Close To You

We’ve only just begun: very good Love is surrender: good Maybe it’s you: excellent Reason to believe: good Help: good Close to you: very good Baby it’s you: below average I’ll never fall in love again: average Crescent noon: excellent Mr. Guder: above average I kept on loving you: average Another song: good 6.5/10

Appreciate the craft of the writing and Karen C is a great singer, not one I'd want to revisit but enjoyable

Close to you and never Fall in Love kennt denk ich jeder Schön arrangiert alles in allem natürlich sehr ruhig

This is actually truly fantastic pop. And I'll admit I have a huge soft spot for Karen Carpenter. (By the way, check out videos of her playing drums...amazing!)

ruim. tem um cover de "Help" dos beatles (ruim também, mas achei interessante ressaltar haha)

Not for me - too floaty and lacklustre. Some iconic songs but generally not my bag

Интересно. Ну в целом не то чтобы сильно выделяется на фоне поп-музыки того времени (хотя уже 70 год, уже это все на спад шло, и всякие Walker Brothers клитором не командовали), но душевно и кропотливо сделано, видно что с саунд-дизайном работа хорошая проведена. Про Карпентерс я раньше слышал в основном в разрезе того, что Sonic Youth на них надрачивали, и это мне сильно портит восприятие, ибо их творчество теперь воспринимается практически исключительно в разрезе довольно трагичной смерти Карен Карпентер (впрочем, если там в комментах на ютубе посмотреть, то не у меня одного). Вот есть у этих песен какой-то такой привкус, какое-то ощущение, что больной человек переживает нервный срыв, и тебе не следует на это смотреть. Действительно же очень грустные песни по сути, даже в целом мажорная Help битлов звучит как-то зловеще и безнадежно. В общем эмоционально не самый простой альбом, не уверен, что захочу слушать его ещё раз когда-то. Но песни сами по себе хорошие, голос сильный, аранжировки более чем приятные. 8/10

Да это ж почти полностью кавер-альбом, что за подлянка! И это что, каждый раз теперь проверять надо, в каждом ли альбоме исполнитель не поленился хотя бы большинство треков запилить сам? Благо, это были те странные времена, когда кавер-версии затмевали оригиналы и оставались в веках. В случае с Help, конечно, тягаться с оригиналом смысла особо не имело. В шоу "Хованский разрулит" мы слышим именно версию The Beatles. Ну а с заглавным треком фортануло, именно эту версию мы несколько раз слышим в Симпсонах. Несмотря на разброс авторов, в целом альбом чувствуется цельным. Ладно, разве что та же Help! для уха выбивается. Но собственные треки, что есть, интегрированы гладко. Да и звучит всё славно. Как раз тянский вокал сюда давно не завозили.

Karen's voice & vocal range is amazing! Richard's musical skills are legendary! What a wonderful album!

Warm, elegant, jaunty and sophisticated pop. Beautiful.

Good vocal performance. Easy to listen to, not special.

Lovely tunes, but really really not my thing. Help and Close To You are classics, but Help is just a Beatles cover. 2/5

3 songs added to playlists

Sickly sweet twee bullshit. This album lasts 2340 seconds and for ever single one of those seconds I wanted to switch this off. Devoid of any redeeming qualities. Wank.

Shite album. Formulaic sacherine sweet love songs of triumph and heart break. Like being stuck in purgatory for me. It's a 1 star album, the extra star is for Karen's beautiful voice.

No doubting the voice but god it’s so twee and sweet. I can still acknowledge that it contains some very well crafted songs though

Sarah’s Mum’s favourite album 🤗🥰

Very singsongy and 70s, but I liked this for casual listening. Mr. Guder sample was fun to identify and track down Saved: We've Only Just Begun, Mr. Guder

Saved Prior: None Not Saved: 12. Help (Hard to outdo the Beatles) 11. Crescent Noon 10. Baby It's You Cutting Edge: 9. (They Long To Be) Close To You (Crazy that this was their huge hit. I'm sure it'll grow on me) Off Rip: 8. Reason To Believe 7. I'll Never Fall In Love Again 6. Another Song 5. Maybe It's You 4. Mr. Guder 3. I Kept On Loving You 2. We've Only Just Begun 1. Love Is Surrender Overall Notes: This album made me go :). Happy music. Can't wait to take some summer drives to this.

Not my cup o' tea

Corny? Yes. But who doesn't need nice and smooth music from time to time. Great singer, and an underrated drummer.

Kind of lame my grandma might like it

.

Mejor que cualquier disco de Fleetwood Mac cocainómano pop.

Easy listening is not generally my go-to genre, but this is really well done. The harmonies are tight, the arrangements solid. I doubt I'll come back to this on my own, but I wouldn't be upset if I heard it on the radio.

Tiene canciones hermosas, pero también muchas aburridas y facilonas

good music, slightly psychedelic and a big rip off of the beatles but nice

Thoroughly enjoyable Sunday morning listening.

God this was dull.

4/5

Que gran disco. Wholesome. Me parece que nunca había apreciado lo conmovedor que suena el hitazo close to you, no tanto por la letra, sino que la instrumentación y la voz están muy chidas. Además de esa, me gustó bastante Mr Guder que contrasta con el resto del disco pues llega sonar algo creepy y el energético final another song, suena como a que un estado de felicidad tranquila y movidita a la vez al final del disco. Mood: el día en el que tú naciste (the angels got together?) nacieron todas las flores

Lovely stuff

Suave. Buenas voces. No me ha llamado especialmente la atención

“Close to You” by The Carpenters (1970) I’m embarrassed to say how familiar I am with this album. For most of my adult life these delicacies topped the grocery list of songs ‘most likely to make me change the station’. With starchy and otherwise unremarkable instrumentals, lyrics and melodies mostly snatched off the plates of others, and a compulsion to sample everything on the arranging buffet, these siblings offer high calorie fare for mass indulgence. Karen’s voice, a syrupy contralto, is spiced with touching croaks. Richard’s easy-to-imitate keyboards and backing vocals are like gravy on quaaludes. The opening track, “We’ve Only Just Begun”, is sugar-coated sugar, played at way too many weddings while bride and groom stuffed into each other’s mouths all that cake with extra frosting. The message is so unrealistically idealistic that many marriage veterans must have felt the urge to purge. The other super-hit from this high carb collection is the title track, “Close to You”, which should be banned for metaphor abuse. The rest is ear candy at best, if not intravenous sonic glucose. This is an album that, unfortunately, will stay with us forever, like middle age paunch. 1/5

not in the mood

Ñoña

Smatlzy. I def know some of these songs. Not my style at all, but I can see how it would be influential. I did enjoy listening, Help and I'll never fall in love again are the standout tracks

im not German

"We've only just begun" and "(They long to be) close to you" are by far the most popular songs. Super soft album. 6/10.

It's hard to hate on the Carpenters, and this album because what they made was very likable. I can easily see the appeal of the breezy, mid-temp pop songs: carefree but yes, at times, too sweet. You can't deny the songwriting or the vocal skills, though. Not an album I would hate to hear, but wouldn't choose to put on again myself.

Este me parece un disco muy apropiado, por sus sonidos, para un locus amoenus. La voz, siempre dulce, de Karen Carpenter le da a algunas canciones un toque casi sublime y la instrumentación acompaña esta impresión. Por ahí se escuchan flautas, aunque el piano, las percusiones pues y las cuerdas, todo se usa creo de forma que se construye este mood. Quizá muy cursi a momentos, pero tiene el rolonononón "(They Long To Be) Close To You", eso sí, el cover de "Help" me parece un poco inane. Las otras favs son ese gran inicio "We've Only Just Begun", muy fastuoso para lo que viene después, y "I'll Never Fall In Love Again". 9/10

Está bien, pero no es mi estilo de música

Oh Marge... por vous. Close to You is a classic. I remember listening to ‘I’ll never fall in love again’ on the Austin Powers Spy Who Shagged Me cassette tape, but I think that was the Burt Bacharach original/remake. Single folk must hate this album. Baby It’s You- just the right amount of sax 👌. Some cool classics, intertwined with some dull

That was pleasant to listen to. Well put together and a real cruisy vibe. Liked it more than I thought I would.

Many moments where I thought this was a musical soundtrack. Think Grease but most songs are soppy and sentimental. Not necessarily a bad thing, but thems the vibes. I also didn't know they had so many classics (Help, They Long To Be Close to You, I'll Never Fall In Love Again

I didn't expect to like this, but it was calming, pleasing and melodic. I liked the Beatles cover of Help.

Album is a little sappy, but killer vocal harmonies and sax.

Bastante flojon, harta de que siempre el mismo sonsonete y tonada

I frickin hate it when people sing just for the sake of singing! But it's not that horrible in this one. The texts are pretty dull (borderline hippie stuff), but at least the singing is melodic and fits the music. I listened to the album while reading on wikipedia article about the rather tragic career of the band and premature death of Karen. It was a good read, and with the background music I felt thoroughly entertained. Then again, I still have to deduct two stars, because in the end it wasn't much more than pleasant background noise.

Nomás no.

Other than “Mr. Guder,” it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Very pleasant easy listening, with lots of the songs familiar from film soundtracks or adverts... Fave track - "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" - great lyrics!

Insgesamt ein gutes Album, aber es trifft meinen Geschmack nur sehr wenig. Das Beatles Cover musste überhaupt nicht sein, Crescent Noon hingegen gefiel mir sogar relativ gut. Ich war beeindruckt von der Tiefe von der weiblichen Gesangsstimme. Werd ich wohl eher nicht nochmal hören

Couldnt get into this at all

Was really surprised by this one, ended up liking it a lot more than I thought. While not a fan of the sort of soft rock of the 70’s that they make, it pretty undeniable the level of talent there, and I honestly say it’s music that is catchy and sticks with you. I think I’d give it a 3.5 Standouts for me were We’ve Only Just Begun, Love Is Surrender, and (They Long To Be) Close To You

Very easy listening-ish, but you have to love Karen Carpenter's voice. 3 stars.

The Carpenters is always a good one. It was nice to have an album I like on my birthday. ;)

very....nice--for better and worse

Liked it more than I expected. Karen has a great voice

Just beautiful music and lyrics with perfect harmony, no biggie.

Exceedingly smooth. It's amazing how many of these songs I've heard before and how ingrained they've become in American society.

A mi tía Rosy seguro le encanta.

Madreando rolas chingonas, not cool

p good

Oh man I loved this album, such beautiful chords and harmonies.

This was fun for sure. I liked the vocals and the covers were enjoyable

Nice

Mehh

Ok.

svagaste albumet hittills med en väldigt dålig cover på help.

well this certainly is the carpenters

This is the beginning of superstardom for the Carpenters. Their mix of pop, soft rock and folk with some sweet harmonies is undeniable here. That being said, is this the best Carpenters album? Probably not. Will I constantly come back to this one? Also probably not. However, the influence of the Carpenters can be heard throughout the rest of the 70s and Karen Carpenter is a badass. Her story is a roller coaster if you’re ever interested. Favorite song: Help (good Beatles cover) Least favorite song: Mr. Guder

Ziemlich kitschig. Nur "Help" verhilft zu drei Sternen

Soft rock, classic album. Pretty good, enjoyed listening to it.

Karen Carpenter's voice is the most comforting, lovely sound. Very fun, very 70s arrangements. I like this.

Not my thing, but beautiful vocals.

A couple covers, a couple of their own songs. It was a neat trip from start to finish to follow along with songs about starting a relationship all the way to the relationship’s end, but nothing significant came from this album.

No bueno

Not my style, but I can appreciate it.

Fun. Love and game show style music

It's hard not to love the Carpenters. Karen has a gorgeous voice, and their songs just have such a beautifully wholesome and melodic quality to them. Some of the duo's biggest hits, 'We've Only Just Begun' and 'Close to You' are here, but every track is worth listening. Their cover of The Beatles' 'Help' is inspired, and I've always been a fan of their somewhat less popular but still fairly well-known track "I'll Never Fall in Love Again".

Eh. I like the carpenters, sort of just went by. Good stuff though yep

Irgendwie zu fröhlich... Viele blumige Komplimente, die sich beiläufig anfühlen. Schöne Stimmen. Insgesamt angenehm zu hören, obgleich auch noch nicht unmittelbar für mich in eine Gemütsstimmung einordbar. Ich bin mir noch unschlüssig darüber, ob ich sie nochmal hören würde. Vielleicht überzeugt mich ja der Rest ihrer Discography. Ich werd mir mal die restlichen zwölf Alben anhören... irgendwann...

Great! Mostly the songs are very sweet, but also interesting. What struck me most was the drums and percussions and the use of weird instruments like flutes.

it's fine. Kind of dull and sappy.

It's not bad it's just very... safe. Dull, edgeless, kind of boring. I can't say I dislike it (cos the harmonies are gorgeous), but I can't say I remember a whole lot from it either. Favorite tracks: "Help", "(They Long to Be) Close to You", "Another Song"

I absolutely love Carpenters, esp. Karen Carpenter whose vocals are hauntingly beautiful, but have to say I have never listened to a full album. 'Close to You' is a beautiful record, with the title track and 'We've Only Just Begun' as highlights. Of course it wouldn't be a Carpenters album without a Beatles cover ('Help') and some slower ballads to pad out the tracklist. 'Crescent Moon' and 'Another Song' were intriguing additions; especially the latter with its movement from pop to jazz in one song. If I wasn't such a big Carpenters fan I'd probably give this a 3, but as I love them so much and as the title track is just so stunningly gorgeous, it's gotta be a 4 from me.

Close to You is one of the best love songs. Very pleasant album.

Ryuyu The most common werewolf on us in our house 🏡 was the it I kiddong too meny