The Carpenters – Singles 1969-1981 (2004/2013)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:16:58 minutes | 3,05 GB | Genre: Pop
Official Digital Download – Source: AcousticSounds | © A&M Records
DSD file created by Gus Skinas from the original DSD audio used to create the existing SACD.
“I listened to the DSD files available from SHR and was astonished by the resolution. From the carefully tuned drum fills, the spotless piano accents, and the layered vocal harmonies, nearly every song is a clinic in the art of engineering a hit record. Had I not known any better, I would have sworn I was listening to mastertapes. Pop nostalgia at its best.” — Neil Gader, The Absolute Sound, March 2015.
The greatest songs from one of the greatest vocal duos. The Carpenters crafted beautiful, light and airy tunes with meticulous arrangements. All of the memorable ones are included here.
The Carpenters – Carpenters Singles 1969-1981 (2004)
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 77:32 minutes | Scans included | 4,3 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | 76:50 mins | Scans | 1,46 GB
There’s a certain inherent sadness listening to this concise 12-song collection of the Carpenters’ early hits, especially as it opens with “We’ve Only Just Begun,” with its hopeful, dreamy lyrics — for it was never supposed to be definitive, just the first of at least two such collections. But changes in the public’s taste and a slackening (though never a disappearance) of hits for the duo, and Karen Carpenter’s death in 1983, made this the first and only real mass choice for a Carpenters collection. Ten of the duo’s dozen Top Ten hits are present, from “Close to You” to “Top of the World,” with their gorgeous and original slow ballad interpretation of “Ticket to Ride” and their cover of Carole King’s “It’s Going to Take Some Time” thrown in to offer a slightly wider perspective. Listening to this material, it’s easy to accuse the Carpenters of being hopelessly retro even in their own time — bear in mind that “We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Superstar” being contemporaneous with the Allman Brothers’ At Fillmore East and Eat a Peach and you get the idea. But the lush melodies brought out in Richard Carpenter’s arrangements and Karen’s singing are justification in themselves.
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The Carpenters – Singles 1969-1981 (2004/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:10 minutes | 1,51 GB | Genre: Soft Rock, Pop Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © A&M
In 1990, Richard Carpenter revised and expanded the Carpenters’ 1973 compilation LP Singles 1969-1973 for the CD era, retaining that album’s 12 tracks and adding nine more in his survey of his and his sister Karen’s run on the pop chart. Now, the set included all of the duo’s 12 Top Ten hits (and their holiday chart-topper, “Merry Christmas Darling”), but it did not contain all their Top 20 hits, eschewing “Solitaire” and “There’s a Kind of Hush (All Over the World),” along with Top 40 hits “I Need to Be in Love” and “All You Get From Love Is a Love Song” in favor of minor chart entries “Ticket to Ride” (their chart debut), “Bless the Beasts and Children” (the B-side of “Superstar”), and “I Believe You,” as well as the non-charting B-side “This Masquerade.” Richard Carpenter also took the opportunity to re-sequence the collection, giving a sense of the retrospective tone by starting with “Yesterday Once More,” followed by the introductory “We’ve Only Just Begun.” Both songs are in the Carpenters’ familiar ballad style, with Richard Carpenter’s piano prominent in the mix along with Karen Carpenter’s (or Hal Blaine’s) drums in the center of the mix, and strings and background vocals (by Karen and Richard) in the back. Gradually, the tempos of the songs increase and other instruments appear, such as the electric guitar solo by Tony Peluso on the fifth track, “Goodbye to Love,” the flute by Bob Messenger on the eighth track, “This Masquerade,” and the pedal steel guitar by Buddy Emmons on the country-inflected “Top of the World.” The sequencing relieves the sameness of Richard Carpenter’s arrangements at least somewhat. Of course, the group’s real draw remains Karen Carpenter’s melancholy alto, which makes even the happier lyrics seem heartbreaking. The 2005 reissue on an SACD hybrid disc adds clarity and, in its three versions (CD audio, SACD stereo, and SACD Surround Sound), increases space between the instruments so that each part can be focused on separately. This is not always an advantage, since it sometimes tends to make music that sounded lush and full in its old, compressed analog form seem surprisingly spare and austere. But Karen Carpenter’s vocals benefit from the central attention they receive. –Review by William Ruhlmann
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The Carpenters – Singles 1969-1981 (2000/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:17:10 minutes | 898 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © A&M
Singles (1969-1981) expands the popular Singles (1969-1973) album with more of the group’s later hits, such as “Please Mr. Postman,” “Only Yesterday,” “Touch Me When We’re Dancing,” and “I Won’t Last a Day Without You.” “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Superstar,” and other ’70s hits are still here, making this a definitive collection of their best-known songs.
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Carpenters – The Singles 1969-1973 (1973) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2014]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 41:46 minutes | Scans included | 1,7 GB
or DSD64 2.0 (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Full Scans included | 1,67 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 865 MB
There’s a certain inherent sadness listening to this concise 12-song collection of the Carpenters’ early hits, especially as it opens with “We’ve Only Just Begun,” with its hopeful, dreamy lyrics — for it was never supposed to be definitive, just the first of at least two such collections. But changes in the public’s taste and a slackening (though never a disappearance) of hits for the duo, and Karen Carpenter’s death in 1983, made this the first and only real mass choice for a Carpenters collection. Ten of the duo’s dozen Top Ten hits are present, from “Close to You” to “Top of the World,” with their gorgeous and original slow ballad interpretation of “Ticket to Ride” and their cover of Carole King’s “It’s Going to Take Some Time” thrown in to offer a slightly wider perspective. Listening to this material, it’s easy to accuse the Carpenters of being hopelessly retro even in their own time — bear in mind that “We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Superstar” being contemporaneous with the Allman Brothers’ At Fillmore East and Eat a Peach and you get the idea. But the lush melodies brought out in Richard Carpenter’s arrangements and Karen’s singing are justification in themselves.
Read more
The Carpenters, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Carpenters With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:06:22 minutes | 2,35 GB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © A&M
The greatest classics from The Carpenters have resurfaced in a sublime blend of vocal harmonies and symphonic arrangements. For this project in 2018, Richard Carpenter himself went along to Abbey Road Studios. Their last album in 1981, Made in America, was a half-posthumous album (Richard’s sister Karen having died in 1983 at only 32 years of age) and invoked a certain feeling of nostalgia, showing that this legendary pop group shifting more towards easy-listening could still be deep. However, it is still very rooted in the American culture of the seventies, particularly through the classics Close To You, Rainy Days and Mondays and We’ve Only Just Begun.
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