⭐ Official Review Carpenters Royal Philharmonic Review and Comments Thread

How would you rate Carpenters with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra?

  • ⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕ (Best)

    Votes: 38 36.5%
  • ⁕⁕⁕⁕

    Votes: 47 45.2%
  • ⁕⁕⁕ (Average)

    Votes: 16 15.4%
  • ⁕⁕

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • ⁕ (Worst)

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Did not listen to this album yet

    Votes: 1 1.0%

  • Total voters
    104
I think with regard to Japan...it will be easier to tell which is a first pressing and which is a 2nd pressing due to the sticker they place on the outside, as Actorman references above. Also Japan website is good about telling you that this CD is a first pressing when you order it. So if they change the pressing at all it would be easy to tell for the Japan region.
 
Is it just my imagination, or do the singers sound Japanese? (I don't have my CD yet with the booklet showing the credits.) Maybe it's just the enunciation they are using that makes me think that.
For the record, the choir session was done here in L.A. at Capitol Records. I wasn't there, but I'm confident it was a standard mix of professional singers in town.
 
But it's missing that unique added drum beat that starts the song, I actually like the unique drum beat.

The drumbeat is still there. It's before the first "Stop" in Postman. The "Stop" in Postman and the final "Stop" in Hurting are simultaneous.
 
They sound like "jingle singers" to me. In fact, the final "It's yesterday once more" sounds like it could BE a jingle on a radio station going into an oldie!
There is never really a warmth to the Choral tone. Maybe Richard has selected those types of singers so they sound very different from the warmth in Karen’s tone?
 
Something interesting to note is that Japan has not announced their own pressing of this LP. They do have the LP version on sale but it clearly says it's an import (meaning it's a USA pressing) This makes me wonder if Japan will press this album in Feb 2019 and on it "could" contain the lost track of "Those Good Old Dreams"
 
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The drumbeat is still there. It's before the first "Stop" in Postman. The "Stop" in Postman and the final "Stop" in Hurting are simultaneous.

I may try something....if I take the time and know how.

The “stop” of hurting each other is on the “and” of beat two the drm best could be on best four and the “stop” of Postman could be the new best one.
 
My other goofy segue might have been from the cold end of "Hurting Each Other" to the start of "Please Mr. Postman"

That's pretty clever! It's too bad the mood of those songs are so different. It's kind of jarring considering the context. But musically it works, key-wise at least.
 
Yes I hear the horns being more prominent in the newer version ans a slightly different level on the voices.

I still think that Richard thought the album was done when masters were sent to be made into CDs and the changes made afterward were influencedenced by the lukewarm reception to the advanced tracks. I think Richard is too organized to have not met that deadline having thought he was done.
Well it’s not the first time that YOM was released incomplete, as the original album version was incomplete.
 
Well it’s not the first time that YOM was released incomplete, as the original album version was incomplete.
Interestingly, I always preferred the album version. I thought the single mix was over complicated and loved the simple piano as the main instrument instead of the guitar.
 
Same, I never liked those little electric guitar riffs in the chorus. In the new version those riffs are buried in the orchestra more so they aren't so intrusive (to me).
 
Well it’s not the first time that YOM was released incomplete, as the original album version was incomplete.

True..though that remix of YOM was done for single release somewhat after the album came out. The changes we see with the RPO album happened just at the time it was being released.
 
True..though that remix of YOM was done for single release somewhat after the album came out. The changes we see with the RPO album happened just at the time it was being released.
The “Now & Then” album was released on May 9, 1973.

The “Yesterday Once More” 45 was released May 16, 1973.

By comparison “Sing” was released January 30, 1973.

Their next American single wouldn’t be released until September 19, 1973 when “Top Of The World” was released and their next “New” Tracks were “Please Mr. Postman & Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” in November 1974.
 
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