⭐ 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
ThaFunkyFakeTation said:
I don't think that's the case at all. I think it's quite the opposite, actually. There's a tremendous amount of talent out there - just like there always has been. We just need to know where to look for it. I'd be here enumerating all of it but, IMHO, it absolutely is out there.

Ed
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Sorry I have to disagree with you there. For the past 20 years it’s seemed like it’s just been “copycat” music that has flooded the mainstream music. Sure there have been old bands that have had success with new recordings and have breathed life into the mainstream, but most of what is out there sounds the same as stuff that was being produced 20 years ago when Brittany Spears and Christina Agullerra (neither of whom I like)hit the charts. Just a few weeks ago I was watching the Santa Claus Parade From Toronto and they had some male artist on there and I knew it wasn’t Justin Bieber (I think it was Jordan Spears or something), but he sure sounded like him and his music was just a copy of Biener’s both in the way he sang and the instruments. Nowadays, there’s no creativity or desire to sound different from the other pop artists, unlike in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s when you had the Andrews Sisters, the Beach Boys and the Carpenters.
 
It was pointed out on another forum, by awesome lifelong fan Joe D., and I’ve found it true that there are some slight differences in the iTunes mix versus the CD

First of all I have apple streaming and it’s the same as the CD.

However if you have iTunes and purchase the songs or album there is a difference in some tracks. I purchased them after reading there are differences. It even says “Mastered For iTunes”. Most notable is the overture segues into Yesterday Once More with Karen singing a cold opening. without piano intro. Next difference is Piano on Ticket to Ride sounds different, I’ll keep listening and I encourage anyone who has both the iTunes (not the streaming plan from Apple) to list any other things they hear. Subtle but different!
 
tomswift2002 said:
Sorry I have to disagree with you there. For the past 20 years it’s seemed like it’s just been “copycat” music that has flooded the mainstream music. Sure there have been old bands that have had success with new recordings and have breathed life into the mainstream, but most of what is out there sounds the same as stuff that was being produced 20 years ago when Brittany Spears and Christina Agullerra (neither of whom I like)hit the charts. Just a few weeks ago I was watching the Santa Claus Parade From Toronto and they had some male artist on there and I knew it wasn’t Justin Bieber (I think it was Jordan Spears or something), but he sure sounded like him and his music was just a copy of Biener’s both in the way he sang and the instruments. Nowadays, there’s no creativity or desire to sound different from the other pop artists, unlike in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s when you had the Andrews Sisters, the Beach Boys and the Carpenters.
Click to expand...

There is a vast world of music out there, and talent, beyond what is signed to the major labels. If you think that music is dead just because of what you hear on the radio and because of what the major labels try to tell you to listen to, you are sorely mistaken. I spent 18 years in the independent music scene and 90% of what I heard blows away anything you have mentioned in this post.
 
leadmister said:
There is a vast world of music out there, and talent, beyond what is signed to the major labels. If you think that music is dead just because of what you hear on the radio and because of what the major labels try to tell you to listen to, you are sorely mistaken. I spent 18 years in the independent music scene and 90% of what I heard blows away anything you have mentioned in this post.
Click to expand...

Agreed completely. Radio is dead; it just doesn't know it's dead yet. I pay zero attention to it.

Ed
 
One wishes that the recording of "Someday" would have been handled differently, because that would have been a nice ballad song and possibly a successful release as a single. I think I read somewhere that Richard laments how they did that song too. If I recall correctly he said that Karen would have liked to release Someday as a single too.
 
OK here I am again, as I was out driving and listening to the iTunes version (the one I burned from my iTunes account) it struck me that I wonder if the use of the OK Chorale (or whomever they may be) isn't a nod to Frank Pooler and the CSULB Choral Arts program. Mr. Pooler mentored the Carpenters and at least had Richard as a student (perhaps Karen - I don't recall whether she was a student of his or not) at CSULB, and of course we know Richard's continued connection to CSULB funding the Performing Arts Center there in memory of Karen and bearing both of their names.
Just a thought, and I could be all wrong about it too.
 
Feadster said:
OK here I am again, as I was out driving and listening to the iTunes version (the one I burned from my iTunes account) it struck me that I wonder if the use of the OK Chorale (or whomever they may be) isn't a nod to Frank Pooler and the CSULB Choral Arts program. Mr. Pooler mentored the Carpenters and at least had Richard as a student (perhaps Karen - I don't recall whether she was a student of his or not) at CSULB, and of course we know Richard's continued connection to CSULB funding the Performing Arts Center there in memory of Karen and bearing both of their names.
Just a thought, and I could be all wrong about it too.
Click to expand...

Good observation. I like to believe that every second of this offering has meaning. Richard wasn't playing around with this one.
 
I was listening to Ticket To Ride last night really loud with a good set of closed back headphones and noticed some amazing things in the intro. It's almost as if there is a low, ambient humming in the strings on the lowest notes played. I've never heard anything like that before. I believe, as many others are saying, that Richard's arranging skills have not lain dormant by any means, and have actually improved. At least it seems that way. Maybe it's what he was always capable of but technology wouldn't permit it, as he touched on in the liner notes. There's no other way to describe it than heavenly. Believing that all things have a reason, a purpose, I still can't offer a single criticism of anything in this album, because I believe doing so would be a great disservice to what we are privileged to witness. Sure, I have my personal tastes, but I am going to deem them irrelevant in this case.
 
For what it's worth, Universal has mastered the new US CDs utilizing "CD-Text" that will display track information on players so equipped.
 
Goodbye to Love: the line "from this day love is forgotten" Richard has edited in a different lead vocal, starting with the word "day" - so "day love is forgotten" is from a different lead. Anyone want to explain to me why he did this?
 
Donn said:
Goodbye to Love: the line "from this day love is forgotten" Richard has edited in a different lead vocal, starting with the word "day" - so "day love is forgotten" is from a different lead. Anyone want to explain to me why he did this?[/QUOTE
If I'm not mistaken, this vocal was used on the SACD as well. Not sure why.
Click to expand...
 
Ah ok thanks! Richard has a long history of modifying Karen's leads. He sped up Can't Smile Without You on the Singles 1974-1978 so much that she sounds like a chipmunk, he added reverb to her leads on Goodbye to Love and Yesterday Once More on the 1985 compilation, he added his own "s" sound to the beginning of "sometimes when I listen to ..." on Crystal Lullaby on the 24 karat gold Song For You, and it sounds like For All We Know and This Masquerade on the latest album are sped up. Sorry, I am just not a fan of doing those kind of things. On this album, Baby It's You sounds like an entirely alternate lead, which is fine.
 
Mike Blakesley said:
Yeah, and the boneheads put "The Carpenters." (Well, at least it isn't "Carepenters.")
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I came unstuck with that after ripping the CD onto my laptop. I wasn't paying attention and copied over the tracks to my MP3 player, then selected 'Carpenters' and was baffled as to why I couldn't find it with rest of their albums. It was under 'The Carpenters'. As keen as I was to listen to the album l just couldn't cope with that sort of chaos so had to turn on my laptop again, delete the album from my mp3 player, edit the tracks on the laptop and start again.
 
tomswift2002 said:
Sorry I have to disagree with you there. For the past 20 years it’s seemed like it’s just been “copycat” music that has flooded the mainstream music.
Click to expand...
That's the issue; yes, mainstream music has become very generic, but there are still plenty of talented, creative musicians who are performing and recording. It's just that most of them are not on the mainstream record labels. So now we have to do a bit more searching to find them ... but they're there.

I don't want to sidetrack this thread, but for example I just bought an extraordinary CD by the 2018 Polaris Prize winner (in Canada), Jeremy Dutcher. You won't hear anything like his album in today's mainstream music.
 
Just to add my comments ... I LOVE this new project. It's beautifully produced. The only thing I'm not keen on is the added percussion on Top of the World. Now, hopefully we all will have noticed, in all the official blurb, a distinct lack of reference to the 50th Anniversary. So just perhaps, there's something more to come. Please ... Chris May ... can you give us any hope? (like perhaps Thank You for the Music as an anniversary bonus track) ...
 
Mike Blakesley said:
Yeah, and the boneheads put "The Carpenters." (Well, at least it isn't "Carepenters.")
Click to expand...

I've seen Carpainters before. Gave me a good chuckle between bouts of being pissed off.

Graeme said:
I came unstuck with that after ripping the CD onto my laptop. I wasn't paying attention and copied over the tracks to my MP3 player, then selected 'Carpenters' and was baffled as to why I couldn't find it with rest of their albums. It was under 'The Carpenters'. As keen as I was to listen to the album l just couldn't cope with that sort of chaos so had to turn on my laptop again, delete the album from my mp3 player, edit the tracks on the laptop and start again.
Click to expand...

I've been there many times, friend. It has become routine to check and edit tags before transferring copies of MP3's to my phone and flash drive.
 
Mike Blakesley said:
Yeah, and the boneheads put "The Carpenters." (Well, at least it isn't "Carepenters.")
Click to expand...

If you're talking about the online databases that get recognized when you put the disc in your computer, well I can tell you that the Target disc just said "Carpenters" when I first put it in to rip, but the regular CD said "The Carpenters" in the artist field.

I was referring to the CD Text that is encoded on the CD so that certain players, like my car player and my home Tascam recorder will display the titles of the tracks.
 
Just a small note, but Richard has retained the MOR Chorale for I need to be in Love but removed the Webb Smith Singers originally used on Fall in Love Again and replaced them with the generically titled OK Coral. . . interesting. . .sort of. In addition, the lines the Chorale sing on the overture and on We've Only Just Begun aren't credited at all.
 
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