"Just Like Me, They Long To Be"... Far Away From Generic Orchestration
Written: Sep 23 '08 (Updated Sep 23 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The singing is beautiful, and the opening third has some great songs.
Cons: It's saccharine, and prone to nasty slips into silly childishness.
The Bottom Line: "Gold" is a great acquisiton if you want to get acquainted with the Carpenters, with enough highlights to compensate for some embarrassing treacle.
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| floatingcity's Full Review: Gold: Greatest Hits by The Carpenters |
Continuing my plunge into the Epinions heart of darkness (giving a Spice Girls record a not-totally-scathing review will do that to you), I figured I might as well take a moment to profess my sort-of respect for America’s primary, sappy pop performers – referring to none other than the much-reviled Carpenters. Consisting of siblings Karen (drums; vocals) and Richard (piano; most of the composing and arrangement), the duo became a major commercial force during the early Seventies, spinning out hit after hit and earning the ire of contemporary critics for their unapologetically soft style. Given their highly sanitised image and sound’s clear antithesis to the progressive maxims of the ever-expanding rock genre, it proved horribly ironic that the one commonality the Carpenters shared with their louder, more adventurous brethren was the destructive impact of success; the second half of the decade seeing Richard develop a drug habit and Karen fall victim to the then-unknown eating disorder anorexia nervosa, which would go on to tragically cut her life short at only 32 years old.
Unsurprisingly, recent years have seen the Carpenters subject to some critical reappraisal (sadly, it seems that nothing’s better at getting your talent re-evaluated than your untimely death), and this “Gold: Greatest Hits” collection does a fine job of compiling twenty of the twosome’s smashes for your listening pleasure (or perhaps skin-crawling terror). In all fairness, it’s more than understandable how many people might approach this record with trepidation – regardless of lyrical theme or mood, Carpenters songs have an overwhelming tendency to come across as sickly-sweet ear candy with no true melodic substance. At least on first impression, most of the material here is pure sugar, and everyone knows how problematic that is when consumed in high doses.
Much of the blame for the syrupy veneer lies with Richard, whose proficiency as a classically trained pianist and writer couldn’t conceal a chronic lack of restraint. One of the worst things you can do to love songs is saturate them with overblown Hollywood strings – and he does so on almost every piece, meaning that the omnipresent, billowing woodwinds of over-the-top earnestness often inspire irritation instead of any true emotional response (“For All We Know”; the weak cover of the Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride”). Even nastier are the moments of commercial-jingle juvenility, including an embarrassing version of Hank William’s “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” – not to mention the children’s choir featured in “Sing”, a truly nauseating ditty that could probably induce diabetes in anyone who hears it.
Significant concerns aside, there’s one massive draw to this compilation – and it’s obviously Karen, whose voice was capable of transforming over-arranged sludge into something stately and majestic. In the grand scheme of pop singers, there are few women who could match her for sheer vocal beauty – and her emotional projection wasn’t to be dismissed either, imbuing even the most saccharine romantic declarations with feeling. Most interesting here is the constant, uneasy pain lurking beneath the surface (making perfect sense in retrospect), which elevates compositionally mediocre ballads like “Goodbye to Love”, “Solitaire” and “I Need To Be In Love” far above the generic Broadway arias they could’ve been (though the first of those has an admittedly excellent – and uncharacteristic – fuzzy guitar solo adding some much-appreciated texture).
Still, the songs that shine the most brightly are those that give Karen a good hook to wrap her voice around – and they’re conveniently sequenced right at the start of the record. Opener “Yesterday Once More” is a charming ode to music’s power over memory with a gorgeous melody, and the harmonica-wailing, downbeat “Rainy Days and Mondays” features perfectly-placed tension build-ups and releases. “I Won’t Last a Day Without You” is another should-be classic, utilising strings subtly and featuring tight drum-work during its excellent chorus, while the knockout cover of Leon Russell’s “Superstar” elegantly switches between pensive verses and a desperate, near-pleading refrain.
In addition, there are also the three or four infamous singles everyone knows the Carpenters for. I don’t personally find their take on “(They Long to Be) Close to You” or the perennial wedding favourite “We’ve Only Just Begun” to be particular standouts, but they’re exquisitely sung – and if your stock and trade is love ballads, it’s far better to do a song by Burt Bacharach than Diane Warren, right? Elsewhere, the country appropriation (and Billboard chart-topper) “Top of the World” is catchy despite being arranged in the most perfunctory way possible, and a boppy cover of the Marvelettes’ hit “Please Mr. Postman” is unashamedly cheesy, but in the best sense of the word.
When taking this record as whole, that last statement really does summarise the music – it may be light years away from any conception of ‘cool’, but that’s no real reason to dismiss it. One of the Carpenters’ saving graces was that their output never professed to be anything more than it was, and no matter how dangerously close it came to sheer hackwork, Karen’s magnificent vocals (and scattered moments of great writing) served to evidence that ‘corny’ needn’t always preclude ‘classic’. Overall, this “Gold” collection is an enjoyable summary of the siblings’ career, and while it won’t be causing mass fan conversions any time soon, there are enough genuinely good moments for it to be a worthwhile acquisition, at least for anyone not turned off by their inarguable fondness for over-emphasised sentimentality. 3 stars.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
floatingcity
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Location: UK
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