⭐ Official Review Carpenters Royal Philharmonic Review and Comments Thread

[ullalume]

Being the torchbearer is hard work. I'm beginning to see that more clearly now.

Re-reading my above post I hope it doesn't come across as morbid. I'm sure Richard's got years if not decades in front of him as well as several creative endeavours, (not least that Xmas Album that actually seems to be moving forward after 20 years), it's just I feel the curtains are closing on the Carpenters part of his life. . .if you know what I mean.

 

[ullalume]

A few have mentioned the segue into "For All We Know" in particular. That is the one that brings tears to my eyes. Not only the notes from "I Need To Be In Love" at the beginning, but the intro notes to "For All We Know" beginning so beautifully before the percussion kicks in. It's so sweet and nostalgic.

Yeah, that got to me. . .that Spanish Guitar always does . . .and knowing it was Karen's favourite etc.

 

[newvillefan]

What does it for me is the lovely and unexpected orchestral swell at 1:21 after the line “but time alone will tell”, which is repeated earlier in the second verse at 2:10 after the line “strangers in many ways”. Magical, absolutely magical. I don’t think I’ll ever listen to the original again without hearing that string pattern in my head.

 

[Graeme]

What does it for me is the lovely and unexpected orchestral swell at 1:21 after the line “but time alone will tell”, which is repeated earlier in the second verse at 2:10 after the line “strangers in many ways”. Magical, absolutely magical. I don’t think I’ll ever listen to the original again without hearing that string pattern in my head.

Completely agree.

 

[Joeyesterday]

To Richard:
I just finished listening to the CD on my studio monitors. Next up, headphones. Beautifully done Richard!

This provided me with a brand new Carpenters listening experience. Thank you! Every song transported me back in time when I first heard them either on the radio or my LP's. I'm thankful to have these new arrangements along with the originals. Thank you and Karen for the years of joy you have given me. I hope there will be an RPO volume 2 on the "horizon".

Joe

 

[Graeme]

So I made a playlist of the new album in my Amazon Prime music library, and just for fun, I removed “Merry Christmas Darling,” for non-holiday playing, to see how it flows:

1. “I Just Fall In Love Again” flows nicely into “Baby It’s You,” in terms of song-to-song flow, but...
2. ...on the Amazon streaming version, the last vocal note of “Merry Christmas Darling,” the “...ing” phrase, kicks-off the strings for “Baby It’s You.” I’m wondering if the iTunes or CD flow is better (after removing “MCD”) and would be grateful to hear from folks on this.

And my apologies to those who find it sacrilege to remove the Christmas track, but I’m preparing for listening in July, 2019...

It doesn't flow well listening on my mp3 player, having ripped the tracks from the CD. It flows together fine on the CD though (but BIY does begin with that end bit of MCD).

 

[newvillefan]

I wish one of the singles had included a cold intro version of Baby It’s You. The segue from Merry Christmas Darling can’t be separated for personal compilations, which kind of ruins it a bit for me. The vocal on this track is clean, clear and crisp. Imagine if Richard performed this technological clean up of vocals from every track in the catalogue...

 

[Song4uman]

What does it for me is the lovely and unexpected orchestral swell at 1:21 after the line “but time alone will tell”, which is repeated earlier in the second verse at 2:10 after the line “strangers in many ways”. Magical, absolutely magical. I don’t think I’ll ever listen to the original again without hearing that string pattern in my head.

I was just thinking how strange it will be now to listen to the originals or remixes now that we have heard these.

 

[Harry]

It takes a bit of editing to make the beginning of "Baby It's You" acceptable as a cold start. It involves first chopping off or silencing something like the first eight-tenths of a second. Then using your sound editor (assuming you have one), begin a fade-in for about a second starting at the point at which the silence ends. Then you need to trim the beginning so it begins after four-tenths of a second of silence.

 

[Donn]

The added Spanish guitar on Superstar is intrusive and takes away from the lead vocal (just my opinion). For All We Know sounds slightly sped-up. I hope Richard did not take that liberty with Karen's voice.

 

[Harry]

Something I've meant to note here: My own personal opinion about the bonus track is that while it's a nice update to "Please Mr. Postman", it kind of sticks out a bit as a last track. The real album ending track is "We've Only Just Begun", and it truly is a great ending to the album. The bonus track then kind-of takes away from the album being over with this extra song. If I were to reprogram the album, I'd insert "Postman" somewhere inside the track list and let "...Begin" be the true last track.

 

[Chris]

Something I've meant to note here: My own personal opinion about the bonus track is that while it's a nice update to "Please Mr. Postman", it kind of sticks out a bit as a last track. The real album ending track is "We've Only Just Begun", and it truly is a great ending to the album. The bonus track then kind-of takes away from the album being over with this extra song. If I were to reprogram the album, I'd insert "Postman" somewhere inside the track list and let "...Begin" be the true last track.

Yes, It would have been nice if "Please Mr. Postman" had been included earlier in the track list. I understand they want to offer these special bonus tracks as a promotion for only certain markets, but it sort of makes me sad to think so many that buy the album won't get to hear it. It's one of the more creative treatments on the album and such a great recording. As far as where it is now, I think of it as kind of a concert encore since 'Begun' acts as the grand ending... but wait.. Karen and Richard come back for one more favorite!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

When "bonus tracks" first became a thing many years ago, it was common practice to put a minute or two (or sometimes more) of silence after the "real" ending so as to differentiate the album from the bonus track. Sometimes that extra silence would be a "track" all its own so you could skip over it, other times the silence would be tacked-on to the "real" album ending. The most annoying thing was if they'd put the silence as part of the bonus track, because then you'd have to fast-forward through it to get to the music. I suppose just putting it on there as a standard track is the best option because any of the other ways would generate confusion and possibly "defective" returns.

To me the best option here would have been to just insert Postmanwhere there's not an audible segue between two other tracks. But....that's water under the bridge!

 

[Kacfan]

The added Spanish guitar on Superstar is intrusive and takes away from the lead vocal (just my opinion). For All We Know sounds slightly sped-up. I hope Richard did not take that liberty with Karen's voice.

I found that Anything which is notably differently in the arrangement during karen’s Singing felt initially like a distraction. (Well this is spoken by someone who loves the isolated lead vocals more than the originals . ) But upon second third fourth listens, all of these additions really grew on me. More than ever before, this particular album beautifully showcases both Karen’s and Richard amazing and complimentary talents .

 

[motownboy]

When "bonus tracks" first became a thing many years ago, it was common practice to put a minute or two (or sometimes more) of silence after the "real" ending so as to differentiate the album from the bonus track. Sometimes that extra silence would be a "track" all its own so you could skip over it, other times the silence would be tacked-on to the "real" album ending. The most annoying thing was if they'd put the silence as part of the bonus track, because then you'd have to fast-forward through it to get to the music. I suppose just putting it on there as a standard track is the best option because any of the other ways would generate confusion and possibly "defective" returns.

To me the best option here would have been to just insert Postmanwhere there's not an audible segue between two other tracks. But....that's water under the bridge!

Another way that bonus tracks were done was to put an extra minute of silence after the end of the last "proper" song of the album but then another "hidden track" would start. One could tell if that was done if the last track's time was at least twice as long as it should be. My fantasy is that the Japan CD (which is on it's way to me) has Please Mr. Postman, and the track is 8 minutes long, and that a minute after PMP ends is "Those Good Old Dreams."

I just got the Target CD today. I wonder if anyone who ordered the Japan CD has received it yet?

 

[tomswift2002]

Anyone heard if there are any Canadian retailers offering the bonus CD version? Walmart is not selling it, and Amazon.ca only has the track listing for the LP (which is listed at nearly $305 CDN).

 

[Murray]

Anyone heard if there are any Canadian retailers offering the bonus CD version? Walmart is not selling it, and Amazon.ca only has the track listing for the LP (which is listed at nearly $305 CDN).

Sadly no. The bonus CD version is only available in Japan, and at Target stores in the US. The only way to get one in Canada is to import it.

 

[tomswift2002]

Sadly no. The bonus CD version is only available in Japan, and at Target stores in the US. The only way to get one in Canada is to import it.

Yeah I haven’t ordered yet because:

1. I’m waiting for Christmas—-maybe someone’s picked it up for me

2. With the Canada Post strike, there are still backlogs and protests that are slowing the mail down (getting stuff across the border is easier with USPS-Canada Post, whereas FEDEX and UPS want to add fees of upto $100+ for brokerage fees even if the item does not need to be taxed—-at most CP only charges $10, or most time waives the brokerage fee).

 

[leadmister]

Re-reading my above post I hope it doesn't come across as morbid. I'm sure Richard's got years if not decades in front of him as well as several creative endeavours, (not least that Xmas Album that actually seems to be moving forward after 20 years), it's just I feel the curtains are closing on the Carpenters part of his life. . .if you know what I mean.

Not morbid at all. What I meant is that Richard has had a heavy burden to bear. It doesn't mean that he still doesn't have plenty of gas in the tank. The amount of energy he has for 72 years old, in addition to his talents being sharper than ever. Who knows? Maybe a little touch of success here will give him some perspective and he will feel compelled to continue to tap into what he has found again. But even if this is the last thing he puts out, it's not a bad way to go out at all. After Pianist, Arranger, Composer, Conductor and then As Time Goes By, he needed to hit hard with this one and he has. He's hit me hard for the first time in I don't even know how many years.

 

[leadmister]

Another way that bonus tracks were done was to put an extra minute of silence after the end of the last "proper" song of the album but then another "hidden track" would start. One could tell if that was done if the last track's time was at least twice as long as it should be. My fantasy is that the Japan CD (which is on it's way to me) has Please Mr. Postman, and the track is 8 minutes long, and that a minute after PMP ends is "Those Good Old Dreams."

The coolest extra track I have ever seen was on the Dave Matthews Band CD, Under The Table And Dreaming. It was a little instrumental piece called #34 and was track 34 on the disc even though there were a total of 12 tracks. It was called this because it was the 34th song recorded by the band. Once track 11 was done, there was a pause for a few seconds and then you could see the numbers counting up to 34 on the LCD readout of the disc player, passing 22 blank tracks, and then the last track would start.

It would be cool if we get TGOD as a hidden track, but I expect PMP to be it and I'll be happy with that.

 

[CraigGA]

I think that this proves that the money or interest of the Carpenters is still that, both Karen and Richard. As much as I like their individual work, nothing compares to what they created together! Their gift to the world is still giving and the one who put it all together is still putting it together and giving us tracks with unexpected clarity that breathes new life into songs that we could not imagine any better now better! What a voice to still be charting almost 50 years later. I think that fact alone should be an ingredient to those who rank great artists!

 

[Proudofyou]

I also think we are desperately hungry and starved for intelligent music again. This was like the water we needed while being stranded on some sort of bizarre Kardashian, no talent island with lots of garbage.

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

Just got back from Target a little while ago to see if I could find the CD there. No issue at all. There were about six of them! I did some looking online and all the stores in my area are stocked with them. So...

Spoiler: I've just heard "Mr. Postman"

This wasn't really needed. Karen sounds great on it, of course, but it's quite obvious why it's a bonus track. There's a cool little breakdown in the last verse but beyond that, it's basically what we already got on "Horizon". It's not one I'll bother listening to again.

Ed

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

I also think we are desperately hungry and starved for intelligent music again. This was like the water we needed while being stranded on some sort of bizarre Kardashian, no talent island with lots of garbage.

I don't think that's the case at all. I think it's quite the opposite, actually. There's a tremendous amount of talent out there - just like there always has been. We just need to know where to look for it. I'd be here enumerating all of it but, IMHO, it absolutely is out there.

Ed

 

[no1kandrfan]

Another way that bonus tracks were done was to put an extra minute of silence after the end of the last "proper" song of the album but then another "hidden track" would start. One could tell if that was done if the last track's time was at least twice as long as it should be. My fantasy is that the Japan CD (which is on it's way to me) has Please Mr. Postman, and the track is 8 minutes long, and that a minute after PMP ends is "Those Good Old Dreams."

I just got the Target CD today. I wonder if anyone who ordered the Japan CD has received it yet?

My Japanese CD has shipped, hsve not recei