⭐ Official Review [Album]: "HORIZON" (SP-4530)

[newvillefan]

I found this interesting article online from Radio & Records....this really takes you back to 70's when people use to call into radio stations requesting certain songs...(anyone remember that?) I actually have myself on tape when I called into a radio station asking them to play an Olivia song that had just been released and the DJ talked to me and I recorded it on a cassette tape, I sound like a dork but my love for Olivia's music shines then as it does now. Anyway....

This article is interesting because the Horizon LP had been released for about a week and DJ's were getting feedback about what would be the first single released. There was another article that ran soon after this one and it said A&M still has not released what will be the first single, so apparently they were either undecided or it took awhile for the single to appear. I guess this DJ didn't realize that Please Mr. Postman was released in late 74. It must have been with Horizon being issued late as an LP.

It's funny because they mention Happy as a potential single getting feedback and we were just saying here on the forum how Happy would have been a great choice for a single.

Issue June 20, 1975

What's strange about this article is that they didn't even mention 'Only Yesterday' as a potential single when it was probably the strongest song on the whole album.

 

[Harry]

(Notice the RIAA Database has a release date of April 9,1975...well, I trust The Carpenters Decade Book stats-- June 6.)

Richard Carpenter:
"As a result, recording on a new album did not commence until late 1974.
The resulting “Horizon” released June 6, 1975, differed from the preceding albums, mostly by value of its production.
By this time, A&M Studios had 24 track recording.
(By contrast, the “Offering” album is on 8 tracks and the following four on 16; the many overdubbed vocals ate up a lot of tracks.)"

Many differences punctuate this album as compared to previous efforts:
On Vinyl, total running time is 32 minutes 12 seconds.
(1) Is there another album preceding which has as many minutes every lead sung by Karen (with no leads by Richard) ?
(2) Also, this, the first album to feature Jim Gordon on drums and the first album featuring a song with a different arranger,
(3) Billy May on ' I Can Dream Cant't I'.
(4) And, the first with a song written by Tony Peluso.
(5) With the song , Love Me For What I Am ,written by Palma Pascale, lyricist John Bettis.
(I do not know how much of the lyric as written by John Bettis, is his, though.)
(6) The artwork-- cover and sleeve-- first class all the way. Great Photographs inside and outside.
Also, hardboard inner sleeve with Lyric.
(7) The album took more time to complete than the previous efforts.
(8) And, for an inexplicable reason failed to go USA Platinum at that time.
(9) I believe it was the First UK chart topping album--excluding The Single 1969-1973.
(10) Containing their last #1 Single...Please Mister Postman.
( At that, this Album version differed from the single version.)

It was also contained the first song to feature someone other than Karen and Rich on backing vocals. I initially felt a bit betrayed when I heard the other singers on "I Can Dream Can't I", but later in life realized that the whole recording was a tribute to the way big bands might have done the song back in the 30s and 40s.

Harry

 

[GaryAlan]

Keeping with my celebration of all things Horizon,today-- on this release date of June 6, 1975--
here is Solitaire in its Quadraphonic Mix...947 views, so, perhaps not widely heard:

 

[GaryAlan]

Keeping with the June 6th, Horizon theme, Palma Pascale:

 

[Mark-T]

Cute- but you have to appreciate Richard's genius in turning this into a ballad, and its a great ballad at that.

 

[GaryAlan]

Has Richard Carpenter ever commented about the studio work of drummer Jim Gordon,
from Horizon sessions?

An article about Drummer Jim Gordon:
"Although Jim Gordon does not have the name-recognition of the top rock stars from the early '60s
through the dawn of the '80s, he was there, and not just in the wings.
Through hundreds of recording sessions that spawned dozens of Top 10 hits,
his work as one of the most in-demand session drummers of the era spills through a stunning array of albums.
John Lennon, George Harrison, the Everly Brothers, Frank Zappa, Leon Russell, Traffic, Gordon Lightfoot,
Seals & Crofts, Jackson Browne, Bread - Gordon laid down the beat for all of them, playing in myriad styles.
The top studio drummer in Los Angeles in the late '60s, Hal Blaine,
began recommending Gordon when he had more offers than he could accommodate.
Soon, Gordon was commanding double the usual studio scale. He prospered.
"I never had millions," says Gordon, "but there were times when I had several hundred thousand in the bank."
Beginning in 1977, Gordon seemed caught in a revolving door of more than a dozen hospital stays.
Gordon still sometimes hears the beat of the drum set that remains packed away in a San Fernando Valley storage bin."

Source:
http://articles.philly.com/1994-08-21/entertainment/25842000_1_top-rock-stars-jim-gordon-grammy

 

[Cordell]

Hi Everyone,

I am quite a newbie here, but I am very happy that I have found this wonderful site, where a lot of interesting information can be found connecting to Carpenters.

For me, this is my favourite Carpenters album. As I listened the duo's records till Horizon, I can say that this was a huge milestone for the band, both musically

and lyrically. The way they recorded these songs with a brand new tape recorder in the studio, this gives fantastic oppurtunities to let the imagination flow. The

vocals are much clearer as well as the musical arrangements. Lyrically, it is more serious and more personal for me than the previous releases.


The numbers.


Aurora/ Eventide: I love impressionism, so when I heard these two frame-songs for the first time, I blow my mind! The images of these two snippets crawl into

your mind and make you daydream!


Only Yesterday: One of my big favourites on the record! Cheerful, happy, uptempo..was a great choice to be a single release.


Desperado: the fantastic ballad is also a big favourite of mine. Fragile, beautiful..with the special care of recording it is a highlight of the duo's career. The

harmonica intro was also a very good idea to resemble the original.


Please, Mr. Postman: the sixties through the eyes of the seventies. Very happy, funny....it deserved to be a huge hit! This is the best version of the song in my

opinion.


I Can Dream, Can't I? : Normally I am not fond of this kind of music, but this is very nice, dreamy and romantic.


Solitaire: The highlight on the records and of course, a highlight of the bands' career, too. Very sad, ironic but very powerful. For me (alongside with 'You' ) this

is the best ballad what was recorded by Carpenters. The single version of the extra organ and guitar is muh more beautiful!


Happy: very interesting song with unique rhythm changing. The acoustic guitar intro is also great! It should have been a great 4th single release.


(I’m Caught Between) Goodbye And I Love You: very moody piece. Although the bossa nova style is not my cup of tea, the song itself is the organic part of the

record.


Love Me For What I Am: another great ballad, but it is a little bit sadder than the other ones. This record is full of ballads..but it is not boring because these slow

tracks are also high standards.


My favourite songs are: Solitaire, Postman, Only Yesterday, Desperado

 

[Mark-T]

Welome, Cordell!

 

[newvillefan]

Please, Mr. Postman: the sixties through the eyes of the seventies.

That's a great way to put it! Welcome to the forum

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Great review.
When you said this
"This record is full of ballads..but it is not boring because these slow tracks are also high standards."

I think this might be why this album is such a fan favorite. The album is full of ballads but for some reason doesn't take away from the album as a whole but really enhances it. When ballads are this exquisite they shine and make a lasting impression to the listener. The cover photo is prefect in my opinion, Karen with her head turned gives off the impression she's in some kind of deep thought or mood, what is she thinking? Karen's delivery on this album is unlike any other Carpenters album.

 

[Mark-T]

Karen's delivery on this album is unlike any other Carpenters album.

I agree- and so is Richard's production and arranging. The album may have less youthful energy and experimentation, but it shows the duo at the top of their craft! Although Karen's voice is prominent and intimately strong, it also becomes the hook which highlights the craftsmanship of Richard's work.

 

[newvillefan]

The cover photo is prefect in my opinion

It's probably one of my all time favourite photos of them. They don't look corny, cheesy or anything like the covers from Offering and Close To You. They look more grown up, cooler and more hip somehow. It's almost like seeing them how they'd be portrayed nowadays if they were an active group in their 20s on the charts today. A&M really scored a blinder with this artwork (for once!).

 

[MorningOpensQuietly]

You all have summed it up perfectly! This album to me was the pinnacle - it had it all (but maybe just needed one more song). It was hard for any album to follow "Horizon", and a "A Kind of Hush" was a letdown to me when it came out. It just didn't compare in capturing all the lushness, moodiness, and talent that its predecessor exhibited.

 

[Cordell]

Totally agree! The artwork is perfect and artistic. They look humans not posing models or gods.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Right Mark, re: Richard's arrangement and production.
It's a shame they didn't have more material for the album 10 songs is too short.

The song Happy is one track that I would have liked to have known what Karen thought of.

 

[70sFan]

One of Karen and Richard's finest!

I remember buying it the summer of '75 and then having to buy the 8-track so it would continuously loop! I was thrilled with her treatment of Sedaka's new classic, "Solitaire"

The album also sounded great on any sized equipment, even in the car!

 

[GaryAlan]

November 13, 1976, Billboard Magazine International News, page 63,
United Kingdom:
" Previous advance sales claimed by record companies include Carpenters'
Horizon, 225,000 copies, on A&M, June 1975."

Source:
https://books.google.com/books?id=BiUEAAAAMBAJ

 

[GaryAlan]

Richard Carpenter makes reference (Melody Maker 1975,or,Schmidt page 169)
to a song he wrote with John Bettis,
"Can't Say Goodbye".
Richard Carpenter:
"The next one was 'Only Yesterday',and, ah... there was one other one--we wrote, Can't Say Goodbye--
And, then two things on the Horizon Album."
Any information available regarding this song?
Does he really mean (Caught Between Goodbye and I Love You ?

 

[Cordell]

For me, this record resembeles 'The Album' by ABBA. I think both bands wanted to show how they were able to work with more personal themes and better arrangements using superior recording equipments, Although the two groups are very different from each other, they were able to take a huge step ahead and made the two records, which became their careers' huge landmarks.

 

[GaryAlan]

Considering the competition....Carpenters stand out among the crowd in more ways than one...
Rolling Stone List of Highest Rated Albums of 1975:
#1 Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
#2 Bruce Springsteen, Born To Run
#3 Neil Young, Tonight's The Night
#4 Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
#5 Aerosmith, Toys in the Attic
#6 Jeff Beck, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin,Queen, Eagles, Bob Seger, John Lennon,(13) Rod Stewart....,
#14 Carpenters, Horizon

Source:
http://www.albumoftheyear.org/ratings/35-rolling-stone-highest-rated/1975/1

 

[Must Hear This Album]

I was listening to the Offering/Ticket To Ride album this afternoon, and it got me to thinking about how much Richard and Karen were on the vanguard of popular music with that album and subsequent albums, up to Now & Then and Singles 1969-1973. In that time frame, the duo seemed to wholly disregard notions of “hip” and “popular” and combined innovative choral arrangements and harmonies with a progressive pop sound to craft a completely fresh sound at the dawn of a new decade - to hell with whatever anybody else was doing - the “acid rock” sounds that dominated the radio at the time. Carpenters music was a breath of fresh air. It was revelatory. I would argue that the duo CREATED the sound of the early 1970’s, and everything from movie soundtracks to Top 40 followed the duo’s lead.

I recalled an interview, or maybe it was one of the biogarphies, where Richard was talking about writing songs for Horizon, talking about “Only Yesterday” in particular, and he mentioned that the song was the first time he and John Bettis were intentionally seeking to replicate the other songs on the radio - seeking a hit record, and I wondered if that was when the duo “jumped the shark,” as they say, in terms of record-making philosophy. Instead of charting their own path, the duo listened too closely to Herb Alpert’s warnings that you’re only as good as your last record (I don’t remember his exact warning, but it was the well-meaning, but ultimately toxic advice about how they might be successful in that particular moment, but long-term success wasn’t guaranteed, so they shouldn’t take it for granted, and they should keep working, working, working, working, working, cash, cash, cash, or some such nonsense, which totally stressed them out, etc.).

Anyhoo, I think Horizon, as wonderful as it is, was the first album that truly felt like WORK to the duo. They said as much in the A&M press junket for that album (I got it courtesy of the fan club in the early 1980’s). With Horizon, they stopped their innovative, personal, and thoughtful approach to music-making, and started recording songs that, in Richard’s own words, could "each be singles on their own.” Horizon, and the albums that followed found the duo chasing after musical trends and pretending to be Captain & Tennille and completely forgetting their art. Horizon is the album when their sonic vision shifted. Rolling Stone called it “sophisticated.”

A Kind Of Hush, continued the formula and failed to live up to expectations, Passage was the pull-out-all-the-stops, pander to the audience, desperate for a hit record album that also failed, and then the duo got tired, drug-addicted, and ill. After a few years out of the spotlight, Made In America delivered the early-80’s radio-friendly songs you might expect from Christopher Cross or Air Supply, and that was it. I’m assuming, of course, that Horizon and the albums that followed didn’t represent their true, artistic vision, but instead, a mere echo of what there music might have been. But if my assumption is correct, I wonder how differently things might have turned out, musically, had Richard and Karen stayed focused on their art and not tried to deliver hits to A&M.

 

[GaryAlan]

Beautiful analysis, MustHearThisAlbum !
I can only add one item to your thoughtful exegesis:
First, prefacing my remarks,
Richard Carpenter (March 1975 A&M Compendium)..." Song For You album did
two million and Close To You more like four. If Top of The World had come out instead of
It's Going To Take Some Time, the Song For You album would have done another million units.
It was a stronger single than Goodbye To Love. Close To You had two monster hits, and the tan album
was one of two that had three Gold Singles off one album..."

This, in my mind, is the crux of the problem !
A sole concentration upon (predicting) hit Singles !
I love Top of The World, and, it did sell more units than Goodbye To Love,
but.....the later song is much stronger--musically--than the former. (Although, obviously not in sales.)
---And, even for 1975, Richard is working in hindsight, as they did not consider
Top of The World to be so strong for a single back in 1972....
Once Richard Carpenter lost his inspiration in choosing the right--hit-making--Single,
the Albums themselves became less coherent (IMHO).
Money trumped all else.

 

[Must Hear This Album]

Beautiful analysis, MustHearThisAlbum !
I can only add one item to your thoughtful exegesis:
First, prefacing my remarks,
Richard Carpenter (March 1975 A&M Compendium)..." Song For You album did
two million and Close To You more like four. If Top of The World had come out instead of
It's Going To Take Some Time, the Song For You album would have done another million units.
It was a stronger single than Goodbye To Love. Close To You had two monster hits, and the tan album
was one of two that had three Gold Singles off one album..."

This, in my mind, is the crux of the problem !
A sole concentration upon (predicting) hit Singles !
I love Top of The World, and, it did sell more units than Goodbye To Love,
but.....the later song is much stronger--musically--than the former. (Although, obviously not in sales.)
---And, even for 1975, Richard is working in hindsight, as they did not consider
Top of The World to be so strong for a single back in 1972....
Once Richard Carpenter lost his inspiration in choosing the right--hit-making--Single,
the Albums themselves became less coherent (IMHO).
Money trumped all else.

Thanks for this, GaryAlan. Interesting additional context. If memory serves me, in one interview Richard blames his failing ear (or maybe it was a dearth of good songs...) for the lackluster later-half of the decade, but even on those disappointing albums (I acknowledge that not all fans agree that the “later albums” were “less-than”) there were always at least one or two gems. I guess I’ve always wondered if the “sound” of the duo’s later albums really reflected the music R&K would have made, all things being equal/had they not gotten nervous about their falling charts/sales performance.

 

[GaryAlan]

MustHearThisAlbum, thanks for taking the time to respond to my analysis !
You properly recall, too, where Richard mentions how "manufactured" (see refage 181, Coleman)
"Only Yesterday" was...
Here's Richard Carpenter : "I want this song song to appeal to the average american dollar holder." (ibid.)
A few years later, interviewed by Wink Martindale, Richard mentions the song as being disappointing because
"...it only sold 600,000 copies...".
Thus, again, he is basing his appreciation of his own song on the merits of (only) sales !
Forget the fact that it is a terrific song, with a great arrangement and Karen singing "in her basement" vocals.
(And, again, as they never fail to say: "The money's in the basement.").
The later albums (Hush, Portrait, America) possess gems, to be sure --but, as we now realize, some of the best gems
were ignored for release during Karen's lifetime.

 

[Must Hear This Album]

MustHearThisAlbum, thanks for taking the time to respond to my analysis !
You properly recall, too, where Richard mentions how "manufactured" (see refage 181, Coleman)
"Only Yesterday" was...
Here's Richard Carpenter : "I want this song song to appeal to the average american dollar holder." (ibid.)
A few years later, interviewed by Wink Martindale, Richard mentions the song as being disappointing because
"...it only sold 600,000 copies...".
Thus, again, he is basing his appreciation of his own song on the merits of (only) sales !
Forget the fact that it is a terrific song, with a great arrangement and Karen singing "in her basement" vocals.
(And, again, as they never fail to say: "The money's in the basement.").
The later albums (Hush, Portrait, America) possess gems, to be sure --but, as we now realize, some of the best gems
were ignored for release during Karen's lifetime.

To that last point, I remember hearing "You're The One" on the TV movie and thinking, "holy god." And then I wondered how many more other great songs were tucked away. Grateful to RC for bringing them out over the next few decades.