Album covers - A SONG FOR YOU *

[manofsteel1979]

[Moderator's note - thread titled changed to be more descriptive for future searches]

Is it just me or...
...with the exception of "Horizon",that the Carpenters albums that are ranked among the best all have very bad cover design,and that the "worst" albums seem to have the best covers.I mean,look at "A SONG FOR YOU".Incredible album,but that jacket looks like a bloody valentine's card!!Even Richard hates that one to this day.Also,"Close to You",great LP,but the cover photo barely even looks like them! In contrast,"A Kind of Hush" (which I personally like,but is largely considered their weakest album),has the best cover and all over production value.Am I on to something here?

 

[richard_sloat]

I actually like the cover of A song for you... side one tells the story of a romantic relationship, so... why not?? The Close to you cover doesn't do much for me but I see how it relates to, let's say... Maybe it's you?? Because that song has a "shore" feeling?? lol! In fact I'm no fan of the A kind of hush cover, too fluffy for my taste. I prefer a more "serious" one like Horizon.

 

[cam89]

I always LOVED the CLOSE TO YOU Album...first album I purchased and owned. I thought she looked beautiful with her long hair, and her long flowing dress...RC looked handsome and young too!!

I loved MADE IN AMERICA and VOICE OF THE HEART cover too!!!

 

[Mark-T]

LOVE the Hush cover- that and Horizon are my favorites of all the cover art/photos.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

My Carpenters cover art in order of preference:

Horizon
Christmas Portrait
A Kind of Hush
Now and Then (the original gatefold LP version)
An Old Fashioned Christmas
Passage
Ticket to Ride
Carpenters
The Singles 1969-1973 (the gatefold LP version)
Lovelines
Close to You
A Song For You
Voice of the Heart
Made in America

I didn't like any of the bottom 4 covers too much. I always thought a group of their stature deserved better. VOICE I can understand why that cover happened the way it did, coming so soon after Karen's passing...but it looks like a solo album, at first glance. MADE IN AMERICA I thought just looked ultra-cheesy and too smiley, considering Richard often said he disliked their smiley photos.

A SONG FOR YOU and CLOSE TO YOU are just boring covers, zero creativity. The marketing department didn't know what to do with them. ASFY had a cooler inner-sleeve than front cover, IMHO.

 

[manofsteel1979]

Cam,I like the Voice of the Heart cover too.Despite the fact that she is quite gaunt in the photo,she looks so radiant.Those big brown eyes...wow.She was an incredibly beautiful woman.Made in America...I feel the same way about the cover as I do the album itself.Well designed and produced,a nice piece of art.I can't find anything wrong at all with it...it just feels,I don't know,a little off?
Maybe my perception is a bit colored by my knowledge of what was going on at that time in terms of Karen's health and the aftermath of the solo album/marriage fiasco.Maybe I think Karen doesn't look quite like herself on the album cover.The artist did a good job on Richard,but Karen doesn't reflect at all her look at that time.I know,they probably wanted to deemphasize her condition then,but she doesn't even facially resemble early 70's Karen or 76/77 Karen either.

As for Hush,yeah the cover itself is a bit hokey,but overall,between the sleeve ,The center label of the LP,the dust jacket and the CARPENTERS logo printed inside in a repeating pattern,it's overall very well produced.

I also like Passage a lot.It's just so bold,colorful,and classy...much like the album itself.

However,I would rank Horizon as my favorite.FINALLY! Rich and Karen look like they were supposed to look,two fine looking twenty something siblings who were serious about their craft.The overall design is very simple,to the point and sophisticated,much like the album.

 

[cam89]

But on the HORIZON album cover, she looks so gaunt. You can see her thin muscle mass on her arms. You can look at her neck and collarbone, she is so thin. The beginning of the problem.

A KIND OF HUSH, nice album cover. Inner photo, she too looks so thin, judged by her hips and her thin upperbody and her gaunt face!

I don't like PASSAGE. No photos. But I did like the inner sleeve of album info, song lyrics etc.

I loved MADE IN AMERICA. Always thought the outer album cover, she looked like Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins...if you watch the Spoonful of Sugar song number...

But inner photo, she looks tanned and wonderful, but you can see traces of her anorexia....and then Ev Wallace sent me a small color photo of that same inner cover, and she looks so pale, and her skin sags, and looks so thin, and her eyes are bloodshot! So very sad!

VOICE OF THE HEART...beautiful album cover. Those big brown eyes...and beautiful teeth, and eyebrows and everything...she looks so beautiful. I remember getting the album from the library back in 1988, and just staring at those huge beautiful brown eyes! And the music was breathtakingly beautifully done!!!

 

[manofsteel1979]

But on the HORIZON album cover, she looks so gaunt. You can see her thin muscle mass on her arms. You can look at her neck and collarbone, she is so thin. The beginning of the problem.

A KIND OF HUSH, nice album cover. Inner photo, she too looks so thin, judged by her hips and her thin upperbody and her gaunt face!

I don't like PASSAGE. No photos. But I did like the inner sleeve of album info, song lyrics etc.

I loved MADE IN AMERICA. Always thought the outer album cover, she looked like Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins...if you watch the Spoonful of Sugar song number...

But inner photo, she looks tanned and wonderful, but you can see traces of her anorexia....and then Ev Wallace sent me a small color photo of that same inner cover, and she looks so pale, and her skin sags, and looks so thin, and her eyes are bloodshot! So very sad!

VOICE OF THE HEART...beautiful album cover. Those big brown eyes...and beautiful teeth, and eyebrows and everything...she looks so beautiful. I remember getting the album from the library back in 1988, and just staring at those huge beautiful brown eyes! And the music was breathtakingly beautifully done!!!

The Made in America 'Karen' DOES look a bit like Julie Andrews,doesn't she?
As for the untouched photo of those inner sleeve sessions...I remember seeing that somewhere a while back,and It almost made me cry.There are a couple photos in "Little Girl Blue" that are also quite shocking.They first show a photo of Karen with her husband Lucifer...uh,Tom Burris circa summer 1980,right after they got married,and she looked good.Thin,but actually better than she had the previous year while in New York.

Then on the next page is a photo of her the following November (1981) on her way to Brazil.The woman looked like she aged 20 years.So frail,thin and tired. I wanted to 1) travel back in time to 1981,put my arms around her and somehow take her away from all that pain 2) Kick Tom Burris' @$$!

As for Horizon and Passage,I'm not judging the covers/packages based on whether or not Karen looked 100% healthy,Or how many photos there were.Just the overall product itself.Passage,Hush and Horizon are just well put together in terms of design.

 

[CarpentersToYou]

Is it me, or has every thread lately been hijacked to talk about the tragedy? Music, people, let's talk about the musical duo!

 

[Calvin R Murty]

Briefly, while I really don't 'hate' any covers, a few stand out for me (not in any order):

Horizon - finally, they look sophisticated and even cool

Christmas Portrait - very well done, colorful and festive like a Christmas album should be

An Old Fashioned Christmas - when I saw this at the record store in 1984, I had to look again because in an interview in 1983 in Singapore, Richard said that Voice of the Heart was likely to be the last Carpenters album. So I was really not expecting anything new and I actually thought this was a reissue of 'Portrait' under a new name. But when I flipped over and saw all new song titles, well, needless to say, I bought it immediately with my heart a-thumping in anticipation during the bus ride home!

Passage - was my first LP by Carpenters. Loved the abstract artwork and loved how they made it into the 'jet space ship' fumes in the Calling Occupants video.

The Singles 1969-1973 (the gatefold LP version) - I thought this was really a classy way of doing a compilation. It looked like a 'serious', sophisticated album.

Lovelines - I love the color scheme and the sepia toned photo

A Song For You - as a young teen, I loved this because it seemed to me as if K&R were sending me a valentine saying - Here is a song (or, are some songs) just for you . It felt very personal.

Voice of the Heart - funny story. I was also not expecting any album after Karen's passing and so when I saw this in the store, I bought it, rushed home and started to listen to it. My sister then came into the living room to investigate what I was listening to, and she took the cover, looked at the large photo of Karen, screamed and threw the cover into the air. I asked her why she did that, and she said - I thought it was a photo of Karen in her coffin! Seriously. That crazy sister of mine!

Made in America - I absolutely loved this cover too. It made them look so fresh and after such a long break, it was great to hear fresh new songs from them (except for I Believe You which was in a Singapore/SE Asia only 1979 compilation, Carpenters Classics).

 

[richard_sloat]

Then on the next page is a photo of her the following November (1981) on her way to Brazil.The woman looked like she aged 20 years.So frail,thin and tired.

You can see more of those (if you'd like to) here:

http://www.carpenters.hpg.ig.com.br/iftbr.htm

Oh!! I just noticed these galleries for the first time!!

http://www.carpenters.hpg.ig.com.br/iftnw2002.htm

 

[manofsteel1979]

Then on the next page is a photo of her the following November (1981) on her way to Brazil.The woman looked like she aged 20 years.So frail,thin and tired.

You can see more of those (if you'd like to) here:

http://www.carpenters.hpg.ig.com.br/iftbr.htm

Oh!! I just noticed these galleries for the first time!!

http://www.carpenters.hpg.ig.com.br/iftnw2002.htm

Thanks for the heads up for the pictures! Very interesting.However,I got a virus warning when I was on the site,so guys,be careful!

 

[richard_sloat]

You did???? That sucks!!!! I got no warning here... I use Avira...

Hey, take a look at this picture... even Richard himself looked exhausted as they arrived in Rio...

http://www.carpenters.hpg.ig.com.br/rkrj093.jpg

 

[mr J.]

MANOFSTEEL-I can't agree with your philosophy here-the best albums do have the best album covers."Voice Of The Heart","Christmas Portrait"and "Horizon" are without question K&R's best,and they have the most exquisite covers.And,"Made In America"-one of the better albums-has that excellent cover.As far as "A Song For You",well,that album stinks and so does the cover.I absolutely can't figure out what the big attraction is with that album-It contains their worst material(next to "Passage" and "Ticket To Ride"),Karen's worst singing and Richard's worst production(or did Jack Daugherty really produce that album?)."A Kind Of Hush" is basically a mediocre album-not great,but not bad,either.And,it does sport an interesting cover.One curious thing about "A Kind Of Hush"-it contains the one overlooked track that could have potentially been one of K&R's biggest hit singles:"You".That song was definitely top-40 material(pretty similar in style and arrangement to Jennifer Warnes' "Right Time Of The Night").Also,"Yesterday Once More"(1985)-one of the all-around best compilations- had a great cover.

 

[manofsteel1979]

MANOFSTEEL-I can't agree with your philosophy here-the best albums do have the best album covers."Voice Of The Heart","Christmas Portrait"and "Horizon" are without question K&R's best,and they have the most exquisite covers.And,"Made In America"-one of the better albums-has that excellent cover.As far as "A Song For You",well,that album stinks and so does the cover.I absolutely can't figure out what the big attraction is with that album-It contains their worst material(next to "Passage" and "Ticket To Ride"),Karen's worst singing and Richard's worst production(or did Jack Daugherty really produce that album?)."A Kind Of Hush" is basically a mediocre album-not great,but not bad,either.And,it does sport an interesting cover.One curious thing about "A Kind Of Hush"-it contains the one overlooked track that could have potentially been one of K&R's biggest hit singles:"You".That song was definitely top-40 material(pretty similar in style and arrangement to Jennifer Warnes' "Right Time Of The Night").Also,"Yesterday Once More"(1985)-one of the all-around best compilations- had a great cover.

While I don't share your opinion on "ASFY" as an album,I agree with you about,well,"you".Why "Goofus" was ever picked as a single instead is a mystery to me.It's like Rich,Karen or whoever made the decision was thinking,"you know,we've had too many albums do well...lets release a terrible single! That'll supress album sales!"

 

[Harry]

As far as "A Song For You",well,that album stinks and so does the cover.I absolutely can't figure out what the big attraction is with that album-It contains their worst material(next to "Passage" and "Ticket To Ride"),Karen's worst singing and Richard's worst production(or did Jack Daugherty really produce that album?).

mr J. has never been one to mince words!...

Now, since both manofsteel1979 and mr J. are here together, I'd like to make a friendly suggestion to both of you. It's called the "space bar". No, it's not a place to get "out-of-this-world" drinks, but a device which can make both of your posts more readable.

Sentences should be followed by a period AND a space (or two); phrases should be ended with a comma or semicolon AND a space. It's just makes it easy on your readers. (Now, a note about the forum software. Even if you separate sentences by two spaces, it will be compressed to only one. It's designed to not allow blank spaces to pile up for no reason.)

I can't tell you how many times of late I've been tempted to skip over some of your posts, just because they are a daunting task to read. Paragraphs are also a good idea, but if we could just get you two to use the space bar between sentences, I'd be happy!

Please take this as constructive criticism, as that's the way its intended - and thanks.

Harry

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Is it me, or has every thread lately been hijacked to talk about the tragedy? Music, people, let's talk about the musical duo!

No it is not just you. It seems like it's in every post or it turns into every post. I'm so over the villian thread I don't even go there anymore.

I agree with Harry's helpful criticism, in all honesty I just don't read posts from manofsteel because of the way it's written, (nothing personal) it's even worst reading it from a mobile phone. Mr J's I don't read at all anyway has nothing to do with the type set (hey it's my right to skip who I want) we rarely share the same interest in Carpenters topics.

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

Is it just me or has this thread gone threadcrap-ulous? Nope, it ain't me at all. So...

For my part, I love "Passage" but it showed guts. It's all over the place and I love it. It was a bold thing to put out a record like that and the results are interesting. Love "B'wana..." and "Calling Occupants..." They also used players they never used before and even a vocal arranger that wasn't Richard on "B'wana."

Ed

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I agree with Harry's helpful criticism, in all honesty I just don't read posts from manofsteel because of the way it's written, (nothing personal)

Same here. Long paragraphs are just hard to read, and especially so when sentences are run together. A good rule of thumb is to create a new paragraph every two to four sentences. Your posts will be 100% more easy on the eyes.

Back on topic -- if I am considering only the Carpenters albums I "really like a lot" (the first five + CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT), then I would say my favorite cover is probably PORTRAIT.

Thinking it over some more though, it is sort of a Norman Rockwell ripoff. I am fond of the NOW AND THEN cover because of the foldout version, but for general coolness I might have to go with "CARPENTERS." It has some simple elegance to it.

The biggest downside of that cover is, it doesn't translate well to the CD format unless you're lucky enough to have scored one of the Japanese replica issues.

To me the album with the highest ratio of great cover art to lackluster content is A KIND OF HUSH. Great cover; [yawn!] album (except "I Need to Be In Love," which is a masterpiece and should have been a smash hit).

 

[richard_sloat]

.As far as "A Song For You",well,that album stinks and so does the cover.I absolutely can't figure out what the big attraction is with that album-It contains their worst material(next to "Passage" and "Ticket To Ride"),Karen's worst singing and Richard's worst production(or did Jack Daugherty really produce that album?).

That is certainly a one-of-a-kind of an opinion!!!! Never read anything like it in any Carpenters board or message group, LOL!! Congrats, mr. J., you do very well regarding uniqueness (I'm NOT being sarcastic or anything)!

As far as I'm concerned, mr. J and the other member may continue to write their posts exactly the same. It doesn't bother me at all and I always read them all.

 

[manofsteel1979]

As far as "A Song For You",well,that album stinks and so does the cover.I absolutely can't figure out what the big attraction is with that album-It contains their worst material(next to "Passage" and "Ticket To Ride"),Karen's worst singing and Richard's worst production(or did Jack Daugherty really produce that album?).

mr J. has never been one to mince words!...

Now, since both manofsteel1979 and mr J. are here together, I'd like to make a friendly suggestion to both of you. It's called the "space bar". No, it's not a place to get "out-of-this-world" drinks, but a device which can make both of your posts more readable.

Sentences should be followed by a period AND a space (or two); phrases should be ended with a comma or semicolon AND a space. It's just makes it easy on your readers. (Now, a note about the forum software. Even if you separate sentences by two spaces, it will be compressed to only one. It's designed to not allow blank spaces to pile up for no reason.)

I can't tell you how many times of late I've been tempted to skip over some of your posts, just because they are a daunting task to read. Paragraphs are also a good idea, but if we could just get you two to use the space bar between sentences, I'd be happy!

Please take this as constructive criticism, as that's the way its intended - and thanks.

Harry

I appreciate it,Harry. I am not really all that experienced with posting on message boards,so I am kinda feeling my way through. Plus,a majority of my posts have been via my craptacular cell phones' archaic mobile web,so it's kinda hard to view it as most of you guys do. So,from now on, I will try to do a better job making my musings more reader friendly.


Oh,by the way,my favorite space bar is on Romulous 5,just 80 light years to the right of Krypton, before you get to Alderrann.

 

[richard_sloat]

LOL, that reminds me of the space ship set from Space encounters... I totally love that whole part of that special, specially the disco medley!!!!! There's something about it that touches my heart as they dance to The hustler tune!

 

[manofsteel1979]

LOL, that reminds me of the space ship set from Space encounters... I totally love that whole part of that special, specially the disco medley!!!!! There's something about it that touches my heart as they dance to The hustler tune!

It's just so cheesy,that it's actually funny. Richard apparently hated those specials. Karen,however,had a ball and it showed. She was a natural!

 

[cam89]

And the fact is that, they did the disco tune with the Hustler, and I Could Have Danced All Night Long!!

 

[rdsofla]

It's only been a few times that I have posted anything here, but after reading that A SONG FOR YOU "stinks"..... That album has SIX songs that made it onto Billboard's HOT 100. How many albums have ever done that???? I know everbody is entitled to their option..... but PLEASE!