2009年 Oct 25日 Sunday, 5:53

Carpenters – Close To You

I really wanted to like these guys… Never recognized by critics, in the meanwhile selling lots and lots of records… and now appearing in the 1001 albums book: that calls for my sympathy! And sure, the arrangements by Richard Carpenter are very detailed, Karen Carpenter has a very pretty voice, and the harmonic singing sounds nice.

However, it all reminds me too much of Disney music. I don’t mind Disney music as long as there’s a movie connected to it, but that’s not the case here. The soft happy tone of the melodies (apparently there is some darkness connected to Karen’s way of singing… could be, but not enough to convince me) and especially the quite bombastic/melodramatic arrangements make me want to pick flowers and grab hands of strangers, which isn’t something I usually do.

Well, I have to admit the album gets better near the end: Baby It's You and I'll Never Fall In Love Again (very nice harmonics!) are catchy songs (and so is Maybe It's You in the first half of the album), Crescent Noon really creates a desolate atmosphere and it can’t be denied that closer Another Song is quite original. And of course (They Long To Be) Close To You is for a reason one of their biggest hits: cheesy but right on.

But nah, I have a small appreciation for some songs, but overall I’m not really impressed. Not bad… but nothing more.

(Blijft maar in mijn hoofd hangen: (They Long To Be) Close To You)