Karen Carpenter: Karen Carpenter CD Track Listing

A list by checkmate

Karen Carpenter Karen Carpenter (1980)
Originally Released October 8, 1996\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Recorded in 1979 and 1980 but left unreleased until 1996, this eponymous album is an attempt by Karen Carpenter to expand her sound by delving into disco and synth-tinged soft-rock. Produced by Phil Ramone and featuring musical support from several members of Billy Joel's band, the album sounds professional, which should be expected. However, it doesn't sound natural. Not only are the songs under-developed and lack strong melodic hooks, but Carpenter sounds forced in this setting, as if she doesn't fully believe in the material. There's a reason why the album wasn't released at the time. -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine \n \nAmazon.com Customer Review\nReleased 16 years after it's recording... , March 26, 2005\nReviewer: Catherine Leutenberg (Cleveland, OH)\nWhy spend the money to produce a high quality album with one of the world's greatest singers - to end up just shelving it for no good reason at all? Supposedly A&M, and Karen's own family (surprise, surprise) didn't like the more adult themes being explored in these songs. Nothing bad on here at all, it's classy, everything is of a very high quality, and I have no doubt it would have only helped give The Carpenters that extra push they needed in 1980. \n'Karen Carpenter' was released exactly as it was recorded 16 years prior. There are even 2 songs that border on a somewhat disco style, but not in the cheesy way. These being 'Lovelines' and 'My Body Keeps Changing My Mind' which are great fun to listen to. Another highlight is 'Still Crazy After All These Years' which is somewhat of a jazzy ballad, and very different than anything you've heard Karen sing before. Some others have noted that Karen's vocals aren't the typical 'Carpenters' alto that we all know of, which is mostly true, but it wouldn't make sense for her to sing that way with the style of songs she has on here. And since it's NOT a 'Carpenters' album, you shouldn't be expecting that typical 'Carpenters' sound... her voice is as fantastic as always, and am happy to know she had the chance to expand her abilities a bit. \n\nIn the liner: '"Dedicated to my brother Richard with all my heart" - Karen Carpenter' \n(Anyone else find that really depressing?) \n\nA note: This was supposed to be an 11 track CD, but they added 'Last One Singin The Blues' on there as a bonus. It's in a bit of a rough form, you hear Karen giving the band directions twice during, but it's still a fine song. Karen actually recorded 23 total tracks for this, but 11 were left out (as they were to be originally). If you take time to look for them online, you will be able to find 9 of these unreleased tracks to download - if they wanted to, they could easily turn these into another solo CD for Karen, they are of high enough quality to do so, just need to be worked out of the rough form. I'm not sure how these got leaked to the public, someone must have made sure to save them before A&M shutdown.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nJust Average, May 28, 2004\nReviewer: A. Goff (TN) \nI hate to agree with Richard, but a lot of this album certainly doesn't do Karen justice. True, it doesn't sound like the Carpenters but then again IT'S A SOLO ALBUM. Poor Karen. First everyone tried to get her to quit playing the drums (did anyone attempt to have Richard removed from playing the piano?) and then she got her first solo album shelved - with her marriage on the rocks, attempting to recover from anorexia nervosa (does anyone see the sad irony in her choice of My Body Keeps Changing My Mind?) and Richard in detox, Karen needed to work and this is what she came up with. Some of these songs are real clunkers. What was she thinking when she came up with Still Crazy after all these years? However songs like If I had you truly showed the talent that Karen had to display and she will always be, in my mind, the greatest female singer who ever lived. I'm sorry that Phil Ramone as her producer, didn't do a better job in helping Karen select better material for her solo project and that it was shelved. I'm certain that A & M had far worse albums that should have been kept out of the public view. I recommend this album only to true Carpenters fans; for someone wanting something OTHER THAN a greatest hits album, The Close to You, Song for You and Carpenters (the tan album) are better and more worthy listens. Karen may have been in the forefront, both were great musicians, but Richard was the mastermind when it came to The Carpenters "sound".\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nWorth buying, but not a standout, April 30, 2003\nReviewer: Daniell (Colorado) \nFirst let me say that I love Karen, so I am admittedly biased. But then anyone reading this review probably does too, so it's okay. Bottom line: she really did need Richard. He knew her voice, and how to arrange the music to bring out its intrinsic drama and pathos. Phil Ramone apparently did not know what to do with her voice, so he basically did everything with it. The thing about the Carpenters recordings is that they have a very timeless quality about them; these recordings sound quite dated. Maybe some of these songs would have been hits in 1980, but I doubt any would have hit #1. The thing that clinched it for me was "Make Believe It's Your First Time". The "Voice Of The Heart" version is much better--you gotta give Richard credit for knowing his stuff. For you Carpenters completists, this album is a must-have, of course. But if you're looking for that undiscovered gem of a song, you may be disappointed.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nNot a bad album at all, July 3, 2002\nReviewer: Jazysol79 (Germantown, MD USA) \nI really don't see why A&M was so against this record. Perhaps Richard did pull strings like some have suggested, who knows? I enjoyed this album. It's funny, because I have always liked the Carpenters a great deal,and at the time this was released, I worked in a record store. Many of the customers who bought this cd didn't like it. And as one of the other reviewers said, it seemed to be because they listened to it as a Carpenters record as opposed to a Karen Carpenter album. This album is of a very, very high quality. There are some powerhouse players on this record, including Louis Johnson of the Brothers Johnson and others. This reminded me a lot of a Kenny Loggins album - a tight, yet poppish groove, with a tight rhythm section and catchy arrangements. The songs may not be of a high quality, but Karen's readings give them a lot of life. I particularly like "Lovelines" and "My Body Keeps Changing My Mind," which is presented in a different mix than on "From the Top." For those who like Karen's voice, this is a must have. You will enjoy it as a Karen Carpenter record. It's a shame this was released 16 years after completion.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nKaren shows her genius without Richard's over-production, November 20, 2000\nReviewer: J. Wade (Russellville, AR USA) \nI guess hindsight is always 20-20. Richard Carpenter's feelings of guilt after the death of his sister were quite evident since he had creative control over the music and approval of the script in the Karen Carpenter Story (The television movie made circa 1990). We got to see Karen portayed as a woman who had virtually no say in her own career and personal life. Her brother and mother were shown making the decisions for her. Her mother allegedly even chose Karen's clothing for the first three album photo sessions. Richard made the majority of the decisions affecting their choice of songs, tours, and most enduringly the production techniques employed on their recordings. \nWhen Richard went to a hospital to get help with his quaalude addiction, Karen made the decision to go to New York and make this album with Phil Ramone. In the movie, Richard was not too happy that Karen was going to work without him. We can all be thankful that Karen did not let that stop her. Otherwise, we might never have known (albeit 16 years later) how lovely Karen's talent could be without Richard. To be fair, Richard does what he does very well, and their success certainly proved that he was a formidable songwriter and producer. But his achilles heel in my humble opinion is his penchant to smother Karen in layer after layer of overdubbed instrumentation. A prime example I cite is the gorgeous jazz-blues Paul Williams song on Voice of The Heart, "Ordinary Fool". Richard almost ruins the song by overdubbing a Mr. Rogers sounding electric piano (his favorite overused instrument)and a horribly inappropriate flute solo. If the song had used the jazz trio approach (bass, drums, piano), the song would be a classic. Less is more sometimes. Listen to "Make Believe It's Your First Time" on the same album, then contrast it to the version that appears on the Karen Carpenter solo album if you don't believe me. Phil Ramone made a fine album with Karen. It is too bad that we never got to hear Karen do a bonafide jazz album. Still, Richard could take some of the jazzier tunes and make a blues-jazz tinged pop record by remixing and rerecording the instrumental tracks. The Carpenters did, afterall, start out as a jazz trio. So I know Richard could do it. I can dream, can't I?\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nIf She Only Weren't A Carpenter...., June 20, 1998\nReviewer: Greg (New York City) \nDespite the naysaying Richard and Herb Albert (who quashed the originally timed release of this solo album, circa 1979), this album is a revelation. It's ludicrous to think that this effort was not ready for release, esp. circa 1979-80. Yeah, some of the styles are dated today, but for the time, it was more than appropriate. In particular, the Russell Javors songs for Karen (All Because of You and Still in Love With You) take Karen's emotional range and voice to entirely new places, the first an acrid little ditty and the second, Karen as Pat Benatar -- and, they both work just fine. Also, compare this album's version of "Make Believe It's Your FirstTime" (simple piano and voice -- poignant, heartfelt) with Richard's remake of the same with Karen (overblown with a skaggy Ray Conniff chorus). Richard's a genius, but I'm sure he was shaking in his ankle boots when he heard this CD, wondering if Karen was going to leave him behind. The day before Karen died, she spoke with Phil Ramone, this CD's producer, and said "it's a f---ing great album." Yes, Karen, it is.\n\nHalf.com Album Credits\nAirto Moreira, Contributing Artist\nBob James, Contributing Artist\nGreg Phillinganes, Contributing Artist\nMichael Brecker, Contributing Artist\nPeter Cetera, Contributing Artist\nRichard Tee, Contributing Artist\nRob Mounsey, Contributing Artist\nSteve Gadd, Contributing Artist\nPhil Ramone, Producer\n\nAlbum Notes\nKaren Carpenter recorded her only solo album in 1979 and 1980 with members of Billy Joel's backing band. It remained unreleased until 1996.\n\nPersonnel includes: Karen Carpenter, Peter Cetera (vocals); Michael Brecker (saxophone); Bob James, Greg Phillinganes, Rob Mounsey, Richard Tee (keyboards); Steve Gadd (drums); Airto Moreira (percussion).\n\nRecorded at A&R Recording Studios, New York, New York; A&M Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California; Kendun Recorders, Burbank, California between May 2, 1979 and 1980. Includes liner notes by Richard Carpenter and Phil Ramone.\n\nAll tracks have been digitally remastered.\n\nKaren Carpenter's only solo album, recorded in New York in 1979 with producer Phil Ramone but unreleased until 1996, was also the only album she ever recorded with a producer other than her older brother Richard. The difference is immediately obvious. Ramone, whose biggest client was Billy Joel, prefers a looser, more spacious sound than Richard's note-perfect, almost-antiseptic orchestral pop.\n\nNot to take anything away from Karen and Richard's endless string of classic pop singles, but it is refreshing to hear Karen's near-perfect voice, a dusky, melancholy alto with bell-like clarity, in a more relaxed and jazz-influenced setting. Arrangements are by jazz greats Bob James and Rod Temperton, and accompaniment includes most of Joel's backing band. The clear highlight, a sensuous yet melancholy version of Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years," is easily among the best things Karen Carpenter ever recorded in her short career.\n\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nWhen I was growing up in the South, in the late 1970s, there was no such thing as postmodern irony. Pop culture was held close in a hungry embrace, not at arm's length. Kiss, disco and the Carpenters were the embodiment of both fantasy and reality. When Karen Carpenter sang, "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down," I turned up the volume out of identification, not bemused detachment.\n\nKaren Carpenter was the album meant to signal the singer's coming out as a woman and a solo artist, an attempt to humanize the winsome icon she had become with the Carpenters. It didn't work out that way. Recorded in 1979, four years before her death, Karen Carpenter was reportedly shelved at her behest so that it would not detract from upcoming Carpenters projects. There's no small disappointment, then, in the fact that the record's producer, Phil Ramone, smothered the singer in the studio just as much as her brother, Richard, did; both men cloaked Karen's sublime voice in overcooked musical trappings. Where Richard Carpenter was given to a production style both pedestrian and saccharine, Ramone imitated whatever was hot at the moment.\n\nThat means Karen Carpenter is an often-embarrassing time capsule of its era. There are stabs at generic disco ("Lovelines," "My Body Keeps Changing My Mind"), Cars-style New Wave ("Still in Love With You") and breezy pop a la Olivia Newton-John ("Guess I Just Lost My Head"). There are also moments that remind you of how extraordinary Carpenter's crystalline voice could be. "All Because of You" and "Make Believe It's Your First Time" start off with simple accompaniment -- just a guitar or piano behind Carpenter's exquisite singing -- before going into kitchen-sink overload. There is such a potent sense of longing in the conjoined sadness and joy in her vocals that Carpenter transcends even the most cloying production. You can hear, too, why Karen Carpenter connected so soulfully with her original audience long before hipsters, up to their necks in smarm, decided it would be a hoot to make her an alt-rock goddess. (RS 746 - Oct 31, 1996) -- ERNEST HARDY
This misc cd contains 12 tracks and runs 45min 42sec.
Freedb: a60ab40c
Buy: from Amazon.com

Categories

Latest lists

Karen Carpenter: Karen Carpenter CD Track Listing

Category

Tags

cyList

Legal