Ruhlmann