"The Carpenters with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra" - At the end of the year, listening to The Carpenters' music again

https://hoctroviet.blogspot.com/2018/12/cd-moi-carpenters-with-royal.html#more

(This article is loosely translated from Vietnamese into English)

A strange opportunity helped me buy a new CD titled " The Carpenters with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra " a few years back. "

Maybe this was the first time I could buy a CD of a famous band I like, right when they came out! The last time The Carpenters came out was almost 40 years ago (1981), if not counting their compilations.

 The sound was so clear this time, with a symphony band of hundreds adding new harmonies to the strings, replaying some of the solos, etc., leaving fans in awe. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, the legendary place where the Beatles recorded in the 60s. I would like to add that in 1997 when I went to London to play, my siblings and I tried to find the way to the metro, to the door of this Studio, and also crossed the street like the Beatles did in the past :-)

Here is the article about the above CD:

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At the end of the year, listening to The Carpenters music again

As usual, I took the last two weeks off and the beginning of the year to relax with my family and fellow Americans to celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve. and the New Year. This is also an opportunity to review the musical assets and write down a scattering or two if inspired enough. This year, dear God, not only did I find the true teacher - musician Arnold Schoenberg - which I mentioned in a recent article (December 2018), but I also had the opportunity to listen to the Carpenters band again with a new CD. clean, great sound.

Listen to it: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIBo8J6cWKtyrn9nO977Q630SC_UuwytP

I went to Amazon to find the book “Arnold Schoenberg - The Musical Idea and the Logic, Technique, and Art of its Presentation” edited by Patricia Carpenter, with translation and annotations, the book was also found, but at the same time a Carpenters CD titled " Carpenters With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra" appeared. Having bought the entire 4-disc compilation set "Carpenters - The Essential Collection (1965-1997)", I think this CD is probably nothing new. But after listening to the first 30 seconds of 18 songs and looking at the customer's reviews, I suddenly got greedy and wanted to buy this CD, and maybe buy the LP as a collectible item. Looking closely, the price is very reasonable at $11.71, but it won't be available until December 29.

For the longest time, I used to buy CDs and then go home to "rip" them rather than buy mp3, so I was a bit disappointed. Then I looked around on Barnes & Nobles, Walmart, etc., and found CDs available for pickup at Target! So I tried to work for the last day, drove to Target near the office, looking for a while, and found one of the two remaining CDs waiting for me! Especially the CD at Target has one more track that Amazon CD does not have, which is Please Mr. Postman, even more, worth the effort to find.

This album really exceeded my expectations! In addition to keeping the most basic of each track, Mr. Richard added small details that made Carpenters listeners feel "too good." He first put in an Overture track, which he composed with Peter Knight, in which he repeated the theme song Yesterday Once More, with new variations performed by the Royal Orchestra. Near the end of the song, the choir whispers, “Oh my best memories, come back clearly to me, some can even make me cry, just like before, it's yesterday once more, it's yesterday once more, once more …”.

The lyrics seem to invite listeners, the group, and the orchestra to find beautiful memories of yesterday. For me, this prelude made me think a lot about my childhood and adulthood in Saigon, then about the early days of setting up a career in a foreign country, the days of buying music tapes, the golden music CDs of Diem Xua, then the Beatles, ABBA, Carpenters, etc...

Another good thing about the CD is the addition of intros played by the great ensemble. The special feature of these intros is that they play back the theme of the previous song and sometimes another song, and then in a flash, the old intro follows right away. (Then you should not run the machine "random"; it will lose Richard's intention to want to link the songs together, even if the two songs are different.) For example, in the third song, "I Need to Be in Love," the intro plays back the theme of the second song, "Hurting Each Other," and then I hear another tune that is so familiar, it turns out to be "" Goodbye to Love", then switch back to the original intro



In addition, Richard also gives countless small details between the songs; only people who listen to the old tracks can feel the difference, and if they rarely listen, they may not realize it. He explained in the accompanying brochure that he purposely corrected places in the harmony that he had "thought about for decades, like the oboe in the first chorus of "Ticket To Ride," bassoon in the middle of “Superstar,” or the piccolo trumpet near the end of “Goodbye To Love.” He also added strings on almost every track on the CD. With the mix, he removed the noise, corrected the parts that played out of tune a bit. He also tweaked many things to make Karen's singing "clearer, closer, warmer, and the best ever."

I haven't seen many of Richard's interview videos about the new CD, but according to an Amazon review, Richard has, for the first time, brought Karen's vocal tracks from the "vault" and mixed them. If this is true, it explains why Karen sings so hard "to" on "I Just Fall In Love Again". The times I heard before didn't give me that feeling, maybe this time, Richard used another "take" of Karen. Karen's voice has long been very personal to me; she sings with very standard American pronunciation. In the song "I Just Fall In Love Again," after playing the previous song "I Believe You" as the intro, Karen sings low and moderate, as if pouring into the listener's ears:


Dreamin', I must be dreamin'
Or am I really lyin' here with you
Baby, you take me in your arms
And though I'm wide awake
I know my dream is comin' true
And, oh, I just fall in love again
Just one touch and then it happens every time
And there I go I just fall in love again, and when I do
Can't help myself, I fall in love with you

The idioms "it happens every time", and "and there I go" are used too cleverly, sung with Karen's "golden ten" voice; who wouldn't believe that she fell in love with her lover again? Can't help falling in love, an idiom and also the title of a song by Elvis Presley, through Karen's voice, again comes to us through a new emotional nuance.


Eighteen songs, eighteen masterpieces. Looking through these eighteen songs, I don't know if any number one songs are missing, but this list is just "Top Of The World", no second place. Even the December 7th CD release was well-meaning, as this was my gift to me for “Merry Christmas, Darling.” Indeed, all four songs I've studied before are present: They Long To Be (Close to You), Goodbye To Love, We've Only Just Begun, Superstar, and so famous songs like Yesterday Once More, Top Of The World, I Need To Be In Love, For All We Know, Rainy Days and Mondays, This Masquerade, Ticket To Ride, Please Mr. Postman, and then familiar discography songs like Hurting Each Other, Touch Me When We're Dancing, I Believe You, I Just Fall In Love Again, Merry Christmas Darling, Baby It's You.

In short, if you've ever been, are listening to, or will be a fan of the Carpenters brothers, please try to find the CD “Carpenters With The Royal.” Philharmonic Orchestra” will definitely be a worthy gift for you to reward yourself, to make up for the regrets and nostalgia of the past days.

Best regards and I hope to see you again at another time.