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58 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A "Different" Karen Carpenter Sound - Minus Richard's Arrangements, August 21, 2005
In 1979, Richard Carpenter was hooked on quaaludes and submitted himself to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, to rid himself of the additction. He would take over a year off from music and the Carpenters. Rather than remain idle during this time, Karen Carpenter decided to make a solo album, and chose the accomplished New York producer, Phil Ramone, to guide her through it. This was a startling break for Karen, who had never made a single record with anyone but Richard.
The album took over a year to make and the "sound" of Karen Carpenter singing solo is quite different than her previous songs with Richard. Richard Carpenter learned to make multi-track overdubbings from listening to his favorite childhood recording duo, Les and Mary Paul, and he used the overdubbing technique to give the Carpenter sound its rich distictive quality. There is very little of that in the Karen Carpenter solo album, and hearing Karen sing to a simple musical accompaniment is very different indeed. So different in fact that Richard Carpenter, Herb Alpert, and the A&M recording label back in Los Angeles put pressure on Karen NOT to release the album at all. After an intense closed-door meeting, Karen reluctantly relented and decided to shelve her album. Thus, it was never released.
Fast forward to 1996, 13 years after Karen's tragic death from anorexia nervosa compications, with Richard under pressure from longing fans to hear Karen's shelved album, he finally decides to release the album. In the liner notes, Karen lovinging dedicates her solo project to Richard.
Not only is this a different Karen Carpenter sound, the image portrayed and the lyrics of the songs are decidedly sexier than anything Karen had attempted before. Karen's image on the record cover is more hip, with her posing on a couch dressed in leather. The sexier image was needed, as she was presenting song lyrics that had a sexual overtone to them:
Making Love In The afternoon
Remember When Lovin' Took All Night
My Body Keeps Changing My Mind
Make Believe It's Your First Time
Still Crazy After all These Years
Karen was quite proud of her solo effort and was devastated when it was shelved, so much so, that she went on a Mexican vacation with the Phil Ramone family for several weeks. Upon returning to the states, she and Richard would then embark on their last album together, "Made In America".
Unbelievably, Karen did not consider herself a great singer! Despite the many accolades she received from fans, she attributed the success of her songs to Richard, due to the lush arrangements he created around her voice. So to make a solo album was a definite step of faith (and independence) for Karen, and she was placing herself out on a limb so to speak for the success or failure of this album.
The album was made during the height of the intense but short disco craze, and thus, many of the tracks have a disco sound and beat to them. Others have a rock sound, and a few have a county lilt to them, demonstrating Karen's ability to diversify her beautiful voice. For several reasons, this album was delayed in production until mid-1980 and by then, the disco fad was dead and Top-40 was changing as well. Many stations were abandoning the format in favor of talk radio or country. Thus, the delayed production time of Karen's album made its release more difficult, as it had a disco theme to it. This is one of the reasons the A&M braintrust did not favor releasing the album - they feared the failure of the album would hurt Karen Carpenter's image and standing (plus, they simply did not like Karen singing without Richard's arrangements).
You will hear a very different Karen Carpenter on this album. Fans are split on the album, some like the new sound and some do not. I am in the latter group. Richard had a talent for selecting musical material that best fit Karen's voice and brought out her outstanding vocal sound. This album strays from that and does not have the layering and overdubbing so common to previous Carpenter songs. For this reason, I did not enjoy this album as much as say, "Made In America". I am a huge fan of Karen's, considering her to be my favorite singer ao all-time, but without Richard's arrangements, Karen's solo effort in my opinion strikes a bland key.
You need to decide for yourself, so buy this album and make your Carpenter collection complete.
Jim "Konedog" Koenig, Carpenter Fan
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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a superb vocal talent, November 10, 1999
By A Customer
it simply defies comprehension that this album was considered insufficiently good to be released, and after hearing it, it becomes painfully, and sadly, clear what were the reasons behind the shelving; this collection of songs reflects who karen carpenter was when approaching 30, as seen by the fact that she herself selected all the compositions, and according to ramone, had the final say; the songs are all fine, the execution is really excellent, both in arrangements and in production, and karen is, as usual, in top form; perhaps she sounds a bit tentative and unconvincing only in her delivery of 'still in love with you', which is a bit too rock-oriented for her, but elsewhere she shines; especially touching are her heartfelt and sincere readings of 'all because of you', 'if we try', and 'make believe it's your first time'; i couldn't help but pity richard when i read his claim that only 'if i had you' was a possible single - hullo! how about the gorgeous, sunny, uplifting 'making love in the afternoon', or the irresistible disco of 'my body keeps changing my mind' - they would've been surefire hits; and even though this album is a highly enjoyable experience, it's impossible to avoid a feeling of sadness, AND anger, when listening to this, just because things REALLY might have turned out different for karen had this, as she wanted, come out in 1980
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE VOICE OF AN ANGEL, December 17, 2005
I'm a 32 year old hispanic male with alot of different musical tastes, from disco, punk rock, r & b, oldies, salsa, merengue, big bands of the 40's, MOTOWN, pop, ect....but everytime i hear Karen Carpenter sing, everything stops for me. I have to stop and listen. This woman had a voice that soothes my soul, it's as simple as that. It's soft, it's crystal clear, it's sweet, it's homie, it's warm and above it all, it's REAL...I love this woman. It is a real shame that we are living on a generation where any no-talent idiot like 50 CENT, Britney, J-Lo and countless others make millions selling records with NO REAL talent! Music today SUCKS, thank god we can go back to our old records and listen and have great memories. It is a crying shame
that Karen Carpenter is gone, she would have been making some great music today. Anything she and her brother made, gets a 5 and plus stars rate from me. Always.
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