⭐ 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 just took a full listen to this album again, and wondering….does anyone else “hear” the intro to “Touch Me When Were Dancing” after “I Believe You” as they play on “Made in America?” That was one of the first albums I owned and the playlist in that order is burned into my memory. So, I usually play them in that order on this album as well to keep my sanity.
 
Track order on a well-played album can be powerful indeed. I still hear "Let Me Be The One" start after "Saturday".
This is true. Might be for a different topic but back then artists created albums to be heard in a certain track order. While an artist catalog can be played in random mode, sometimes you lose the emotions the album might bring as a whole.

I wonder how many fans today listen to albums as a whole? CD’s forced you to do that but with downloads and random mode…that changed things up in how we listen to music today.

I know CD players had random mode but I would rarely put a CD in a player and choose random. However with my phone, I often use random for my entire catalog of artist. So at times I feel like I’m missing the feel of an album as a whole.
 
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That's one of the things that compilations are sometimes good for - the change-up of track orders, and sometimes some inspired programming. I recall listening to some of SWEET MEMORY and being impressed with the song flow.
 
I think I always hear Superstar and Rainy Days as one (in either order) and from a different album, Horizon, I’m Caught Between Goodbye and I Love You, and Love Me For What I Am as one song. Random plays and compilations have changed all others over the past 40-50 years. (In 1973, I know I felt 1923 was a walk back in time, for sure. Funny how 50 years feels a little different now.)
 
Could the RPO be considered a compilation album? It’s one that would not really work if one chooses to listen in random mode. It wasn’t meant to be listened to that way with all the interludes.

Yet I wouldn’t be surprised if people downloaded and purchased only certain songs that they liked instead of purchasing the entire album. In that regard they would be missing out on what Richard created and how the album was meant to flow from beginning to end.
 
This is true. Might be for a different topic but back then artists created albums to be heard in a certain track order. While an artist catalog can be played in random mode, sometimes you lose the emotions the album might bring as a whole.

I wonder how many fans today listen to albums as a whole? CD’s forced you to do that but with downloads and random mode…that changed things up in how we listen to music today.

I know CD players had random mode but I would rarely put a CD in a player and choose random. However with my phone, I often use random for my entire catalog of artist. So at times I feel like I’m missing the feel of an album as a whole.
Maybe for Lp’s. But I’ve seen examples of albums from the 1960’s and 70’s where the cassettes, reel-to-reel and/or 8-tracks were rearranged, in order to balance the running time, or in a couple of cases the cassette or 8-track would have a track that didn’t appear on LP, or appeared on the cassette/8-track first but then would appear a few months to a year later on the next LP album.

Here’s an example of the 1969 album, Here Come The Hardy Boys:

Digital/LP:
Here Come The Hardys
Those Country Girls
One Time in A Million
That's That
Be My Baby
Sink or Swim
Namby-Pamby
My Little Sweet Pea
Sha-la-la
Feels So Good
Love and Let Love

Reel-To-Reel:
(Sequence A)
Sink or Swim
Namby-Pamby
My Little Sweetpea
Sha-La-La
Feels So good
Love and Let Love

(Sequence B)
Here Come The Hardys
Those Country Girls
One Time In A Million
That's That
Be My Baby

Cassette:
(Program 1)
Here Come The Hardys
Those Country Girls
Feels So Good
Love and Let Love
Sha-La-La
Sink or Swim

(Program 2)
Namby-Pamby
Be My Baby
Love Train (not on LP)
One Time In A Million
That's That
My Little Sweetpea

8-Track:
Track A
Here Come The Hardys
Those Country Girls
Feels So Good

Track B
Love and Let Love
Sha-La-La
Sink or Swim

Track C
Namby Pamby
Be My Baby
Love Train (not on LP until next LP Wheels)

Track D
One Time In A Million
That’s That
My Little Sweetpea
 
Could the RPO be considered a compilation album? It’s one that would not really work if one chooses to listen in random mode. It wasn’t meant to be listened to that way with all the interludes.

RPO is kind of a hybrid, really -- it IS a compilation of previously-released songs, but it could also be considered a new work because of all the new recordings in it. It doesn't fit neatly into either category, really.

With the segues, it shows that Richard considers it an "album," a complete work meant to be listened to in order, rather than a conglomeration of songs -- he thought the same way about the original Singles album, with the various segues that it had on side 1. That is one aspect of the brave new musical world that I don't like.... I really get a kick out of songs being run together and it's very jarring to me when I listen to music on a streaming service that's meant to slip right into the next song, but it just cuts off and goes to something else.
 
Even the Christmas Portrait: Special Edition could be considered an album, since that album also segues together very well even though it contains tracks from both Christmas albums. Also considering that it also says on the front cover “11 performances heard here for the first time”, and with how unknown the Old-Fashioned Christmas album is in many parts of the world.

Wiyh the RPO, Universal clearly considers it a studio album, as the copyright notice does not have the word “Compilation” in it.
 
Even the Christmas Portrait: Special Edition could be considered an album, since that album also segues together very well

I never said a record had to have segues to make it an album -- I just said that given the fact Carpenters albums often have segues, is a sign that the artist/producer intends for the record to be listened to in order. ANY collection of songs packaged together is an album, just by definition, whether the songs blend together or not.

The wording of the copyright notice doesn't mean much. I've got plenty of compilations where the word is left out. Copyright is copyright.
 
I never said a record had to have segues to make it an album -- I just said that given the fact Carpenters albums often have segues, is a sign that the artist/producer intends for the record to be listened to in order. ANY collection of songs packaged together is an album, just by definition, whether the songs blend together or not.

The wording of the copyright notice doesn't mean much. I've got plenty of compilations where the word is left out. Copyright is copyright.
I’d disagree. I’ve got a number of compilation albums on cassette, CD, LP and they all have “Compilation” or “This Compilation” in their copyright notices. Anything that doesn’t have that wording is a studio album, even when it’s a re-recorded album of songs by a single artist.

i just checked the back of CPSE and it seems that A&M/Polygram/Universal don’t consider it as a compilation, as it doesn’t have the wording “Compilation”, just the P-in-circle before 1984 and 1978 for the different tracks, and then the C-in-circle before 1984 for the whole package.
 
If there is to be a second Carpenters with the RPO, id like to see this tracklist

Those Good Old Dreams
Happy
Only Yesterday
Superstar
There's a Kind of Hush
A Song For You
Someday
Solitaire
Ticket To Ride
I Won't Last a Day Without You
I Need to Be In Love
Rainy Days and Mondays
Bonus tracks:
Honolulu City Lights
Lovelines
 
If there is to be a second Carpenters with the RPO, id like to see this tracklist

Those Good Old Dreams
Happy
Only Yesterday
Superstar
There's a Kind of Hush
A Song For You
Someday
Solitaire
Ticket To Ride
I Won't Last a Day Without You
I Need to Be In Love
Rainy Days and Mondays
Bonus tracks:
Honolulu City Lights
Lovelines
Ticket to Ride was already on RPO1. I don’t think it would reappear on RPO2.
Maybe Please Mr. Postman would fill that slot better as it didn’t get a very wide release.
 
Ticket to Ride was already on RPO1. I don’t think it would reappear on RPO2.
Maybe Please Mr. Postman would fill that slot better as it didn’t get a very wide release.

I forgot Ticket to Ride was on RPO1. Please Mr. Postman would fit perfectly.
 
It would be interesting to also hear him finish up Last One Singing The Blues. Technically it’s already been released just in an unfinished form.

Jimmy Mack & Keep My Lovelight Burning would also be interesting to hear.
 
This one and Still Crazy are probably my two favorite songs on the solo album.
With Last One… I always hear when it plays in my mind at the end, even though it’s not there in the actual track, the sound effect of a woman’s high heel shoe/boot clacking on the floor to represent Karen leaving the soundbooth.
 
I bought the Target version of RPO, and also downloaded the RPO on Apple Music when it came out. I have since noticed some pretty substantive differences between mixes (as has been mentioned here) in the meantime.

But the biggest, to me, is an alternate take on "I Believe You." For the second part of the first verse, in my RPO version downloaded previously, Karen sings, When you TELL ME every time that we make love. In the new RPO version streaming currently on Apple Music, she sings When you SAY THAT every time that we make love.

Has anyone else noticed this? I need to check the CD from Target to see which version it is. I'm afraid to delete the older Apple version off my phone, because the new download doesn't have that alternate take -- and I enjoy both versions!
 
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