If I Were A Carpenter Album

[Егор Ульянов]

HiMark, I've been reading your blog for a while now, not only for the Disney content, but also for the Carpenters stuff as I am a huge fan as well. Karen's solo album is one of my personal favorites. She recorded some other tracks for this album that weren't released. If you're interested I could share them with you.

Keep up the good work, love the blog!

-Enrique

Hi thank you for the blog, especially the material near start about the front cover photo.

You ask in passing the question whether KC's anorexia was related to the public image put across by A&M.

I wonder: in the released version of the album cover, compared with the original photograph which you also show, do you think the artwork includes an element of alteration of her face shape/detail? The thinness of her face (and fingers?) seems downplayed on the album cover? I would appreciate any comments here by you and readers.

George

Perhaps. In later years, there was so much airbrushing and such on their covers that it wouldn't surprise me one bit if her solo album was also touched up. Just recently, I saw a photo of the album cover as I saw it in A&M's offices. It was slightly different than what I remembered. I'll have to dig it up and add it to the article.

Thanks for reading, George!

I have to disagree. While I love Karen's voice and put it second on the planet to Nat Cole, I think this album is a train wreck. Richard may not have been the talented Carpenter, but he was right in this case.

All these years later I am still listening to everything Karen recorded and still finding new wonders. In a way she is deceptive, because she is that rare singer who sings the songs she recorded as written, digging deep for the deepest meaning without taking liberties with the melodies. It is the toughest way to sing and few singers ever have attempted it regularly (the only other I can think of right now is Anne Murray). I have always felt her best work was ahead of her but it tragically was not to be. I am thankful for the gorgeous and intelligent body of work she left, bless her.

Hey Wayne, I agree with you. Even after all these years of listening, I find new wonders when I hear her. That may have been part of my new series revisiting the albums and give them a fresh listen. Thanks for reading.

I enjoyed your tour throughout. Thank you for the detailed info with the amazing photography. To me Karen is the best female singer ever. So glad to have stumbled upon the site. Time to put some Karen on.

As tragic as was Karen's passing, I think her best work was far behind here. 1969-1972 Carpenters was magic lightning in a bottle. Later efforts, like this solo record, did not recapture that magic and I think we can speculate that Karen's subsequent career would have followed a similar path to Toni Tennille: A highly a talented singer slogging it out on the circuit but never again reigniting the magic. Karen was sooo great as a 19 year old, there simply wasn't any room to improve. Her later singing has a slightly more polished "exquisite" quality but basically she gave us all she had at 19. I contrast that to the tragedy of Selena who was just at her break through, she had much more to share with the world.

Ok you have a right to an opinion, but this album is no train wreck by any stretch of the imagination. I've heard plenty of albums that are pure dreck except for one good song, McCartney is infamous for doing that.

Hello Mark,

my name is nadine and I`m writing for the german magazine souldisco ( ) at the moment we are writing on an article about Karen`s only solo album and your review/Blog on the album is outstanding, we would really like to get in touch with you about the article and maybe a collaboration with you as a guest writer if you are interested.

Just drop me line to nad...@souldisco.de hope to hear from you, soon.

Thanks

Nadine

Karen Carpenter, the solo album is the holy grail of all things Karen. It didn't disappoint either! At first listen it is a very mellow event. But upon my ears and self maturing, it became a feast for the ears. It was fun to finally hear 7 songs that had been released on Carpenters sets. As they were intended. Of course the other 5 didn't disappoint either. All the songs are highlights upon repeated listens.

Did Karen sing too high, was some of the material beneath her? I really don't care, because we got to hear Karen in a whole new way, but still the vocalist I loved. I'm sure had she lived and experimented further, things would have gotten even greater. But this stands up as a big part of Karen's legacy. If you really love Karen, the singer, open your mind and enjoy this.....and all the wonderful outtakes that were leaked a few years later. I am grateful to have them in my library.

This album should have been released in 1980 as planned. It would be been a cult classic if nothing else. The entire (outtake) sessions could of been finished and rereleased in an updated "Karen Carpenter" in 1996, with the proper photos! JA

An interesting collection. Some of it I really enjoyed, but I absolutely detest "Remember When Lovin' Took All Night" and "Still in Love With You", on which she sounds self conscious and uncomfortable to me.

I definitely agree with you, DPSF. These are the weakest cuts on the album. I agree with JA (above) who commented that her solo album allowed us to hear Karen in a whole new way. First listen and for many afterwards, I fell in love with her voice all over again.

Thanks for reading!

Hi Mark;

The solo album by Karen is a fascinating subject, and not beloved by many Carpenters fans. But I consider myself a Carpenters fan and a fan of Karen the singer, and I respect Richard's talents as songwriter, producer and arranger. Plus he sings some pretty great background vocals!

It is hard to talk about the solo album because the anorexia comments always come up and it cheapens the chance to just talk about the music. I think Karen gave this project her all, and her vocals are top notch up to 1980 despite her condition. She did some great stuff after that, but her vocals on the solo album are spot on. It doesn't sound forced, it just sounds like a young woman exploring her musical space. Thank you Mark for doing *this* John Adam AKA JA

To salute two-and-a-half decades of the If I Were A Carpenter tribute album (as well as 50 years of The Carpenters' own musical magic), the Recording Academy conducted an oral history featuring the album's co-producers Matt Wallace and Dave Konjoyan, legendary songwriter (and Carpenters collaborator) Paul Williams, and many of the artists involved, including Matthew Sweet, Johnette Napolitano, Grant-Lee Phillips, members of The Cranberries, Cracker, Dishwalla and more.

Dave Konjoyan (co-producer): I was doing some music journalism at the time and I was noticing a lot of artists were expressing appreciation for The Carpenters, especially for Karen's voice. It was artists like Chrissie Hynde, k.d. lang, Sonic Youth, Babes In Toyland and a few others. Tribute albums were also starting to really become a bigger thing, so I thought there might be enough artists interested in doing one dedicated to The Carpenters.

Matt Wallace (co-producer): The contrast of the impeccably arranged, glossy pop of The Carpenters with bands that were a little scrappier and less refined is what made it so interesting. You look at "Goodbye to Love" by American Music Club or "Superstar" by Sonic Youth or "Rainy Days And Mondays" by Cracker and you get these dark readings of the songs that feel really aligned with how Karen was singing them and how she was probably feeling at the time. Though, to flip that, some of the bands also did really well at turning in brighter versions of what The Carpenters did, like the beautiful version of "Close To You" by The Cranberries and "Top of the World" by Shonen Knife.

David Lowery (Cracker): When I first heard about the opportunity of being a part of a Carpenters tribute album, I thought it was kind of odd and cool. Like, who is thinking about The Carpenters right now? Stacked up against some of the other tribute records of the time, The Carpenters seemed like a much less obvious choice and that made it more interesting to us. They were one of my guilty pleasures that weren't exactly in vogue in the early '90s.

Matthew Sweet: The Carpenters were kind of omnipresent when I was a kid. You heard them whether you were seeking them out or not. Both Karen and Richard were so talented and their catalog provided such a wealth of material for this tribute record to pull from.

Fergal Lawler (The Cranberries): I thought The Carpenters were great. They made fantastic, heartfelt songs that still sound great today. They were actually really big in Ireland. We definitely heard them on the radio all the time, especially "Close To You."

Naoko Yamano (Shonen Knife): Since I'm Japanese and can't understand their English lyrics very well, it was their sound that really reached my mind. But that was enough because their melody lines and Karen's vocals were so attractive to me. Their song "Sing" was in one of our school textbooks, so I thought that their music was only for good children. My friends liked them, though.

J. R. Richards (Dishwalla): The Carpenters were cool because there was such a weird, darker tinge underneath all of the beautiful background vocals and lovely sentiments. I really liked the juxtaposition they brought to their songs.

Mark Eitzel (American Music Club): When we first got asked to be involved, I was like "Absolutely, I love The Carpenters!" They made incredible records. For all the schlock that you would hear on the radio at the time, they never offended me. Their songs were so well written, perfectly arranged, and just sung so beautifully.

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