“New” Carpenters Compilation on Spotify: A Curiosity Find

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Must Hear This Album

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https://open.spotify.com/album/0HGgUy4Nio35ecbzg78Pdy

So I’m wondering if anybody has any insider information on this “new” compilation album that recently surfaced on Carpenters Spotify page. Its listed release date is 1970, which is inaccurate, as the majority of the recordings were recorded well after that year, but anyway...each song on this collection has “Remastered” after the title, and here’s the playlist (with a few notes of observation from me):
  1. Close To You (3:40)
  2. Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina (5:42): Cuts out the intro part.
  3. Help (3:03) Karen’s vocals seem a bit buried in the mix. Maybe a new mix? Experts please weigh-in...
  4. I Just Fall In Love Again (4:02)
  5. Desperado (3:36)
  6. Eve (2:52)
  7. Make Believe It’s Your First Time (4:07): Same mix as VOTH, by my ears, including the “Uh, I have to get in a serious mood, here...” intro.
  8. Because We Are In Love (4:59)
  9. Look To Your Dreams (5:07)
  10. Let Me Be The One (2:24)
  11. Road Ode (3:51) Clean opening and closing. Definitely a remix.
  12. I Need To Be In Love (3:46) Includes the sweet piano intro.
  13. Now (3:48)
  14. Reason To Believe (3:02)
  15. Bless The Beasts and the Children (3:13) Has the truncated ending, not the fade out of, “the children, the children, the children..."
  16. Baby It’s You (2:51): Wow. So this seems to be a new instrumental mix (to my semi-novice ears!). Mainly that it uses an electric keyboard, versus the piano on the CTY album. The vocal by Karen seems (by my ears) the same as the original album. I don’t think I’ve ever heard this mix?
 
You can create your own compilations on Spotify...I've not listened to this but from your description all of the mixes can be found on authentic releases e.g. the remix of Road Ode can be found on the UK 'Treasures' compilation. The artwork looks very amateurish too.

One thing that I did notice is the mention of Carimbe Records at the bottom, plus Spotify AB refers to Spotify Sweden.
 
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I don't have the CD to hand, but the tracklist looks exactly like that of the UK Treasures compilation, which contains the awful new remixes of 'Baby It's You' and 'Road Ode'.
 
Yes, the artwork is horrible and simply lifts the Horizon album cover and junks it up with cheesy graphics and text. Thanks for the tip on the UK Treasures compilation; I’ll look at that. This is definitely not a Spotify fan playlist, as it is located in the official albums section of their page (fan playlists are located at the bottom of the artists’ pages). I have to admit, I’m not a big fan of the electric piano in “Baby It’s You,” per your note, Rumbahbah, but I kind of like the “Road Ode” mix, even though Karen’s vocal seems a bit buried...
 
I’m wondering why the collection is titled, Close To You? I also wondered why they selected those particular songs? It’s certainly not a typical hits compilation, as only 3 of the 16 songs (4, if you count “Beasts”) were even singles, and only one of those were a “big” hit. Intriguing. I’m guessing this has been discussed in the Treasures thread. I’ll look for that.
 
I’m wondering why the collection is titled, Close To You? I also wondered why they selected those particular songs? It’s certainly not a typical hits compilation, as only 3 of the 16 songs (4, if you count “Beasts”) were even singles, and only one of those were a “big” hit. Intriguing. I’m guessing this has been discussed in the Treasures thread. I’ll look for that.

Treasures was a budget compilation released through the Pickwick label in 1990. It's common practice for such bargain bin releases to feature a few hits amongst lots of album tracks. The surprise in this case is that a rarely featured album track surfaced as a remix for the very first time.

http://carpenters.amcorner.com/album/treasures-uk
 
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Treasures was a budget compilation released through the Pickwick label in 1990. It's common practice for such bargain bin releases to feature a few hits amongst lots of album tracks. The surprise in this case is that a rarely featured album track surfaced as a remix for the very first time.

http://carpenters.amcorner.com/album/treasures-uk

Thanks for the link and background on Treasures. I’ve actually been listening to the Spotify version this evening at home, and it’s surprisingly enjoyable (because I wouldn’t have thought to put those particular songs together in a collection, necessarily).

Mad props to Richard, Universal, or whomever is making decisions on what to include on the Carpenters US Spotify page, as they include all of the original studio albums as well as the major compilations (including Gold 35th, 20th Century Masters, Love Songs, the boxed set and all of its hidden gems, and others) and now the quirkily awesome Treasures (retitled, etc., with the kind of rare remixes).

A real treat for longtime fans as well as an opportunity for new fans to dig more deeply.
 
https://open.spotify.com/album/0HGgUy4Nio35ecbzg78Pdy

So I’m wondering if anybody has any insider information on this “new” compilation album that recently surfaced on Carpenters Spotify page. Its listed release date is 1970, which is inaccurate, as the majority of the recordings were recorded well after that year, but anyway...each song on this collection has “Remastered” after the title, and here’s the playlist (with a few notes of observation from me):
  1. Close To You (3:40)
  2. Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina (5:42): Cuts out the intro part.
  3. Help (3:03) Karen’s vocals seem a bit buried in the mix. Maybe a new mix? Experts please weigh-in...
  4. I Just Fall In Love Again (4:02)
  5. Desperado (3:36)
  6. Eve (2:52)
  7. Make Believe It’s Your First Time (4:07): Same mix as VOTH, by my ears, including the “Uh, I have to get in a serious mood, here...” intro.
  8. Because We Are In Love (4:59)
  9. Look To Your Dreams (5:07)
  10. Let Me Be The One (2:24)
  11. Road Ode (3:51) Clean opening and closing. Definitely a remix.
  12. I Need To Be In Love (3:46) Includes the sweet piano intro.
  13. Now (3:48)
  14. Reason To Believe (3:02)
  15. Bless The Beasts and the Children (3:13) Has the truncated ending, not the fade out of, “the children, the children, the children..."
  16. Baby It’s You (2:51): Wow. So this seems to be a new instrumental mix (to my semi-novice ears!). Mainly that it uses an electric keyboard, versus the piano on the CTY album. The vocal by Karen seems (by my ears) the same as the original album. I don’t think I’ve ever heard this mix?

It looks like Tidal is selling this compilation in mp3 and FLAC format:

http://tidal.com/ca/store/album/53700803

They also have a compilation called "Chronicles":

http://tidal.com/ca/store/album/35700521
 
On Spotify, here is a random comparison with other artists that are currently being "followed":

Carpenters: 126,806
ABBA: 503,346
Adele: 4,042,050
Bee Gees: 370,776
Beach Boys: 464,565
Beatles: 1,606,545
Captain and Tennille: 6,821
Michael Jackson: 2,304,248
Justin Bieber: 4,650,820
Katy Perry: 4,236,285
Taylor Swift: 4,035,602

And for what it's worth:

Karen Carpenter: 3,926
Richard Carpenter: 531
 
Here are some more meaningful stats from Spotify for the artists I listed above. These numbers indicate the number of "monthly listeners":

Carpenters: 446,104
ABBA: 2,255,344
Adele: 22,260,331
Bee Gees: 2,598,835
Beach Boys: 2,196,218
Beatles: 9,627,754
Captain and Tennille: 135,165
Michael Jackson: 7,813,001
Justin Bieber: 31,555,883
Katy Perry: 9,127,274
Taylor Swift: 1,513,297
Karen Carpenter: 6,483
Richard Carpenter: 8,247

I found these numbers on the iOS app. For some reason they're not shown on the web player, but then again I'm not super familiar with it. I know some of these numbers are skewed because some artists don't have their entire catalog available on Spotify, but it's interesting nonetheless. It's amazing to me how the Biebs rules them all, and by quite a huge margin, lol. I'm in Canada, so I don't know if these are for my country only or worldwide numbers.

I'll be interested in seeing how these numbers will change in December. I predict the Carpenters numbers will see a big spike around then (Christmas time).
 
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