Intrupretating Interpretations.....

I almost fell over in the store when I ran across this album. Seeing unreleased materal displayed on the front of the package yelled out a sure buy!!! I have loved the Carpenter since the late '80s, when I was introduced to them. Up 'til now, all the songes were played on my stero at lest once. I forked over my money and rushed home to listen to the new tunes. I was amazed to hear Karen turn the page in "Feeling". I thought something was wrong with my CD. I never really heard any improfections in any of the Carpenters materal. I then exchanged it and the next one did the same thing. I then refered to the liner notes to find out that the lead would have to be recorded to omit the page truning. An avid Carpenters fan would hear some differences in the remixes this time around. It is a must to have in your Carpenter's music collection!!!!!

It's Easy To Miss The Point On This One

A lot of casual fans feel this album was an erstaz collection of hits, wrong. The point of this album was to pull the covers together. This is the second version, and better mastered, of this release. The first version of "Interpretations" was released with more tracks and longer liner notes in October of 1994 in England and Canada. "Without A Song" is an edited version, the original features Perry Como, John Davidson, and Ella Fitzgerald taking over the leads after the Carpenters overdubbed intro. Oddly enough, Karen and Richard recorded a version for themselves with their singing all the parts. This long version is available on "As Time Goes By."

The treasure here is "Trying To Get The Feeling Again." This is Karen at her rawest. Her vocal lead is allowed to "dry" giving her an edge not associated with her smooth sound. She could "sight read," the turning of the lyric sheet is a strong indicatior of this. Listing to this track almost makes you feel like you're at the recording session or better, listening to a demo as a friend would, the artist later asking fo an opinion or input on the track before it's finished. How intimate is that?

"From This Moment On" is Karen recorded on a mono audio track, Richard would later re-record his concert grand in stereo. This song is from the soundtrack to the 1980 television special "Music, Music, Music." Prior to this version, the song was performed live on "The Tonight Show" and various concerts.

The import version of "Interpretations" contain remixed album tracks and two ballads from "Lovelines." "Sing," "Desperado," and "Please Mr. Postman" are among the remixes, "You're The One," and "Where Do I Go From Here" are the two ballads from "Lovelines." Interesting to note that while this album was a collection of covers, two excellent tracks, "Baby It's You" and "I Just Fall In Love Again" weren't used. A lot of people feel, that despite Richard's comments in the liner notes abount the late discovery of "Trying To Get The Feeling Again," that this album was created to make that song a centerpiece and to "spoon feed" his audience with unreleased recordings. Whatever the reason, the theme of this album is indeed their cover work, which stands to honor the songwriters by their words being given such a beautiful voice.

Happy to be proved wrong

I have a distrust of remastering and remixing. So often, something is lost in the process. I hesitated to try Richard Carpenter's remixed tracks for years. But, boy, was I wrong! He has done his task professionally, and has done it with subtlety.

I love this album. It includes so many terrific songs that bring back memories. [We started listening to The Carpenters on our honeymoon ...]

Some interesting tracks:
From This Moment On features an interpolation of Bach's Well Tempered Clavier Book 1, Prelude no 2 into Cole Porter!

Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft is an excellent version of the Klaatu original. [And some people still think it really is the theme song of World Contact Day!]

The A Cappella version of Without a Song

The songs have been thoughtfully put together to create a great program. Highly recommended.