"Carpenters: The Musical Legacy" featured in this week's cover story in CLOSER WEEKLY

Is he on record as hating that one? I only ever saw him irritated by pictures of them unnaturally smiling, embracing, or overly "cutesy" like the A Song For You cover, which me even mentions in the article.

I always thought the Singles 69-73 cover was meant to look like an old-fashioned photo album, especially being a gatefold cover. It looks and feels classy to me. They could have used the inner-gatefold picture on the cover, but then it wouldn't have evoked the photo-album style that the designer was shooting for... it would have been just another album cover with a B&W picture on the front.

Remember, too, that the self-titled "tan" album only had their logo on it... so, maybe they were going for the familiarity angle, the way Chicago was doing on their album covers. They didn't even use titles, every cover just said Chicago and had a different version of the logo on the cover.

At any rate... by the time Singles came out, Richard had probably long since thrown up his hands and said "whatever" about the album covers. He had much bigger fish to fry by that time, just trying to keep up with the demands of their career, and we all know what came next.
Of the "active career" releases, he fine with "Ticket to Ride," the outside of "Carpenters," "Horizon," and "Christmas Portrait." There's a lot of cover discussion in the book.
 
I was always curious as to why the "Carpenters" logo was not used on the front of the "Christmas Portrait" cover. Never cared for the script/font that A&M decided to used and I wonder if Richard had any say in the decision. Maybe the goal was to give their name on the front of the album a more classic Christmas vibe visually?
 
And I am aware of the official logo on the little yellow note in the center of the cover, I just would have preferred it to have been more prominent at the top of the album.
 
And I am aware of the official logo on the little yellow note in the center of the cover, I just would have preferred it to have been more prominent at the top of the album.
As far as the logo goes, that would’ve satisfied Richard, just like it’s small appearance on “Passage”’s back cover.

In a way, I think Karen and Richard were trying to evoke the old-fashioned Christmas feeling and tie the cover into the line from “Sleigh Ride” that talks about a Currier & Ives print.
 
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For years, I thought that fold-out image was a painting/drawing of some kind. It looked unnaturally colored to me. The trees and grass seemed painted in, the sky looked unnatural, and the house looked drawn-in. The red car was "too" red, and I never even noticed that there were people in the car, let alone that it was Karen and Richard.

As for the SINGLES 1969-1973 cover, I thought that was classy-looking, with no goofy-looking photo on the cover.
Interesting perspective about the Now & Then cover. I always thought the "unnatural" look was done purposely and quite like it. I find it adds a bit of character.
 
I always thought the abomination of this album art wasn't necessarily the front cover, but the two cartoonish portraits of the pair inside the gate fold...not that the cover, too, was just as weird. In one sense, though, it is "iconic" as it made the Newville Avenue house a shrine in Carpenters lore.
If you want to talk about abomination on a Carpenters album front cover, Karen's solo takes the #1 position :rolleyes:
 
Did someone say this closer magazine issue would be available in UK or is it just wishful thinking?
 
Did someone say this closer magazine issue would be available in UK or is it just wishful thinking?
I found the Closer magazine here in Canada. For a cover story, though, I found their article incredible short and some of the facts were messed up. Like they had printed that the “Close To You” album had the ‘heart’ cover and Richard commenting on how he didn’t really like it. “A Song For You” had the ‘heart’ cover, not CTY!
 
I found the Closer magazine here in Canada. For a cover story, though, I found their article incredible short and some of the facts were messed up. Like they had printed that the “Close To You” album had the ‘heart’ cover and Richard commenting on how he didn’t really like it. “A Song For You” had the ‘heart’ cover, not CTY!
Agreed. The reporter simply got her wires crossed. On the upside (considering the source), I felt they did a better job than most at not focusing on the tabloid-esque side of the story.
 
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For years, I thought that fold-out image was a painting/drawing of some kind. It looked unnaturally colored to me. The trees and grass seemed painted in, the sky looked unnatural, and the house looked drawn-in. The red car was "too" red, and I never even noticed that there were people in the car, let alone that it was Karen and Richard.

As for the SINGLES 1969-1973 cover, I thought that was classy-looking, with no goofy-looking photo on the cover.
I, too, thought that the cover of ‘Now and Then’ was a painting with a small photo of K&R through a windscreen blended in. I spent hours staring at it, as an early teen, trying to work it out.

The ‘Now and Then’ cover was featured in a couple of books about album covers back in the 70s. I think that one book was just a general book about gatefold sleeves, giving examples that the authors must have thought interesting, but I’ve got a feeling that it’s also in a book of best album covers .... or worst ..... I can’t remember which.... or one of each ..... :)
 
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