{"id":25870,"date":"2025-01-09T13:03:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T13:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=25870"},"modified":"2025-01-10T12:51:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T12:51:42","slug":"music-carpenters-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=25870","title":{"rendered":"MUSiC: Carpenters, 1971"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Carpenters are a funny ol\u2019 proposition. Essentially a wet dream of a family talent show duo, gone platinum, and then gone wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard and Karen Carpenter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both immensely talented on their primary instruments, piano and drums. Both good singers. Well, one good, the other exceptional. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not that enamoured of Richard\u2019s songwriting, to be honest. He\u2019s kind of goofy, rather square. Like that haircut. And, most notably on his own compositions, always showing off his accomplishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re best when they let Karen take the vocal lead, and play very<\/em> strong material. So doing Bacharach and David is clearly going to work. And there are lots of other great individual songwriters and teams – Nichols and Williams, for example – that help them really shine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Superstar and Druscilla Penny, which come in that order, are an interesting pair, and make an intriguing counterpoint: Superstar is the more earnest Karen lead number. Druscilla is Richard showing off and coming off rather naff. Both ostensibly deal with groupies. Karen sings from the perspective of the groupie, as sad sophisticate, whereas in Druscilla Penny Richard mocks the silly or unfortunate Pop Chick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither are the albums best. But Superstar is nearer the better end. Druscilla Penny, like Saturday, is more of a \u2018hey, don\u2019t forget I\u2019m here\u2019 period piece, Richard grinning and waving from behind his keyboards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On track right, The Dick Carpenter\/Bettis team turn in the much better \u2018One Love\u2019. Which is also much more in keeping with the vibe of the best of the album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rainy Days And Mondays and Let Me Be The One are two of the real standout cuts. Both are from the Nichols\/Williams team. Makes me wonder, ought I perhaps check this out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Might be worth checking this out?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Bacharach\/David medley is good. Very good, in parts. But it\u2019s got the feel of something they\u2019d do live; a crowd-pleaser. On the more home-based and personal\/reflective album format, it feels a bit rushed. I\u2019d rather have heard them spend a bit longer on each piece. A suite, perhaps, rather than a patchwork medley?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other great tracks include For All We Know, and Sometimes\u2026 tender and melancholy. For me that\u2019s what the Carpenters do best. Some folk call it cheesy. I think it\u2019s utterly gorgeous. Truly beautiful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Carpenters are a funny ol\u2019 proposition. Essentially a wet dream of a family talent show duo, gone platinum, and then gone wrong. Richard and Karen Carpenter. Both immensely talented on their primary instruments, piano and drums. Both good singers. Well, one good, the other exceptional. I\u2019m not that enamoured of Richard\u2019s songwriting, to be … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MUSiC: Carpenters, 1971”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-6Jg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25870"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25870"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25881,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25870\/revisions\/25881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}