⭐ Official Review [Album]: AKIKO KOBAYASHI - "CITY OF ANGELS"

What is your favorite track?

  • Rainbow, Rainbow

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Put Another Memory On The Fire

    Votes: 2 8.0%
  • Hold Me

    Votes: 2 8.0%
  • How Could I Ask For More?

    Votes: 9 36.0%
  • Beg, Borrow & Steal

    Votes: 1 4.0%
  • Let's Fall In Love Forever

    Votes: 3 12.0%
  • Suddenly Love

    Votes: 2 8.0%
  • China River

    Votes: 1 4.0%
  • Only The Angels Know

    Votes: 4 16.0%
  • The Reply

    Votes: 1 4.0%

  • Total voters
    25
"How Could I Ask For More?" is a quality production through-and-through. Instantly "recognizable" to me as a Richard and John piece and something that made me think "wow, I can totally hear Karen singing this.”

I honestly believe this song is the closest thing to what the Carpenters would have sounded like in the 80s.
 
Does anyone know where samples from this album can be heard online? I had them all downloaded from a friend but I lost everything on my laptop and can't hear many tracks now. I want to hear Hold Me again, I forget how it goes but remember that I liked it.

These have been on u tube for a few years...Just hearing these 2 songs (let alone the entire album) for me it's quite possibly the best project Richard ever produced (other than VOTH or Lovelines) since Karen's passing...it's Akiko's album but it's hauntingly Carpenters.



 
Sorry if this video has been posted here before, but I like Richard's humor here :) (and his singing along! :love: )

 


Thanks for posting - I’ve never seen that before.

Watching these clips makes me sad, because after Karen’s passing Richard had a tremendous opportunity to move on and diversify into other things like producing/working with other great artists or writing scores and soundtracks for great movies and musicals, of both screen and stage. He skimmed the surface with Dionne and Dusty but that was one track each, when he should have been producing entire albums for artists of their stature. He had the backing of Herb, Jerry and the label and could have produced a great many works of musical art that would have enhanced his own legacy, as well as that of Carpenters. Instead, for much of the time he clung to recording and appearing with Japanese soundalikes which just turned him into a tribute act to himself. He obviously chose to do these things because he enjoyed them, but what a waste of a tremendous talent. I often think to myself...what would Karen have thought of this stuff?
 
Japan is an incredible country of amazing, lovely people. I imagine the entertainment industry there operates in a unique way, different from other countries. The Japanese people treat just the common visitor to their country like superstars, so I can imagine how they’d support a music hero like Richard. Carpenters are HUGE in their country and I bet he always feels a lot of love coming from the audience. I’m sure that Richard was only all too happy to be part of this whole experience. Working with the high calibre of Japanese artists would have been the main focus of this.
 
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1) "How Could I Ask For More?" is a quality production through-and-through. Instantly "recognizable" to me as a Richard and John piece and something that made me think "wow, I can totally hear Karen singing this."
Yes, really nice song, arrangement and sweet vocal - and I immediately thought of Karen and how wonderful she would have sounded singing this - I make this instantaneous projection with every beautiful song I hear lately (most recently with Boz Scaggs' WE'RE ALL ALONE).
 
It’s been noted a million times but this album largely would be what a late 80s Carpenter’s albums could’ve sounded like - colorful, tasteful, timeless but with just enough flavor of the era. Akiko is a great fit for the arrangements not just for the low notes she reaches but for her own vocal warmth and emotional expressiveness. I wish I heard many more albums of she and Richard together. Yes, Veronique and Scott are Richard exploring beyond what he knew, but they feel like flat, and now very dated, experiments. His magic is back with Akiko and working within a framework he knew well and it sounds incredibly fresh today.

Does anyone know where Akiko’s album can be found digitally, to download or just listen? I have only a few tracks on an old iPod and used to have them all. If they aren’t online yet I may buy the cd and upload the missing ones on YouTube for others to find too.
 
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