Which do you like better? Close to You or Ticket to Ride

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Nothing can replace these very early Carpenters Albums.

I have always enjoyed both these albums, but for me I always preferred CLOSE TO YOU over Ticket to Ride.

Close to You seems so much more polished & "easy" for me to listen to. Help, Reason to Believe, Mr Guder, I just like more of the songs off CTY.

It doesn't mean I don't like Ticket, there are some awesome songs there like Eve & Turn Away.

But the choice of songs & arrangement makes me always pick up Close to You more often.

So my pick is Close To You. I'd like to see what you all will pick.

 

[Rockduo]

I have nothing against Ticket, either. In a way, I think of Close To You as Ticket To Ride II because they used most of what was left from Richard's pre-duo catalogue as album filler. Crudely put, TTR is like an album looking for a hit, and CTY resulted from two hits looking for an album. IMO, the Carpenters Sound really started to hit its stride with the latter, too. It's much more polished.

 

[Harry]

Tough choice, but I picked Ticket To Ride/Offering. Though I heard Close To You first and fell in love with the sound of the group, I was blown away by Offering when I finally heard it. It's remained a favorite of mine all these years.

Harry
...early Offering fan, online...

 

[Mike Blakesley]

This was an easy choice for me. CLOSE TO YOU hangs together much better as an album. I do like all of the songs on TTR, but CLOSE TO YOU sounds more like they're hitting their stride, to me.

But neither one can top the magnificent A SONG FOR YOU!

 

[andywithaz]

I agree! The first album was when Karen first started singing and she had not mastered it. I would never say that Karen's voice was bad but to me it kind of got better through the years. If you listen to Parting of our Ways you could definetely tell the difference between it and Now(her last recording)

 

[Murray]

Look at my avatar, and then guess how I voted!

Like Harry, I also heard Close To You first, and while I love that album, there's just something about Offering that really makes it stand out... it sounds very fresh and still a little rough around the edges. A great eclectic mix of tunes, VERY "sixties" sounding. GROOOOVVVYY BABY!!


Murray

 

[Harry]

Love that raw sound of the early album plus the even earlier tracks from the box sets and As Time Goes By.

Harry
NP: nothing

 

[mr J.]

CLOSE TO YOU definitely.CLOSE TO YOU is a more uniform,cohesive album than TICKET TO RIDE(which has 1969 written all over it,and too many tracks with Richard on lead).Also,CLOSE TO YOU has a certain jazziness to it that was never duplicated on the subsequent albums:the bossa-nova arrangement on "Love Is Surrender".The improvised organ solo on "Help".The complicated time signatures on "Mr Guder".The percussion-heavy "Another Song" and Karen's ultra-cool vibrato on "Crescent Noon".(And,don't forget the silky-smooth sax work on "Baby It's You").CLOSE TO YOU-good album,indeed!

Incidentally,CLOSE TO YOU is listed in MOJO's Top 1000 albums of all time.I think it's album#275.

 

[Mark-T]

I'm with Mr. J on all accounts!
Mark

 

[CraigGA]

Never would have given this question a second thought, or would have never even thought the question to begin with since Close To You is superior, until I read Harry's response. I try to stay open-minded and can appreciate the sound Harry refers to, esp. if Invocation and Benediction are given as examples. All I Can Do, and Don't Be Afraid are also two of my favorites, but the rest just sounds too BubbleGum. Close To You is a better collection of songs. That same Carpenters kept for the early seventies, but it was Karen's voice that took them beyond 1974 to cross into different styles. And, it was probably Karen's voice that allowed any popular appeal in the beginning.

It turns my stomach to hear some of the new mixes, especially Top of the World and the Oldies set because of the the obvious "canned" music that replaced the real instruments. Real cheesy. It keeps me from any purchase of re-mixes. I do, however, purchase the remastered mixes.