Careless

Stephen Bishop | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 14, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B000002OOI
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,504 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. On And On

2. Never Letting Go

3. Careless

4. Sinking In An Ocean Of Tears

5. Madge

6. Every Minute

7. Little Italy

8. One More Night (Guitar Interlude)

9. Save It For A Rainy Day

10. Rock And Roll Slave

11. The Same Old Tears On A New Background

12. Bonus Track

Editorial Reviews

Japanese only SHM Paper Sleeve pressing. Universal. 2010. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely perfect, May 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Careless (Audio CD)

Never was there a more perfect album than this. It is absolutely seamless from start to finish and crammed with delicious melodies and clever, romantic lyrics. Who else but stephen Bishop could muster such a star-studded cast on his first album, or use them so well?

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars strong debut from Stephen with a bunch of soft rock gems, October 14, 2005

By 

Dave "missing person" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Careless (Audio CD)

Stephen Bishop had been "kicking around" the music business for many years by the time he finally released his debut album "Careless" in late 1976. Art Garfunkel's "Breakaway" album from the previous year included 2 of Bishop's songs--"Lookin' For the Right One" & "The Same Old Tears On A New Background", the latter of which Bish does himself on here. Bishop did fall short of delivering an album of consistently top flight material here, but it's still a very strong debut. A majority of the songs are excellent & none of them are less than respectable. The opening track was one of his biggest hits & is one of his best songs--"On and On" is a definitive example of his acoustic guitar based, sighing-ly melodic, hopelessly romantic soft rock. Bishop displays over & over again his knack for incredibly tuneful songwriting, his superb vocals which are smooth and filled with emotion, & his excellent acoustic guitar picking. There are a whole bunch of gems--"Never Letting Go" & "One More Night" are tender ballads; "Madge" is a moving tale of an old man looking back at his life, and it features a couple of instrumental breaks that slyly incorporate the "London Bridge" theme/ melody. He successfully ups the tempo on a couple tunes that have horn arrangements and are extremely catchy--"Sinking In An Ocean of Tears", and the top 20 hit "Save It For A Rainy Day" which has a fittingly rainy/ dreamy mix of guitars & electric piano, although the latter track's fade with Chaka Khan's obnoxious, wailing, showoff-y vocals does hurt it. There's also the splendidly tuneful, fittingly Italian-flavored "Little Italy", which has a fun acoustic riff, and the brief "guitar interlude" between "One More Night" & "Save It For A Rainy Day" is also delightful. As for the remaining tracks, none of them are bad, but they sound like filler that Bishop resorted to to fill out the album--"Every Minute" and "Rock and Roll Slave" are crafted, but somewhat dull ballads that slip over into sappiness. He tries to shift gears with the somewhat jazzy title track, & the stripped-down beginning portion really works, but it builds up & becomes considerably problematic, including its excessive orchestration. The album closing "The Same Old Tears On A New Background", performed solo by Stephen on guitar & vocals, is, again, crafted, but the sappiness detracts from it, although his incredible vocals do lift it up considerably. So, the sailing is a bit rough for portions of the album, but it's a solid and often excellent record that does a really effective job of capturing the essence of Stephen Bishop.

"Careless" was lovingly reissued on CD in 2005 by Hip-O-Select Records, with excellent remastering, as well as a recreation of the layout of the original vinyl LP--if you're looking to get the album, this is the version I recommend you go for.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars strong debut from Stephen with a bunch of soft rock gems, November 9, 2004

By 

Dave "missing person" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Careless (Reis) (Audio CD)

Stephen Bishop had been "kicking around" the music business for many years by the time he finally released his debut album "Careless" in late 1976. Art Garfunkel's "Breakaway" album from the previous year included 2 of Bishop's songs--"Lookin' For the Right One" & "The Same Old Tears On A New Background", the latter of which Bish does himself on here. Bishop did fall short of delivering an album of consistently top flight material here, but it's still a very strong debut. A majority of the songs are excellent & none of them are less than respectable. The opening track was one of his biggest hits & is one of his best songs--"On and On" is a definitive example of his acoustic guitar based, sighing-ly melodic, hopelessly romantic soft rock. Bishop displays over & over again his knack for incredibly tuneful songwriting, his superb vocals which are smooth and filled with emotion, & his excellent acoustic guitar picking. There are a whole bunch of gems--"Never Letting Go" & "One More Night" are tender ballads; "Madge" is a moving tale of an old man looking back at his life, and it features a couple of instrumental breaks that slyly incorporate the "London Bridge" theme/ melody. He successfully ups the tempo on a couple tunes that have horn arrangements and are extremely catchy--"Sinking In An Ocean of Tears", and the top 20 hit "Save It For A Rainy Day" which has a fittingly rainy/ dreamy mix of guitars & electric piano, although the latter track's fade with Chaka Khan's obnoxious, wailing, showoff-y vocals does hurt it. There's also the splendidly tuneful, fittingly Italian-flavored "Little Italy", which has a fun acoustic riff, and the brief "guitar interlude" between "One More Night" & "Save It For A Rainy Day" is also delightful. As for the remaining tracks, none of them are bad, but they sound like filler that Bishop resorted to to fill out the album--"Every Minute" and "Rock and Roll Slave" are crafted, but somewhat dull ballads that slip over into sappiness. He tries to shift gears with the somewhat jazzy title track, & the stripped-down beginning portion really works, but it builds up & becomes considerably problematic, including its excessive orchestration. The album closing "The Same Old Tears On A New Background", performed solo by Stephen on guitar & vocals, is, again, crafted, but the sappiness detracts from it, although his incredible vocals do lift it up considerably. So, the sailing is a bit rough for portions of the album, but it's a solid and often excellent record that does a really effective job of capturing the essence of Stephen Bishop. The standard US CD version of "Careless" has indeed gone out of print at this point--there is this Japanese CD release, but don't expect it to come cheap. Keep in mind though that six of the tracks from here, all of which are among the gems of this album, turn up with 24-bit remastering on the affordable & in print "20th Century Masters--The Millennium Collection"; the same six tracks also appear on another compilation, "On And On--The Hits of Stephen Bishop" although there are some clear differences there such as the inclusion of a somewhat superior version of "Save It For A Rainy Day" (presumably the single version). Still, any serious Bish fan will want to hear the entirety of this very fine album, & there are vinyl copies around that you can get at good prices to supply you with the remaining tracks.