Smile by Laura Nyro

Smile brought Laura Nyro back to Columbia in early 1976 after four years off the grid, a stretch in which the New York songwriter got married, got divorced and kept well clear of the limelight. Her sixth album reunites her with producer and arranger Charlie Calello, her partner on 1968's Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, and she dedicated it to her mother.

This is smooth, unhurried jazz-pop, the sound of a woman who has found a gentler pace and likes it fine, though she still has a bone to pick with the record business on "Money". She wanders east, too, bringing traditional Asian instruments and Chinese imagery into the mix, most pointedly on "Children of the Junks", which ruffled a few feathers. It reached number 60 on the Billboard 200 and sent her out on her first tour with a full band, captured the next year on Season of Lights.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.