CARPENTERS: HORIZON (1975)
1) Aurora; 2) Only Yesterday;
3) Desperado; 4) Please Mr. Postman; 5) I Can Dream, Can't It?; 6) Solitaire;
7) Happy; 8) (I'm Caught Between) Goodbye And I Love You; 9) Love Me For What I
Am; 10) Eventide.
The decline of the duo's commercial fortune
starts here, even though Horizon was
still able to yield two huge singles. The biggest one apparently continued the
vibe of Now & Then: another
lightweight cover of an oldie that, it could be thought, would never again be
revived after The Marvelettes and The Beatles had done everything possible with
it — still, Karen did the impossible and seduced America, along with the entire
English-speaking world, into accepting ʽPlease Mr. Postmanʼ in Sesame
Street-style, with a fluffy-feathery arrangement and a vocal part so light,
you'd swear she was impersonating a 12-year old. Not that I'm complaining: she
seduces me all right, and if you have
no strong prejudices about «white» versions of «black» songs (with emphasis on
de-sexualization etc., though I wouldn't necessarily call Karen's
interpretations of black R&B «de-sexualized»), it will be hard to deny that
the whole thing is cutesy and adorable without being too heavily dollified. The
sax and guitar solos rule, too.
The lesser hit single was a bit more heavy and
serious: a Carpenter/Bettis original, ʽOnly Yesterdayʼ is a soulful love
ballad of the «everything will be all right now that you're here» variety. But unlike
many, if not most, of the earlier big hits, ʽOnly Yesterdayʼ has no subtle
depth whatsoever — its message does not go beyond "baby, baby, feels like
maybe", and while the chorus is catchy, it is not original enough to
compensate for a certain flatness in Karen's voice, as if she tried, but
failed, to find a proper key to it and ended up just delivering the lyrics the
best way her voice would allow it. ABBA could do this; Karen functions much
better when she does not have to dilute her melancholic mood with fake
happiness. And if she does, better do it Sesame Street-style all the way — at
least it's more fun that way.
The main problem with Horizon is that most of it sounds like ʽOnly Yesterdayʼ, only
worse. The idea of covering the old popular song ʽI Can Dream, Can't I?ʼ (they
may have gotten it from Cass Elliot) was rotten from the start, because old
midnight jazz standards are among the easiest things to turn into cornball if
the singer does not give them a specific angle, and for all her wonderful
qualities, Karen is hardly a major competitor for the jazz greats. Then there's
the cover of ʽDesperadoʼ, which is probably
better than Linda Ronstadt's — Karen is really working hard here to make you
sit up and take those lyrics seriously — but not necessarily better than the
original; in any case, your acceptance of this will significantly depend on
your general attitude towards The Eagles, and in any case, the Leon Russell
covers were better.
The rest is mostly original stuff, and most of
the second side of the LP where it is concentrated is a stiff bore. As keeper
of the Only Solitaire blog, I'm probably supposed to be partial to any song
with ʽSolitaireʼ in the title, but this here ʽSolitaireʼ is slow and dreary —
again, I think ABBA could have done a better job with it, perhaps speeding the
ballad up a little and giving it a few more distinctive piano riffs, but
Richard's arrangement is the epitome of the «nothing happening» approach. With
ʽLove Me For What I Amʼ, they apparently try to repeat the successful formula
of ʽGoodbye To Loveʼ (because of another climactic distorted and phased solo
from Tony Peluso), but the result hardly has even half the energy of its
predecessor, and even the solo is super-short. And no semi-respectable
Carpenters album should have a song called ʽHappyʼ — because, let's face it,
the Carpenters vibe only works when they are not.
Summing up — one cutesy-adorable cover, a
couple of passable originals, a couple more unnecessary covers, and a puddle
of filler; no sense of progress whatsoever and plenty of times when the
project's chief asset is misused. Even on that album photo, Karen looks like
she's not really there, you know? There was simply no great incentive here for
the public to renew their love for the siblings, and there is no incentive for
me not to give the album a thumbs down. Already in 1975, it must have
been clear that the Carpenters were past their peak — and soon they would have
to adapt their old-fashioned sound to the rapidly changing musical values,
something for which they were far less than ready.
I am partial to Only Yesterday, but to like it you have to focus on tiny nuances in Karen's voice that set her singing apart. The song itself is rote. It is like any of those examples of great artists working in b genres and one having to become adapt at spotting flashes of individuality that exist under the surface. Like session musicians, comic book writers, b movie producers, book illustrators, pulp writers, it is all uninteresting fare that nevertheless attracted talented people that could transcend or even elevate these genres
ReplyDeleteSpeaking strictly as a non-fan, I always thought this album had a darker-than-usual vibe to it, as Richard sank into chemical dependency and Karen started losing to her demons. If you listen to it right, that makes some of the sappier songs more interesting, and gives the album...well, there's no way I can call it an "edge"...but a disquieting flavor that one could argue gives the complete product a depth all the others lack.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, it still consists of mostly inferior songs done in a somewhat impaired manner (though not the zombie-like autopilot of the next album, the most vapid of their career at that point), and it's not something I try listening to more than once every fifteen years or so and I seldom make it to the end. But it has a mysterious allure.