|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Courtesy of Greg Barber
Where have you gone, Spiro Agnew? Our nation clamors for 1972: Donny Osmond lands a Number Three single, Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors cause the greatest stir at the U.S. Open, and The Karen Carpenter Story hits near the top of the Neilson ratings. Though the TV movie ended with the singer's death in 1983, Lovelines offers the fantasy sequel: Karen lives, goes out on her own and becomes reasonably...hip.
Karen did in fact make one solo album in 1980, with many of the musicians who had just finished working on Michael Jackson's Off the Wall; it was produced by the Quincy Jones of the East Coast, Phil Ramone. Four of those unreleased cuts surface on Lovelines, and they are liberating. Ramone recorded her in leaner, decidedly unsaccharine settings and, in effect, got rid of her music's otherwise characteristic bad aftertaste. As Karen's cozy contralto pulses through the come-hither Lovelines, the hearth-warm If We Try (both written by Rod Temperton, whose credits also include Rock With You and Thriller) and the saltier If I Had You, her vocals come damn close to soulful. Listening to them, it becomes apparent why singers like Chrissie Hynde, Madonna and Gloria Estefan have "come out of the closet" and admitted they were Karen fans.
Richard Carpenter has apparently deemed the rest of the solo album inappropriate for release (among the still-shelved tracks are a Cars-like rocker, "I'm Still In Love With You", and a mad disco romp "My Baby Keeps Changing My Mind"), but at least he had the sense to tone down his usual Disneyesque flourishes and milky choirs for the rest of Lovelines, which consists of unreleased Carpenters tracks recorded between 1977 and 1980.
The best of these are Where Do I Go From Here and You're The One, which both reaffirm that Karen was the finest ballad singer of the 1970s: No one could fill up, and out, a melody or cut to the blood and guts of the ickiest love song as she could. In fact, voices like Karen Carpenter's never really go out of style; Lovelines reveals just a few of the avenues that would have been open to her. But sadly, the Seventies never really ended for Karen Carpenter; she died before she could shed the goody-two-shoes image that shrouded her immense talent. As such, Lovelines becomes her essential epitaph. - ROB HOERBURGER
Following the review of Lovelines that appeared in Rolling Stone, Feb. 8/90, the following two letters to the editor (one from producer Phil Ramone)appeared on March 22/90.
Just a short note to say thanks fo much for the complimentary review on the Karen Carpenter album Lovelines (Recordings, RS 571). I really dug being dubbed "the Quincy Jones of the East Coast." - Phil Ramone, New York City
I found the review of the latest and las Carpenters album to be bitter sweet. To have the publication that made it a stigma to enjoy their music finally extoll its virtues proves we cannot appreciate what we have until it is lost forever. - Bonnie L. Brackette Brimfield, Massachusetts
Also accompanying these letters was a small drawing of a gravestone with the name "Karen" on it. Below this are 3 stars.
 |
 |
|
|
Buy: |
Buy: Carpenters - Lovelines CD |
Last changed: Sun Jul 8 18:30:39 EDT 2007
