⭐ Official Review [Album]: "HORIZON" (SP-4530)

HOW WOULD YOU RATE THIS ALBUM?

  • ***** (BEST)

    Votes: 51 49.0%
  • ****

    Votes: 36 34.6%
  • ***

    Votes: 13 12.5%
  • **

    Votes: 2 1.9%
  • *

    Votes: 2 1.9%

  • Total voters
    104
They really gave the "Greatest Hits" compilation idea a totally new treatment and validated the genre for many artists after the end of 1973... It gave a chic quality in every way possible, up to and including the very name of the lp... Certainly the introduction cut was a lovely surprise and set the stage for a spectacular compilation.

I always thought side B was dull in comparison with the A side, which sparkled due to the segues and the beautiful overture. Side B almost felt like “oh and here are the rest of the hits”.
 
I always thought side B was dull in comparison with the A side, which sparkled due to the segues and the beautiful overture. Side B almost felt like “oh and here are the rest of the hits”.
Maybe there was not any more space? Are you thinking of an ending overture.
 
Maybe there was not any more space? Are you thinking of an ending overture.

I just meant that side A flows beautifully from one song to another and many of the tracks had been reworked (and in two cases, remixed), which makes for a “new” listening experience. Side B was just the remaining singles lined up in no particular order and in their original form.
 
Richard Carpenter, Billboard Magazine, November 1973:
"How much of an impact we'll have, is hard to say.
Acts have gone up and set records, and then all of a sudden the public has had enough of their sound.
They never totally leave, but they don't enjoy being at the top. It's not the happiest thing to think about,
but it's fact."
"...I pay close attention to what our public seems to like..."


Read:
Billboard
 
Record Mirror (UK)
This article speaks of their latest single, Please Mr. Postman.
Feb 22, 1975

U1fQVFW.jpg
 
Karen drums on.....
1974 Hi-Crown Chocolate Commercial Jingle
1974/1975 Please Mr. Postman , Happy.

In the same 1970's period, Karen drums on:
Good Friends Are For Keeps Commercial (1975)
The Suntory Pop Commercial Jingles (1977).

By the way, the best way to get a feel for Karen's drumming is the 4-cd set,
From The Top ,
Karen is well-documented as a drummer (about 50% of the represented songs), on this compilation.
 
Horizon.....marks the final utilization of the concept of...."bookending,"
(1) Offering...opens and closes with... Invocation/Benediction
(2) A Song For You.... closes with... 'Song For You'
(3) Now & Then closes with... 'Yesterday Once More'
(4) Horizon opens and closes with.... Aurora/Eventide....

Neither Hush,Passage nor Made In America continues that 'bookending' trend.
 
Horizon.....marks the final utilization of the concept of...."bookending,"
(1) Offering...opens and closes with... Invocation/Benediction
(2) A Song For You.... closes with... 'Song For You'
(3) Now & Then closes with... 'Yesterday Once More'
(4) Horizon opens and closes with.... Aurora/Eventide....

Neither Hush,Passage nor Made In America continues that 'bookending' trend.

Ah, but it was used on several compilations, too.
SINGLES 1969-1973...opens with a "Close To You" intro and closes with..."Close To You"
SINGLES 1969-1981...opens with "For All We Know" and closes with..."For All We Know (reprise)"

and I might argue that the trend sort-of DID continue A KIND OF HUSH:
A KIND OF HUSH...opens with "There's A Kind Of Hush" and closes with the other oldie..."Breaking Up Is Hard To Do"
 
^^Yes, I had thought of those inclusions (though, not Hush)
but, decided against including Compilation albums, preferring original LP's....:)
 
Horizon.....marks the final utilization of the concept of...."bookending,"
(1) Offering...opens and closes with... Invocation/Benediction
(2) A Song For You.... closes with... 'Song For You'
(3) Now & Then closes with... 'Yesterday Once More'
(4) Horizon opens and closes with.... Aurora/Eventide....

Neither Hush,Passage nor Made In America continues that 'bookending' trend.
Even the Christmas albums are bookended with religious songs: CP has ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel/Ave Maria”, while AOFC has ‘Midnight Clear”/I Heard The Bells” and even CPSE has “Midnight Clear/Silent Night”.
 
Horizon.....marks the final utilization of the concept of...."bookending,"
(1) Offering...opens and closes with... Invocation/Benediction
(2) A Song For You.... closes with... 'Song For You'
(3) Now & Then closes with... 'Yesterday Once More'
(4) Horizon opens and closes with.... Aurora/Eventide....

Neither Hush,Passage nor Made In America continues that 'bookending' trend.

Every good “book” must come to an end!
 
I always felt that "Voice Of The Heart" had a hopeful moving bookend to that album. I find it even more compelling than some of these others mentioned above. Look To Your Dreams is almost like a send off from Karen...leaving you with hope (not despair) for me Karen seems to say that you can make it even when things are at their worse...."and tomorrow may be... better for you and me"
 
I always felt that "Voice Of The Heart" had a hopeful moving bookend to that album. I find it even more compelling than some of these others mentioned above. Look To Your Dreams is almost like a send off from Karen...leaving you with hope (not despair) for me Karen seems to say that you can make it even when things are at their worse...."and tomorrow may be... better for you and me"

Especially with the addition of Richard's piano "playoff"...
 
A&M Compendium interview, March 1975,
Karen Carpenter (regards Horizon): "We're into using different mikes for backgrounds, different mikes for leads."
"I didn't get into music until I was 16."
"We never take it for granted that anything will make it."
 
I was looking at the Billboard magazine archives online. I may be mistaken, but "Only Yesterday" was already descending the HOT 100 (#55, down from #44) in the very same issue that had the elaborate fold-out cover ad for their new album, Horizon. In retrospect, the album charted quite well considering it had only "Solitaire" to promote it. (I had always thought "Only Yesterday" was still riding high when the album came out.)
 
Richard Carpenter, Billboard Magazine, November 1973:
"How much of an impact we'll have, is hard to say.
Acts have gone up and set records, and then all of a sudden the public has had enough of their sound.
They never totally leave, but they don't enjoy being at the top. It's not the happiest thing to think about,
but it's fact."
"...I pay close attention to what our public seems to like..."


Read:
Billboard

Little could he know that “Horizon” would be the end of the days of salad.

Ed
 
^^ "just think in 3 short years I'll be 30, finished, ready for the scrapheap." - 27 year old Richard Carpenter bantering with Bob Hope on The Bob Hope Special, Nov 13, 1973. Prophetic?

In terms of his career as a recording artist, it sort of came true just ten years later.
 
Well, here I am listening to this Vinyl LP.....again.
And, it strikes me anew:
The three Singles from this album are fantastic pieces of pop music,
Please Mr. Postman...Only Yesterday...Solitaire.
The first is a great example of taking a familiar hit and making it their own,
the second is a fantastic mixture of both slow and medium tempo pop,
the last released builds upon the first two, but with a much slower pace.
And, the flip/B-sides of these A-side singles are good ones, too !

Finally: the Album.
Horizon, remains my favorite.
As much as I love LP A Song For You and Passage (one before, one after 1975),
here we have an album whose artwork and layout are as great as the music inside.
And, Jim Gordon's drumming fascinates me (too bad about his demons).
Although, Karen's Postman drumming is fascinating by itself (which also is a highlight
of both sides of this particular single--Karen drums on both).

The album deserved a much higher USA chart presence, I'll never understand its missing the Top Five.
Also, Only Yesterday (600,000 copies sold) and Solitaire (#17) should have done much better.
 
Well, here I am listening to this Vinyl LP.....again.
And, it strikes me anew:
The three Singles from this album are fantastic pieces of pop music,
Please Mr. Postman...Only Yesterday...Solitaire.
The first is a great example of taking a familiar hit and making it their own,
the second is a fantastic mixture of both slow and medium tempo pop,
the last released builds upon the first two, but with a much slower pace.
And, the flip/B-sides of these A-side singles are good ones, too !

Finally: the Album.
Horizon, remains my favorite.
As much as I love LP A Song For You and Passage (one before, one after 1975),
here we have an album whose artwork and layout are as great as the music inside.
And, Jim Gordon's drumming fascinates me (too bad about his demons).
Although, Karen's Postman drumming is fascinating by itself (which also is a highlight
of both sides of this particular single--Karen drums on both).

The album deserved a much higher USA chart presence, I'll never understand its missing the Top Five.
Also, Only Yesterday (600,000 copies sold) and Solitaire (#17) should have done much better.

I found a sealed copy of the (1975 original) LP this week and, though I have several copies already, simply couldn't leave the store without it! :wink:
 
Rather surprised to see that the outstanding song,
(I'm Caught Between) Goodbye And I Love You
is anthologized in rather few instances.
USA releases seem to be confined to the original Horizon
and the PBS-Complete-Singles (it being the flip side of There's A Kind Of Hush).
The song is better represented for Japanese market (5X), then, once in UK.

But, I wonder:
in 1976 , being on the B-Side of 45-Single Hush,
how many who purchased that single, flipped it over and played
such a fantastic song ?
 
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