Carpenters

AMG Review of Carpenters

Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

This is where the duo began running a little short of material for albums, having raided many of the song catalogs with which the Carpenters were most familiar on their two previous LPs -- although it didn't seem it to anyone at the time except Richard Carpenter, since there were three hit singles present that ensured the album's popularity: "For All We Know," the huge-selling "Superstar" (done on the first take because it was a little uncertain how comfortable Karen Carpenter would be with the sexually suggestive lyrics to the Leon Russell song), and "Rainy Days and Mondays." The unusual jacket design, like an invitation with a decorative picture of the duo (similar to a graduation photo), seemed to go over well with older listeners while not repelling teens, which is lost in the transformation to CD packaging. In retrospect, Carpenters is a very MOR album -- "Superstar" aside, its influences are more pop than ock, and any of the duo's original interest in jazz is long gone as well. The Bacharach/David medley, in particular, was distinctly more appealing to the over-30 set than to teenage listeners, and "Saturday" made them few new friends.