THE OFFICIAL REVIEW: "A KIND OF HUSH" (SP-4581)

[newvillefan]

In its defense, I think with the 24-track recording still having been a fairly new technology at the time, different methods were being employed and experimented with in the 70's. Much like with the "Hush" album, this became even more noticeable on the following release of the "Passage" album, where the 24-track recording was in place, however a lot of instrumental and vocal sub-grouping gave the album more of a "monaural" sound on the playback, as opposed to the separation heard in earlier recordings.

I've always thought Passage sounds like it needs a proper remaster. It received one as part of the remasters collection but the difference to me (same with Made In America remaster) is inaudible. The EQ on Passage needs lifting, rebalancing to make it less 'monaural' and, dare I say, louder. One of the tracks this is most obviously needed on is 'B'Wana She No Home'. For such a jaunty, rangey, jazzy number, it sounds so flat and lifeless. Karen's amazing vocal acrobatics during the lengthy instrumental sections could be brought right to the fore and it would make this song a whole different listening experience.

 

[Chris May]

I've always thought Passage sounds like it needs a proper remaster. It received one as part of the remasters collection but the difference to me (same with Made In America remaster) is inaudible. The EQ on Passage needs lifting, rebalancing to make it less 'monaural' and, dare I say, louder. One of the tracks this is most obviously needed on is 'B'Wana She No Home'. For such a jaunty, rangey, jazzy number, it sounds so flat and lifeless. Karen's amazing vocal acrobatics during the lengthy instrumental sections could be brought right to the fore and it would make this song a whole different listening experience.

Actually what it needs is a complete remix. This is precisely what I was referring to, and you hit it on the head. Basically by 'monaural', I mean that much of the instrumentation and vocal sub-grouping is placed more 'centered' in the mix. This causes a lack of separation (something that a wider, more sterephonic mix-down begins to eliminate) and clutters up the frequency spectrum a little - especially considering the lack of mixing technology back in those days as compared with now.

Many producers were beginning to mix albums this way during that time period, which is why I made the remark about the experimentation and techniques that were being used at the time. Unfortunately much of the sound heard on that album is actually locked into the original 2-channel mixes, something that remastering won't correct.

 

[newvillefan]

Unfortunately much of the sound heard on that album is actually locked into the original 2-channel mixes, something that remastering won't correct.

I remember the sleeve notes telling the listener that much of the Passage album was also recorded 'live'. I specifically remember thinking 'B'Wana' and 'I Just Fall In Love Again' must have fallen into that category, because both sound dull and lifeless when you compare them to songs like 'All You Get From Love Is A Love Song', which clearly was recorded the conventional way: drums, bass, piano and build with overdubs track by track from there.

 

[Toolman]

True. I always thought that Richard reached a point where he was rather emaciated looking, too. Would that have been as a result of the Quaalude addiction?

Wow, weird to hear the reference to Neil Sedaka, but obviously the interviewer was unaware of the blowup that had happened, and the fact that Richard fired him (or he chose to ignore it).

Interesting reference to the Captain and Tennille in regards to image problems, too (I think Richard is wrong here, though...Captain and Tennille had plenty of image problems, from the silly hat to the "gosh aren't we a happy couple and don't you love our bulldogs" schtick, and it caught up to them real quick).

Momentum's a wonderful thing. Would "Goofus" have gone Top Ten, like "Muskrat Love" did, if it had come earlier in the Carpenters' career? Or, to rework an earlier "desert island" question, if you were stuck on a desert island with a jukebox that plays only "Goofus" and "Muskrat Love" over and over, which one first drives you to crack your skull open with a coconut?...

 

[Toolman]

I remember the sleeve notes telling the listener that much of the Passage album was also recorded 'live'. I specifically remember thinking 'B'Wana' and 'I Just Fall In Love Again' must have fallen into that category, because both sound dull and lifeless when you compare them to songs like 'All You Get From Love Is A Love Song', which clearly was recorded the conventional way: drums, bass, piano and build with overdubs track by track from there.

I think "Argentina", "B'wana" and "Man Smart" were the ones where most of the recording was done live. You folks have good ears. I hadn't thought about this aspect of the production values influencing the experience of listening to "A Kind of Hush", but I bet you're onto something. When Karen hits "hangin' on a hope, but I'm all right", I feel like the sound of "I Need to Be in Love" should do something epic that it doesn't do...but I don't know how to articulate it.

 

[newvillefan]

When Karen hits "hangin' on a hope, but I'm all right", I feel like the sound of "I Need to Be in Love" should do something epic that it doesn't do...but I don't know how to articulate it.

For me, it's the swell into something really special and majestic that's missing. Something I heard years later on the 1975 outtake 'Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again', when I heard Karen sing the line into the guitar solo, from 2m59s...'but it ain't no use to me, to try to get the feeling, I wanna get that feeling again..." .

I Need To Be In Love just doesn't have such a chill factor build-up moment, it plods from verse to chorus and that's it, there's no bridge or instrumental break. And I think that's why it didn't set the chart alight. There's nothing memorable about it, apart from of course Karen's gorgeous reading. It badly needed a bridge or middle eight of some sort!

 

[Dave]

I really think the hey-day of the Carpenters period--that era from 1969-1973 was what was hard to top! Horizon represented some sort of renewal, but didn't quite come out soon enough to be captured in that early period...

A Kind Of Hush had promising potential, but ultimately came off as some sort of a grab-bag, trying to mesh new material, invent new arrangements, and retain what good of the old formula could still work magic into A&M's grooves!

Richard & Karen tried to make ...Hush a hit, especially with Horizon having so much going for it, that they were too optimistic & sold on that last gasp, that where they though this record would be another "front-runner", they wound up with an "also-ran"...

Fortunately the optimism & ambition coming on would make Passage more of a rebound & where The Carpenters could bounce back what seemed to be needlessly trenching in AOR, MOR, and AM/FM pablum formula, at this luckily only temporary state...


-- Dave

 

[Chris Mills]

I was really disapointed with the sound quality of the CD version of this album. I originally bought the cassette (remember those?) back in '76,( I was always scratching vinyls, no matter how careful I was.) I'm pretty sure the sound quality was better on the cassette than the CD! The CD sounded as if all the high frequencies had been muffled, except for the tracks "There's a Kind Of Hush" and "I Need To Be In Love", both of which had been remixed and sounded bright and clear. It really spoils the whole listening experience, does any know if this problem was sorted when the album was digitally rematered? (My CD was manufactured in the US cat. no. CD3197/DX834)

 

[newvillefan]

A Kind Of Hush had promising potential, but ultimately came off as some sort of a grab-bag, trying to mesh new material, invent new arrangements, and retain what good of the old formula could still work magic into A&M's grooves!

Richard & Karen tried to make ...Hush a hit, especially with Horizon having so much going for it, that they were too optimistic & sold on that last gasp, that where they though this record would be another "front-runner", they wound up with an "also-ran"...

I still have the newspaper article that reviewed the Hush album with the headline "Cool Carpenters Only Coasting"...summed it up for me.

We've been here before, wayyyy back...

http://www.amcorner.com/forum/threa...nters-song-album-‘a-kind-of-hush’.4011/page-1

 

[newvillefan]

Both There's a Kind of Hush and I Need to Be in Love sound better in their live versions without being hobbled by the sophorific double-tracking vocals on the former and the syrupy choir backing and excess of oboe on the latter.

The insipid, bland double-tracking of Karen's vocals is one of the main reasons I don't like this album. Hush, I Have You and Breaking Up Is Hard To Do all suffer from this. It didn't add to their sound, it made them sound tired.

Weird how Richard double tracked Karen in 1974 for the Postman single, but the same effect two years later in the Hush production environment was totally different. They sound wiped out.

 

[Harry]

I wonder if any of our golden-eared perfect-pitch folks can tell which version of "You" is at the "correct" speed. The original LP and the Remastered Classic CD have it at a slower pitch (as does Japan's BY REQUEST) than on the older A&M CD. The faster track also appears on that MAGICAL MEMORIES and the SWEET MEMORY set from Japan.

Original album mix:
- A KIND OF HUSH LP and Remastered Classic CD
- BY REQUEST

Original album mix, slightly sped-up:
- A KIND OF HUSH original A&M CD
- MAGICAL MEMORIES OF THE CARPENTERS
- SWEET MEMORY all at once

Harry

 

[Jamesj75]

I think the enthusiasm for You as a track and possible single is due to the fact that it feels like a classic, timeless tune, and in comparison to the other singles, it feels like an improvement. And I totally think it would have charted higher than Goofus.

I totally agree with you. There are quite a few album cuts by the Carpenters that I believe would have done quite well as singles, had they been released. "Let Me Be the One" and "Happy" immediately come to mind. And I would put "You" in that category as well.

 

[Rudy]

I wonder if any of our golden-eared perfect-pitch folks can tell which version of "You" is at the "correct" speed.

I'll give it a whirl when I am back at a computer later on tonight.

 

[A&M Retro]

Excellent points! The sound quality of "A Kind Of Hush" has always sounded lousy to me, but I agree that the cassette version is nice and clean! Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The entire vinyl album just sounds compressed to my ears, anyway.

As for "Passage", I agree the 'live' songs ('B'wana', 'I Just Fall In Love Again, 'Man Smart, Woman Smarter' and 'Occupants'), don't have the same 'punch' as the other tracks. I was listening to 'B'Wana' the other day, and was shocked at how quiet it sounds compared to so many of their other tracks. It's really lacking in dynamics. The performance is top-notch, but it almost sounds like a mono recording from Capitol Records in the '40's.

 

[Chris May]

I wonder if any of our golden-eared perfect-pitch folks can tell which version of "You" is at the "correct" speed. The original LP and the Remastered Classic CD have it at a slower pitch (as does Japan's BY REQUEST) than on the older A&M CD. The faster track also appears on that MAGICAL MEMORIES and the SWEET MEMORY set from Japan.

It would have to be the LP/Remastered Classics...The song was recorded in "D", and both of these are the correct key...

 

[Harry]

It would have to be the LP/Remastered Classics...The song was recorded in "D", and both of these are the correct key...

Any idea why it was sped up?

 

[Chris May]

Well usually one of two reasons. If a song is a good choice in terms of theme, and/or melody and lyric, BUT it's too slow either when being considered for a single release, or too draggy in contrast with the other songs selected alongside it for an album, sometimes they would speed them up back in the day to give it a bit of 'manufactured' energy if you will.

Another reason for doing this would be to alter the key to either match the song prior to or following it in the tune stack. Normally you wouldn't take it any higher/faster than a semitone, which would have taken the song to the key of E-Flat most likely.

Which songs bookend this one on the releases you referred to?!

 

[Harry]

Well, the confusing one would be the original HUSH A&M CD. It's in its normal placing - just in a slightly higher key.

On SWEET MEMORY (all at once) "You" falls between "Sweet Sweet Smile" and "There's A Kind Of Hush".
On Disc 4 of MAGICAL MEMORIES it falls between "Bless The Beasts And Children" and "Two Sides".

Harry

 

[Chris May]

Well, the confusing one would be the original HUSH A&M CD. It's in its normal placing - just in a slightly higher key.

On SWEET MEMORY (all at once) "You" falls between "Sweet Sweet Smile" and "There's A Kind Of Hush".
On Disc 4 of MAGICAL MEMORIES it falls between "Bless The Beasts And Children" and "Two Sides".

Interesting...

"Sweet Sweet" and "Hush" are both in "D" as well, which would make sense to put "You" in between, provided it is played at the proper speed. Same is true for the key on "Two Sides". My only other guess is, that somewhere along the way a mistake was made in mastering and a VSOd copy that was floating around got used by mistake. There really seems to be no logical reason as far as I can tell...

 

[Chris May]

Well, the confusing one would be the original HUSH A&M CD. It's in its normal placing - just in a slightly higher key.

What year was the "Hush" CD officially issued?! This is probably a long-shot, but the only *other* thing that comes to mind, is when the songs were selected for the the "SWEET MEMORY" set, because all three songs land in the same key, "You" could have been VSOd to alter the key slighly in order to break up the monotony. Any subsequent inclusion of that VSOd master could have been a cataloguing issue and/or error??

 

[Mark-T]

1976- remember it like yesterday!

 

[Chris May]

1976- remember it like yesterday!

LOL! I'm sorry...I meant the original A&M CD version of the release...not the vinyl

 

[Harry]

LOL! I'm sorry...I meant the original A&M CD version of the release...not the vinyl

HUSH A&M CD was issued in 1986. That was a full decade before SWEET MEMORY.

 

[Graeme]

It's an odd album. If I'm in the right mood (incredibly chilled) it can be okay. Other times I find it frustrating as there are a number of songs on there I always think could have been great and just fall short somehow, You and I Need to Be in Love being the prime examples. Both lack some sort of spark (you could argue the whole album does). The former just never quite gets going until near the end and the latter has fantastic lyrics but again just doesn't quite do it for me (I think it's the chorus and the choir).

Sandy, a song I was never that keen on apart from the flute section at the end, I've grown to appreciate more though was always baffled as to why Richard included it on his second solo album. I agree with John Tobler's assessment of I Have You in his "Complete Guide to the Carpenters" - it does have a strange fascination that's difficult to put a finger on. I used to be a big fan of A Kind of Hush but I'm not so keen on it these days. Oddly enough I can tolerate more if I'm watching the video, though I'm not sure why that should it make it better. Can't Smile Without You always comes as shock having been more familiar with the much better version on The Singles 1975-1978. The album version sums up the halfhearted feeling of most of the album.

Always rather liked Goofus (though I agree with many that it should never have been a single) and having never heard the original Breaking Up Is Hard To Do I'm a fan of the Carpenter's version, especially the larking around at the end. And Boat to Sail is rather pleasant and Karen's last sigh towards the end of the song is far sexier then anything she did on her solo album. The standout track for me is One More Time. Wonderful, though I doubt it would have done well as a single.

But on it's not an album I listen to often as a whole. Karen's voice seemed to have lost a certain something, especially when compared to how she sounded on Horizon. It's more noticeable on the live recordings at this time - Live at the Palladium and the Hits Medley '76 on As Time Goes By. Her voice seemed to have lost some of the smoothness and was more fractured somehow.

 

[newvillefan]

I was listening to 'B'Wana' the other day, and was shocked at how quiet it sounds compared to so many of their other tracks. It's really lacking in dynamics. The performance is top-notch, but it almost sounds like a mono recording from Capitol Records in the '40's.

You nailed it!