American Standard James Taylor American Standard, the newest album by James Taylor is a love-letter to song and the songwriters who write them. Like his dear friend and fellow songwriting genius Carole King, JT went to songwriting school - aka as "the college of musical knowledge" - by learning these songs. They were the soundtrack of his parents' lives, and so a big part of his upbringing, same as with Carole, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Paul Simon and so many of that generation raised on these songs as we were raised on their's. The sophistication baked into them - the ingenuity of lyrical linguistics, both poignant and clever, merged with gloriously remarkable timless melodicism of the heart - represents to JT a "highwater mark for this art of songwriting."