⭐ Official Review [Album]: "PASSAGE" (SP-4703)

How Would You Rate This Album?

  • ***** (BEST)

    Votes: 10 9.3%
  • ****

    Votes: 55 50.9%
  • ***

    Votes: 35 32.4%
  • **

    Votes: 7 6.5%
  • *

    Votes: 1 0.9%

  • Total voters
    108
It has an "apparent" effect. In this case, you're probably listening specifically for the high frequencies, since that's what's largely denied you in the other recordings. With just a couple of DB boost in the COLLECTION disc, you "think" that the highs are better because they are simply louder. Adjust the two to the same level and you'll likely hear no difference.
Thanks for the explanation, starting to make some sense now. Wish they could have done the same for AKOH.
 
Despite not being 100% Richard still manages to produce a great album, he didn't need replacing, just needed a well earned rest.

Agreed, and you know it's funny how we as human beings get caught up in the comparison game. If we didn't have all of the previous Carpenters albums to compare to and this was the first thing we ever laid ears on, I think many of us would have been thinking "Where did THESE guys come from?!?". It still would have been a thrill to hear their sound, Karen's voice and all that incredible production value spinning around on that piece of vinyl! :phones:
 
^^I remember well my Carpenters' Album initiation:
Horizon was my first complete album listen,
Second Album listen was A Kind of Hush,
Third complete listen was Passage.
(All the previous Albums--chronologically released before Horizon --were listened to after Passage !).
Well.....
and my memory is infallible on this score, I felt Passage was brilliant !
Sure, I love Horizon--it's my #1--be that as it may,
Passage really got me excited for what would be next....!
 
Agreed, and you know it's funny how we as human beings get caught up in the comparison game. If we didn't have all of the previous Carpenters albums to compare to and this was the first thing we ever laid ears on, I think many of us would have been thinking "Where did THESE guys come from?!?". It still would have been a thrill to hear their sound, Karen's voice and all that incredible production value spinning around on that piece of vinyl! :phones:
That would be me, but in pieces as the first Carpenters album I ever heard was the Singles 1974-78 CD, and that disc starts with the "Passage" track 'Sweet, Sweet Smile', goes through a couple oldies in 'Jambalaya' and 'Cdn't Smile' before hitting another Passage track, "All You Get From Love Is A Love Song", and then of course the disc closes with the Passage album cut of "Calling Occupants". As I think about it, 1/4 of the Singles 74-78 album comes from "Passage". ("Horizon" just edges out "Passage" because of 'Happy', otherwise they are tied in terms of Singles.). "A Kind Of Hush" is represented by only 2 singles and 'Can't Smile', while we also have Singles from "A Song For You" and "Now & Then".

But it's to bad that the Carpenters didn't continue the style of "Passage", since their next non-seasonal release, "I Believe You" went right back to their old ways. I wonder what would've happened if they had recorded another song, or even released "Honolulu City Lights" in place of IBY, that was in the form of "Passage" or the upbeat dance songs of the era, that broke the group away from its earlier style, would MIA have been a lot more like "Passage", but with more of an 8's sound?
 
^^A dissenting vote here, as I really love Honolulu City Lights !
I heard it on the radio in--was it 1987 ?--and, immediately fell in love with Karen's interpretation.
Richard :" While on vacation in Honolulu in 1978...recorded the song and were eventually going to
release it..." (Anthology Liner Notes).
Beautifully produced song, imho !
 
Honestly, I find "Honolulu" pretty weak.
After "Passage", 'I Believe You' sounds like something off of "Horizon" or AKOH.Out of the last 4 non-seasonal albums released in Karen's lifetime, HOR, AKOH and MIA sound pretty much the same, although MIA did have "Back In My Life Again" which did sound like an 80's extension of "Passage". Otherwise the rest of the album is comparable to AKOH (with Beechwood being the remake song and 'Dancing' being MIA's 'I Need').
 
DualDisc was dead the minute it was first released. I had a computer drive that could not read the discs. No problem on the Oppo. But, it was a stupid idea, to make a disc that could likely not work in the average CD player. In some cases, the surround side wasn't even lossless--it was Dolby Digital. Ugh. Or their idea of "high-res" was 16-bit, 48kHz. Um, nope. Total disaster, that format. Good riddance.

I'm OK with DVD-Audio to a point...the high-res is good, but the idea of having to use a TV and a menu to play a music disc was, and still is, stupid. SACD doesn't have that problem. But it's all a moot point here since all digital plays from a server through a streamer.

Surround pretty much died commercially also. There are a few "fan" releases for some of the really popular albums (Pink Floyd, Rush, etc.) but for the most part, just about all of the music-buying public doesn't care, or even has equipment to play it back. New surround mixes are expensive to create, for something that will never pay for itself. I like the few I have but to be honest, adding two or three more channels of tube amplification for something as trite as surround sound is stupid when I'd use it maybe a couple of days a year (as I don't do home theater, and don't have a separate system set up that can do surround).

On DVD based High Res media, Classic Records had the right approach in HDAD. Open, not proprietary and not fiddly to use. That system for me is what DVD-Audio should have been in execution. Especially for two channel purists like me and likeminded.
 
I've had Barry Maniloiw's 50's album for the past decade and it's played fine on any CD or DVD player I've put it in.

And you didn't get a Beogram CDX spindle damaged from the weight and the motor damaged either. And the CD side is not a true Redbook compliant disc either, very poor execution. CD+DVD please instead. My then girlfriend had that happen, a very hard to get part for that player then.
 
Without seeing the tape legend itself, we really don't know what they assigned where, what was recorded to 2 tracks stereo on the instrumentation vs. mono on the master etc., so it's really a guess as to truly how many tracks were used for what. I know that by '74, a typical master tracking assignment for a Carpenters session would consist of running 2 tracks for acoustic piano, 4 for drums, 1 for bass, 3 for strings (subbed down - violins/violas/celli), 4 for backing vocals, and then a whole lot of track sharing from there forward with regard to guitars, percussion, woodwinds, lead vocal doubling, solos and so on. So you can see how different things can vary from session to session, depending on the arrangement.

As one who was a music director for a mega church for almost 10 years, I get what you're saying about the "live" environment. But even then, most house systems (at least as far as church auditoriums go) are set up mono to begin with. A lot of the larger churches are running stereo mixes now, but even then your stemming is going to look a bit different for that environment than it will in a commercial studio application, never mind 40 years ago, on 2-inch 24-track analog!

Very true perspective here. And different mindset. Live sound is it's own thing. The professional studio of 40 years ago, before it went digital and cheaper, is very different. 2 inch, 24 track tape in my world is a sign of serious workmanship.
 
Although I love the (memories) 45-Single,
Don't Cry For Me Argentina...
and, let's face it, Karen's vocals are out of this world here...
the album version, with the opera opening, does fill a need in introducing the song.

Surprisingly, I feel the same regarding the flip: Calling Occupants.
The Single--which omits Tony Peluso's opening--
is not as effective as the album version.

Thus, I defer to preferring the LP version of these two songs:
I like the single versions, but I love the album versions.

 
Julie Covington, "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" « American Songwriter

June 24,2017
American Songwriter,Julie Covington and Don't Cry For Me Argentina

Excerpts:
" The song and album were naturals for a stage presentation, which it eventually became a few years later.
Patti LuPone’s powerful take on the song on Broadway is probably the definitive one,
but that hasn’t stopped artists ranging from Karen Carpenter to Joan Baez at taking a shot. "
----
"No matter who’s on the microphone, the source material is such that “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”
is a hard song to mess up if you can hit the notes (no easy feat.)
Lloyd Webber’s orchestration provides the pomp suited to a stately speech, but his melody allows
us to hear the character’s vulnerability and her genuine gratitude to the people of Argentina."
-----
"Whatever you think of the politics or historical accuracy of Evita,
it’s hard to deny the potency of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.”
That’s especially true when you hear all those would-be showstoppers that turn out to be just
another song that goes like this and fall woefully short of this towering classic."
 
Haven't listened to this album all the way through for quite a while. I listened in the car yesterday and today to every song, all the way through, in order. I really enjoyed the album. When I first got this album, it was probably one of my least favorites...but I have grown to really enjoy it as time as gone by.

I have the vinyl, but several years ago, a friend gave me mp3 of all the albums....so I am not sure if it is the original CD or the remastered. The album is different, daring if you will. Sad that it didn't do better and start them on a new track.

Jonathan
 
This album is becoming increasingly more popular with me. As the years roll by the details of production continue to fascinate.
 
Despite not being 100% Richard still manages to produce a great album, he didn't need replacing, just needed a well earned rest.
Indeed. I was just reading the liner notes for the 1998 YOM CD set, and it mentioned that both Richard and Peter Knight were nominated for a Grammy in 1978 for "Calling Occupants".
 
Indeed. I was just reading the liner notes for the 1998 YOM CD set, and it mentioned that both Richard and Peter Knight were nominated for a Grammy in 1978 for "Calling Occupants".

Richard was nominated more times than carpenters. he was also nominated for SING.
 
^^A dissenting vote here, as I really love Honolulu City Lights !
I heard it on the radio in--was it 1987 ?--and, immediately fell in love with Karen's interpretation.
Richard :" While on vacation in Honolulu in 1978...recorded the song and were eventually going to
release it..." (Anthology Liner Notes).
Beautifully produced song, imho !
I agree! I really like 'Honolulu City Lights'. It's one of my favourites.
 
I mentioned earlier that I had been listening to this album again. I think that their fans had possibly grown tired of them after Kind of Hush...or had moved on to other artists.....and even though the album was very experimental, new fans weren't interested because of their reputation.
 
Haha, I thought you might "like" that comment Gary. I'm appreciating the diversity more than ever before. Plus in the past it was an oft listened to recording then of the last few years not so much. Me thinx Im delighted by a new and refreshed take.
 
^^Thanks, Jeff !
And, I am re-listening to the Album today !
And, it does take me back to 1977 when I first listened to the entire LP.
It struck me as brilliant at the time...still does.
Also, my appreciation for
I Just Fall In Love Again
only increases with time.
Karen's lead vocals, especially.
But, it is a lovely "epic" ballad--
as much of an epic song as is Occupants, or Evita !
 
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