CARPENTERS (pagal George Starostin) -2

CARPENTERS (pagal George Starostin) -2

Silentist

CARPENTERS: LOVELINES (1989) 1) Lovelines; 2) Where Do I Go From Here; 3) The Uninvited Guest; 4) If We Try; 5) When I Fall In Love; 6) Kiss Me The Way You Did Last Night; 7) Remember When Loving Took All Night; 8) You're The One; 9) Honolulu City Lights; 10) Slow Dance; 11) If I Had You; 12) Little Girl Blue. Apparently, one still largely untapped source for extra Carpenters material was their TV specials, for which they'd recorded some exclusive tracks in the late Seventies — few of them deemed worthy of inclusion onto any of the regular studio LPs; but since, as of the late Eighties, there seemed to still be some nostalgic demand for more Carpenters, Richard went ahead and released this collection of tunes that he probably knew very well was subpar, but completism probably got the better of him (and this time, it is useless to even begin to accuse him of money-grabbing: the album did not chart at all, and only a complete idiot might have hoped it would). Another source were tracks from a planned, but shelved solo album from Karen, recorded in 1979 but not released in its entirety until 1996; for certain reasons, in 1989 Richard only went as far as to take a few favorite selections. For the most part, this is all just tepid, utterly generic adult contemporary pap: I am not saying that sentimental balladry from the disco era is worthless by definition, but unless it is on a Bee Gees level, with unbeatable hooks that transcend formulaic limitations, it isworthless, and the professional songwriters employed here seemingly did not have that purpose. Rod Templeton's ʽLovelinesʼ, chosen as the title track, is romantic disco on such a soft level that even Olivia Newton-John can sound like AC/DC in comparison — because this material, in order to transcend anything, needs at least a powerhouse vocalist with plenty of visible fire; Karen, with all her fires always burning on a purely internal level, hardly qualifies. Unfortunately, things hardly get any better on the slow ballads (there's even a Barry Manilow hit on here), or on oldies like ʽWhen I Fall In Loveʼ: too much sugar and happiness, too few hooks. Surprisingly, the last three songs offer a tiny bump up in quality. ʽSlow Danceʼ, written by Philip and Mitchell Margo, is the usual pablum, but at least graced with a single attractive touch — there is something quite distinct about Karen's phrasing on the "it's a slow dance..." introduction to each verse, a strange, barely noticeable, possibly unintentional whiff of what could be either reproach or ecstasy, something that promises an intrigue which, unfortunately, never comes to pass, but at least having this unfulfilled promise is better than having nothing at all. ʽIf I Had Youʼ gives a tiny, tiny bit of that old melancholic spirit — there's an aching swell in the middle of the verse that is probably the only trace of Karen's greatness on the entire album. (The song also has a strange, almost ghostly coda for a slow dance number, with miriads of tiny cloned Karens overdubbed in a hypnotic-hallucinating style). Finally, it was a good idea to end the record with ʽLittle Girl Blueʼ — naturally, Karen is no Nina Simone, but she gets the spirit of the song, and it feels far more alive than everything else on Lovelines put together. All of this comes too late and is far too insufficient to redeem the record as a whole; once again, it is recommendable only for huge fans of Karen who also have a high tolerance level for glitzy late Seventies pop. For everybody else, this will be a thumbs down, but, given the nature of the album, not a vicious one — had Karen lived, chances are that most of the songs here would never be released in the first place. Posted by G. S. at 3:13 PM 0 comments Labels: Carpenters Wednesday, October 4, 2017 Carpenters: An Old-Fashioned Christmas

CARPENTERS: AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS (1984) 1) It Came Upon A Midnight Clear; 2) Overture / Happy Holiday; 3) An Old-Fashioned Christmas; 4) O Holy Night; 5) Home For The Holidays; 6) Here Comes Santa Claus; 7) Little Altar Boy; 8) Do You Hear What I Hear; 9) My Favorite Things; 10) He Came Here For Me; 11) Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town; 12) What Are You Doing New Years'; 13) Selections From The Nutcracker; 14) I Heard The Bells On Christmas. There is not much to be said about this project, except that, as a project, it kind of sucks: taking several leftover tracks from their 1978 Christmas sessions, Richard surrounded them with new material — largely instrumental reworkings and potpourris of even more Christmas standards — and made the fans a somewhat limp companion to Christmas Portrait. (Actually, I am not sure exactly which tracks are completely new and which ones came from the old stock: Peter Knight is credited for most of the orchestral arrangements, and while he did work with the siblings in 1977-78, I have no idea whether Richard recalled him specially for this project). In any case, the orchestrated instrumentals are predictably posh, corny, and Disneyfied, a particularly low point being a medley from the various sections of The Nutcracker — somebody tell Tchaikovsky the news — where it is not even clear how this could claim to be creative. As for Karen's numbers, the only one that might make you sit up is a cover of Vic Dana's 1961 hit ʽLittle Altar Boyʼ: suddenly breaking up the sappy joyfulness of the proceedings, it injects a strain of dark broodiness and torment, which, as we all know, is always perfectly adapted to Karen's style. There is even a bit of a shivery feel as she ends each verse on a doom-struck low note: "lift up your voice and help a sinner be strong" feels acutely personal. Other than that, my only opinion is that this is one of the most expendable items in the Carpenters' catalog — now that it exists, it cannot be wiped out all that easily, but the best solution would be simply to cleanse both records, purging them from the corny instrumentals, and put together all (or most) of Karen's numbers. However, you will have to do that by yourself: the 1996 twin CD edition, Christmas Collection, diligently combines both albums in their entirety, preserving the option of the listener experiencing hallucinogenic visions of Karen Carpenter as the Sugar Plum Fairy and Richard as The Mouse King. Thumbs down. Posted by G. S. at 1:09 PM 0 comments Labels: Carpenters Wednesday, September 27, 2017 Carpenters: Voice Of The Heart

CARPENTERS: VOICE OF THE HEART (1983) 1) Now; 2) Sailing On The Tide; 3) You're Enough; 4) Make Believe It's Your First Time; 5) Two Lives; 6) At The End Of A Song; 7) Ordinary Fool; 8) Prime Time Love; 9) Your Baby Doesn't Love You Anymore; 10) Look To Your Dreams. As is usual in such cases, this album, first and foremost, provides you with an awesome opportunity to waste time in trying to make a choice — did Richard Carpenter release this (and all the following) Carpenters albums to cash in on Karen's unfortunate fate and replenish his own thinning pockets, or did Richard Carpenter release this (and all the following) Carpenters albums out of noble loyalty to both Karen and her fans, swearing a solemn oath that not a single note she had ever captured on tape would go to waste? The correct answer, of course, is that when you are Richard Carpenter and capable of combining both at the same time, you'd probably not be able to answer this question correctly yourself. This review will be short and sweet. Had Voice Of The Heart been released in Karen's lifetime, it would have been dreadful — the entire record is almost nothing but outtakes from various sessions stretched over the 1976-82 period, and since, other than Passage, not a single album they did back then could count among their best, it is easy to imagine what the discarded material should sound like. The only two new songs, recorded during Karen's intense struggles with her illness (but, fortunately, she was able not to show this to the microphone), are ʽYou're Enoughʼ, which begins suspiciously like a slowed down version of ʽClose To Youʼ, but then turns into something far more bland and rose-colored; and ʽNowʼ, her last ever recording, the best thing about which is how fine she could still sound until almost the very end — otherwise, it's just generic easy listening pablum, like balladeering ABBA but without the terrific hooks. There is exactly one song here that I would tentatively single out: ʽTwo Livesʼ, a 1977 single by Bonnie Raitt (written by Mark Jordan) about which I wrote, back when I was reviewing Bonnie, that «the Carpenters would have made it lovelier», without actually realizing, if you can believe it, that the Carpenters did cover it! — and that they did make it lovelier, because Karen's "but I believe whoever wrote that song, never had a broken heart" is one of the few lines on this album to feature her trademark «noble desperation»; most of the other songs are too drowned in syrup to show any depth or ambiguity, and some are so corny from the outset that no ambiguity could ever save them in the first place ("give yourself a bit of some prime time love" is a particularly strong line given to her by songwriting couple Danny Ironstone and Mary Unobsky who, no doubt, have had their own fair share of prime time, chef-recommended love over the years). But enough sarcasm: honestly, this is as good a tribute to Karen as Richard probably was able to quickly assemble from the scraps, and as good a cover photo as he could find too, what with that weird «unsmiling smile» on her face. There is a lot of lush balladry here, which means that if you love her voice, you will take it just for all the overtones and all the modulations and all the aura, never mind if the songs themselves suck to high heaven, which they largely do. As a gesture of respect, I will refrain from thumbing it down, because of the special circumstances and the special destination of the album (to provide the devastated fans with one final goodbye and one final advice to ʽLook To Your Dreamsʼ). But just to show you how terrible I really am, I must confess that I am somewhat relieved about not having to seriously deal with Carpenters in the Eighties, when the wave of synthesizers, electronic drums, and bad hairstyles would have engulfed them with three hundred percent certainty. I only wish we could have such luck without anybody dying: anorexia is not something you'd wish upon anybody, not even Meatloaf. Posted by G. S. at 6:16 PM 0 comments Labels: Carpenters Wednesday, September 20, 2017 Carpenters: Made In America

CARPENTERS: MADE IN AMERICA (1981) 1) Those Good Old Dreams; 2) Strength Of A Woman; 3) (Want You) Back In My Life Again; 4) When You've Got What It Takes; 5) Somebody's Been Lyin'; 6) I Believe You; 7) Touch Me When We're Dancing; 8) When It's Gone (It's Just Gone); 9) Beechwood 4-5789; 10) Because We Are In Love. There is not much that can be said, at least meaningfully, about the last Carpenters album released in Karen's lifetime. Apparently, already after her death Richard went on the Larry King show and declared that this was both his and her favorite record of everything they'd done — a statement that I can only ascribe to a particular sentimental value that he'd placed on it, as well as the recording sessions still being fresh in his memory. Because even if Christmas Portrait could be written off as a one-time special project, Made In America clearly showed that the slightly experimental and unpredictable direction they took on Passage had been abandoned for good, and now, at the start of a new musical decade which they were not to survive, they'd slipped back to the level of Horizon and A Kind Of Hush — something that was even less forgivable for the early Eighties than it was for the mid-Seventies. All the hallmarks are right here. There is very little original songwriting (only the opening and the closing songs are credited to Richard and Bettis). There's one Roger Nichols cover and one Burt Bacharach cover, and they are both boring. There is one obligatory lively cover of a Motown oldie — this time it is ʽBeachwood 4-5789ʼ from The Marvelettes backlog — and it is as fun and as forgettable as ever. And then there's a lot of help from outside professional songwriters and some covers of recent hits, mainly from the easy listening circuit, with nothing even remotely approaching the «edge» of ʽB'wana She No Homeʼ or ʽCalling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craftʼ. Made in America, for sure, but not necessarily something of which the American nation should be particularly proud. Surprisingly, I have several times encountered the word «comeback» in conjunction with this record — which, honestly, I can only understand in the most straightforward sense, namely, that this was the first album of «original» material they managed to get out in four years. But as in «artistic comeback»? Hardly. Yes, they managed to score one significant hit with ʽTouch Me When We're Dancingʼ, a cover of an earlier (and lesser) 1979 hit by the short-lived Muscle Shoals session band Bama, but it is just a sappy para-disco ballad, rendered in a style that was never well associable with Karen Carpenter and, for that matter, not improving one bit on the original. And yes, the opening lyrical country-pop flow of ʽThose Good Old Dreamsʼ is seductive enough, but I could not say the same for the closing ʽBecause We Are In Loveʼ, a corny wedding song consisting of nothing but well-harmonized rose petals. Nor, in fact, could I say it about any other song on this album. Putting it in context — the fairly wretched life of Richard, suffering from his addictions, and Karen, suffering from her anorexia — only makes things worse, because it seems as if they specially designed Made In America so that it could take them as far away from their problems as possible. Basically, this is the happiest-sounding Carpenters album ever (the single exception being Randy Handley's slightly deeper, but not very memorable ballad ʽWhen It's Goneʼ), full of shallow statements of romance and devotion, nothing even remotely reminding you of the psychological depths these guys were once capable of reaching with songs like ʽSuperstarʼ or, heck, even ʽRainy Days And Mondaysʼ. And perhaps it is an understandable gesture, to create a joyful panorama of musical optimism in order to conceal all the pain, but the fact of the matter is, the Carpenters were always better at sadness than they were at happiness; and I would take their grimly stoned facial expressions on Horizon any day over the plastic smiles and happily patriotic expressions of the Made In America painting. In the end, this is not the kind of thumbs down that could somehow be retracted because the singer died an awful death two years later — the album does everything in its power to assure us that "we've only just begun" once again (ʽBecause We Are In Loveʼ was played at Karen's wedding, one that ended in embarrassment and disaster one year later), but does it far less efficiently and believably than, say, John Lennon's Double Fantasy. In mild defense, neither Karen's voice nor Richard's arranging skills have deteriorated one bit, so the record is still recommendable to all those who are always ready to take the duo at face value. Posted by G. S. at 2:23 PM 1 comments Labels: Carpenters Wednesday, September 13, 2017 Carpenters: Christmas Portrait

CARPENTERS: CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT (1978) 1) O Come, O Come Emmanuel!; 2) Overture; 3) Christmas Waltz; 4) Sleigh Ride; 5) It's Christmas Time / Sleep Well, Little Children; 6) Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas; 7) Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town; 8) Christmas Song; 9) Silent Night; 10) Jingle Bells; 11) First Snowfall / Let It Snow; 12) Carol Of The Bells; 13) Merry Christmas, Darling; 14) I'll Be Home For Christmas; 15) Christ Is Born; 16) Winter Wonderland / Silver Bells / White Christmas; 17) Ave Maria. If you happen to like your Christmas albums and prefer that the artist respect the source material rather than deconstruct it, reinterpret it, enslave it to his twisted will and sinister purposes, then Christmas Portrait, probably not coincidentally released by Richard and Karen Carpenter on the exact same day as AC/DC's If You Want Blood You've Got It, has a good chance of becoming your favorite Christmas album of all time. They could have expanded upon the cautious experimentation of Passage — but given its lackluster chart performance, probably decided that this road was not for them, after all, and decided to apply their musical talents elsewhere. Somehow, they remembered, they hadn't done a Christmas album yet; and since a Christmas album for Carpenters seems as natural as a live album for The Who, or an album about death and decay for The Doors, or an album about merry gay sailors for Elton John, they went ahead with the idea. (Particularly since they'd already written one Christmas song, ʽMerry Christmas Darlingʼ, as early as 1970 — it is also included here, but with a new vocal recorded by Karen). The specific nature of the duo's approach to Christmas is in the sheer grandness of the project. This is the first Carpenters LP to run over 45 minutes, and the first one to start out with a proper overture — five minutes of orchestral snippets for both performed and unperformed songs. Actually, they recorded enough material for a double album, but wisely decided to hold off, because, you know, people also need some time to eat their turkey. (The rest of it was shelved for six years, only appearing after Karen's death). Even so, what with all the introductions, codas, links and transitions, Christmas Portrait feels more like a coherent «folk mass» of sorts than just a disjointed series of Christmas carols, a single lengthy ritual performed conquering-style by Good Christmas Fairy Karen and her loyal band of dwarf and elf henchmen, molded into the shape of a sugary-suave symphonic orchestra. That said, do not hold high hopes: Richard is a professional and inspired arranger, but his inspiration in such matters rarely hovers above Disney levels, and every bit of this music, be it purely instrumental (ʽCarol Of The Bellsʼ, etc.) or vocal-based, is designed for nothing more and nothing less than sentimental family entertainment. Unfortunately, Karen is also helpless to add any extra dimensions in this situation: she is serving here as a conductor of the old-fashioned Christmas spirit and is consciously leaving all of her «dark strains» on the shelf (not that she could be blamed for that — it is awesome when performers try to identify the darker sides of Christmas material, but expecting non-trivial activities like that from Carpenters is like expecting modesty and humility from The Donald). At least her vocal frequencies and intonations help avoid extra sappiness; but I cannot single out even one song that would strike a particularly vulnerable / sensitive string in my own soul. It's all just nice, tolerable Christmas fare. It is good, however, that most of the songs are short or, if long, actually constitute medleys: this creates a fast-rotating kaleidoscope of sub-moods (giggly, joyful, pensive, solemn, whatever) that, if anything, brings the Christmas ritual to life, so that the whole thing does not come across as too rigid or square. Still, it also pretty much kills off any hopes anybody could have about Passage opening some new stage in the duo's history — and with Karen's rapidly deteriorating condition (not to mention Richard's ongoing addiction to Quaaludes), that history, alas, was already coming to an end. Posted by G. S. at 5:24 PM 1 comments Labels: Carpenters Wednesday, September 6, 2017 Carpenters: Passage

CARPENTERS: PASSAGE (1977) 1) B'wana She No Home; 2) All You Get From Love Is A Love Song; 3) I Just Fall In Love Again; 4) On The Balcony Of The Casa Rosada / Don't Cry For Me Argentina; 5) Sweet, Sweet Smile; 6) Two Sides; 7) Man Smart, Woman Smarter; 8) Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft. Even if the Carpenters' «punk/disco year» album is no masterpiece, there is no denying that it was at least much more curious than anything they'd done in the previous three years (or more, if you do not think their gorging on the retro-teen vibe in 1973 was curious at all). As you push play and the first sounds that greet you include a thick, gritty, funky bassline rather than the predictable heavenly atmospherics, it immediately becomes clear that Richard's sleeping pills have worn off, at least temporarily, and that the siblings are trying to profit from that by undergoing a serious (well, relatively serious) image change. Of course, the cover of jazz-pop hero Michael Franks' ʽB'wana He No Homeʼ (reasonably amended to she for the Karen overtake) is not exactly a sign of trying to become «relevant» — it is just different, a mix of self-irony, self-confidence, and a number of «cool» bass, piano, and sax lines, all ridden by Karen in a mantle of quiet intelligent decadence. The lyrics are silly enough, for sure (and would probably be machine-gunned by today's social justice warriors), but the song manages to establish a commanding presence for Karen, making her sound stern and decisive for the first time in... ever? Not that there is some kind of Karen-empowering manifesto on Passage; rather, it is just a consolidated effort to take several new paths and try them out, one by one. Ironically, it is also the first Carpenters album without a single Richard composition on it — which might lead us to suggest that, perhaps, he had admitted to himself that he was incapable of moving beyond traditional and conformist patterns, and that if the duo were to move on somehow, this could only be done through interpretation. Hence the unlikely mix of jazz-pop, contemporary musicals (as Karen gets into character with Evita), calypso (ʽMan Smart, Woman Smarterʼ), and even art-rock — although for the latter purpose they still selected Klaatu, the latest sensation, over anything more sophisticated. (Then again, since Klaatu were suspected of really being The Beatles at the time, the meeting of the two was probably inevitable). The Evita piece is the most puzzling inclusion, but not because they decided to test Karen with ʽDon't Cry For Me Argentinaʼ (although her range and relative lack of vocal power might not make her the best candidate indeed) — rather because they also decided to include the lengthy introduction (ʽOn The Balcony Of The Casa Rosadaʼ), inviting a real philharmonic orchestra and opera singers for no apparent reason other than putting Karen's aria «in the proper context». Because, you know, otherwise we would not have been able to guess why an American girl from New Haven, Connecticut, should implore a country as far away as Argentina not to cry for her. Still, as far as convincing performances of overblown Andrew Lloyd Webber arias go, I'd at least take Karen over Madonna — Karen had an inborn knack for sounding deeper and wiser than her actual years, while Madonna will probably still sound like a nervous teenager when she's 80. That deep and wise voice is pretty much wasted on humorous numbers like ʽMan Smart, Woman Smarterʼ, but definitely not on the Klaatu cover, which is every bit as good as the Klaatu original in terms of arrangement and better than the Klaatu original in terms of vocals: it is too bad that the world will no longer have a Karen Carpenter by the time that occupants of interplanetary, most extraordinary craft finally reach us — the aura of kindness and intelligence that she creates around her vocals is far thicker than John Woloschuk's. Also, they get Tony Peluso to play a beautiful distorted electric guitar solo, rather than Klaatu's original non-descript synthesizers. Perhaps the 160-piece symphonic orchestra was a bit of an exaggeration (Klaatu's Mellotron was sufficient enough, and gave the song a suitably astral feel), but other than that and the stupid «DJ» introduction ("we'd like to make contact with you... baby"), I have no complaints, and it is regrettable that in the few remaining years of Karen's life, Richard showed no intentions to explore that direction further. Heck, even Electric Light Orchestra or Supertramp covers would have been better than... but we'll get to it, eventually. The more expectable and traditional numbers on the record are still a tad more exciting than the completely sterile songs and arrangements on A Kind Of Hush. ʽAll You Get From Love Is A Love Songʼ at least has a bouncy rhythm and a catchy chorus; ʽSweet, Sweet Smileʼ is a ʽTop Of The Worldʼ-style return to jiggly country-pop; and ultimately, only ʽI Just Fall In Love Againʼ can be accused of being little more than an over-orchestrated mushy glop — and with Karen still at the top of his powers, one mushy glop per album is not much of a problem. Given the duo's general timidity, the steps they took on Passage were almost like a revolution for them: a failed revolution, for sure, since the album only heralded a rebirth that never came to pass, but enough to extend the longevity of the siblings' artistic reputation for a couple of years. (Retrospective reputation, that is: Passage neither improved their commercial status nor gained them any critical recognition at the time — but today it is very easily seen as a brief and powerful upward surge of the creativity curve). Thumbs up at least for the mild bravery, and even more so for the sheer surprise of seeing some of that bravery actually work. Posted by G. S. at 4:53 PM 1 comments Labels: Carpenters

	2			The Carpenters - Those Good Old Dreams
	3			The Carpenters - Sweet, Sweet Smile
	1			The Carpenters - Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft
	0			The Carpenters - Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
	1			The Carpenters - All You Get from Love Is A Love Song
	0			Sweet Little Band - Babies Go Carpenters
	0			Richard Clayderman - The Carpenters Collection

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