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What Could Have Been...

Superdave | 09/03/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The story of Karen Carpenter's solo album is a long and complicated one,so I am not going to go into it here,because the review would become 6 pages long.For the full skinny,I suggest reading "Little Girl Blue:The Life Of Karen Carpenter".All I can say is that for a myrad of reasons,the shelvng of this album by A&M Records and Richard Carpenter was one of the worst moves in the history of popular music over the past 40 years.This album was a fresh sound and direction for Karen.At age 29,Karen had grown up and this album not only marked a musical declaration of independence,but one could argue that it was her own chance to break free and have a life of her own.Control over her own destiny,something she sorely needed.The music is edgy,eclectic,and daring for 1980.One of the critisisms of the album is that it lacks the "timeless" quality of The Carpenters,and sounds dated.Well,yeah.THIS WAS NEVER MENT TO BE A CARPENTERS RECORD.This was Karen's own work,aided by Phil Ramone,Rod Temperton and Billy Joel's backing band,recorded in 1979 to be released in 1980.The songs were edgy in content,especially for the virginal "girl next door" Karen,an image she disliked.She was a normal,mature woman with needs,wants and desires,and on this record,as she always had,she injected herself into the material and found the profound inner truth that she always connected with.She experimented with her full vocal range on this album.The money,her vocal basement voice was still present,but she also sang some of the songs in higher keys,which to this day Richard seems to dislike.She explores different genre's.Rock,pop,jazz and yes,a bit of disco,and proves how versitile she really was.The most common thing I hear is that "Karen Carpenter could have sang the phone book and made it compelling".Well,this album suggests that It might have been true.Luckily the material,for it's time,was darned good to begin with.In my opinion,if this album was released in 1980,it would have been a hit.It would have not only provided a boost to Karen's career,but to Richard's as well,as people would have been forced to reasses them both as artists,and would have shown Richard it was ok to experiment,and "Made in America" may have been a different record,the true comeback the Carpenter's needed.More importantly,It would have been the emotional boost Karen may have needed to help her conquer her anorexia and regain her health.I sustain,even if the album had bombed,Karen would have handled it much better than having the most important people in her career and life call the project she put her heart and soul into, "crap".I know it's all 20/20 hind sight now,but had this album been released,things could have turned out much differently for Karen and Richard Carpenter.All we can say is "What could have been..."."

Pretty great "unreleaseable" album! Absolutely Worth Downloa

Jim Pollock | Knoxville, TN USA | 08/08/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you're here, you're a Karen fan, and you'll want to like it. I put it that way because it IS different, and (like me) you may not like it on first play, but play it again and it will grow on you. I wish I hadn't waited until 2010 to give it a second chance. You can find out some "juicy" info about this on Wikipedia, e.g. it wasn't Karen's decision not to release the album, and that's the PG version."

Wonderfull Karen

T. Evjen | 09/25/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Listening to this marvelous CD brought back many good memories for me.I can't say enough about what an incredible talent Karen Carpenter had. One of a kind voice. It's too bad that she only produced one solo album. After listening once through I was hooked; I wanted to hear more, a lot more! I did not realize that Karen had produced a solo work until after I had read "Little Girl Blue" by Randy Schmidt, so even though this is not for a book review I would recommend that volume as well."