Carpenters: Lovelines CD Track Listing

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Carpenters Lovelines (1989)
Originally Released October 23, 1989\nRemastered CD Edition Released January 12, 1999\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Lovelines commemorated the duo's 20-year association with A&M Records, though Karen had passed away six years before. Ten of the 12 tracks were recorded for other albums but were not included for various reasons; two are remixes of previously released material. Richard penned the liner notes, which give some insight into the history of the pieces. "When I Fall in Love" brings a tear to the eye as it captures that indefinable and completely unique quality that Karen brought to each song she sang. While the material in this compilation is not sensational or ground-breaking, it is definitely a sentimental selection of tunes that go easy on the ear. -- Dacia A. Blodgett-Williams\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nA posthumous offering, May 30, 2001\nReviewer: A music fan\n"Lovelines" was released years after Karen's death, but it still contains wonderful memories, as well as some songs that had not been released on a Carpenters album up to that point. Without question, the supreme song on this disc is "You're The One." This song was actually recorded during the same sessions as were the songs from the "Passage" album. Evidently, the producers of the album wanted an even number of songs on that album, (8) and it came down to a literal flip of the coin to decide that "I just fall In Love Again" would be on that album instead of "You're The One." Amazingly, it took a long, long time for this song to be released. But there are many songs to Carpenters fans which may be unfamiliar to them, so, if you decide to get this, enjoy.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\n"Lovelines" has 12 Previously Unreleased Carpenter Songs, August 21, 2005\nReviewer: James Koenig "Konedog4" (Fergus Falls, MN United States)\n\nReleased in 1989, 6 years after Karen Carpenter's heartbreakingly tragic death from anorexia nervosa complications, "Lovelines" is a collection of "most" of the previously unreleased songs of Karen Carpenter. Four of the songs were previously included on Karen Carpenter's solo album, but are remixed by Richard for this set. \n\nThe Tracks: \n\n1. "Lovelines" the title track of this album was from Karen's solo album, produced in 1980, but never released because of pressure from A&M and Richard. The Carpenter mind-trust did not believe Karen's solo work with Producer Phil Ramone was on par with typical Carpenter standards. \n\n2. "Where Do I Go From Here", was recorded in 1978 but never published. It is a lovely ballad performed with a perfect vocal interpretation by Karen. \n\n3. "The Uninvited Guest" is a pop/country song that was recorded for original release in 1980 with the "Made In America" album, but missed the final cut. \n\n4. "If We Try", another touching love song from Karen's solo album \n\n5. "When I Fall in Love", recorded in 1978 for the Carpenter's "Space Encounters" TV special. \n\n6. "Kiss Me the Way You Did Last Night" was a love ballad for the 1980 "Made In America" album, that was never released. \n\n7. "Remember When Lovin' Took All Night" is another selection from the solo album. \n\n8. "You're The One" was recorded in 1977 for the "Passage" album. This song was featured in the made for tv movie, The Karen Carpenter Story. \n\n9. "Honolulu City Lights" was recorded in 1978, and was an adaptation of a song Rich and Karen heard while vacationing in Hawaii. \n\n10. "Slow Dance" was also recorded in the late 70's, but never made an album. It is a lovely ballad. \n\n11. "If I Had You" is Richard's favorite selection from the solo album. Karen's vocals are absolutely astounding and she was quite proud of her effort (and rightfully so). \n\n12. "Little Girl Blue" is the last song of the set and was featured in the TV special "Space Encounters". \n\nFrom my perspective as a lifelong Carpenter fan, I think two gems are awaiting to please your ears on this album: "Kiss Me The Way You Did Last Night", and the very touching "You're The One". The latter is perhaps the best song of the set. \n\nI gave this album 4-stars. It is not the Carpenter's best album for sure, as it contains "reject" (interpretation: not quite good enough) songs that were never included on other albums. However, this is still a good solid pleasing Carpenter effort. Fans of Karen Carpenter will not be disappointed in the least by this album. I recommend it. -- Jim "Konedog" Koenig\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nA wonderful surprise, June 29, 2005\nReviewer: Lawrence H. Stern (West Hollywood, CA United States)\n\nI resisted buying this CD for a while - since I assumed it would just be filler/outtakes. But now, I listen to it all the time! Sure, there are a few repeats from Karen's solo project (her versions are probably better too). However, there are also some amazing songs that should really have been released as singles. "You're the One" is beautiful - and could have been a smash. It was featured in the Karen Carpenter TV movie and was apparently shelved from an old studio session. "Remember when Loving took all Night" and "Slow Dance" are also stellar. Just listening to "When I fall in Love" and "Little Girl Blue" (although these can be found in "Interpretations") also makes me wish she has done an entire album of standards. Anyway, if you don't have this gem, go get a copy. The Singles collections contain all the real hits - but this album is definitely worth owning.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nSOPHISTICATED CARPENTRY, June 29, 2004\nReviewer: STEPHEN T. McCARTHY (a Mensa-donkey in Phoenix, Airheadzona.)\nSuccinctly stated, it is difficult for me to believe that any true fan of The Carpenters' music could fail to appreciate this offering. While this collection contains several slow ballads, they are offset by a couple of uptempo numbers that bop a bit harder than one is accustomed to hearing on a Carpenters record, and I feel that the album strikes a nice balance with its sequencing. \n\nFour of the songs on this 1989 release were culled from Karen's (then unreleased) solo project produced by Phil Ramone, and they have occasionally been unfairly criticized as being a foray into "disco." Nothing here can be called disco in its basest sense (meaning rhythmically monotonous, banal dance music) but rather, it is finely polished, primarily horn-propelled, bouncy pop; all of it heightened in quality by some rather intricate arrangements and of course, that slightly smoky-edged, melancholy-tinged voice that was Karen Carpenter's art. Yes, the Ramone produced cuts stretched Karen into previously unexplored territory and the same "purists" who called out the dogs when Richard Carpenter released 'Goodbye To Love' with its electric guitar solo will likely balk at this "danceable sin" as well. But the fan who doesn't feel the need to keep this gifted artist in a creative straitjacket will simply smile and tap their toes! \n\nThe album bogs down a little with the too draggy standard, 'When I Fall In Love' and 'You're The One', but most of the ballads are comprised of beautifully lilting melodies that infiltrate the listener's mind only after multiple playings. The ears don't always "get it" all at once, but given enough time, you'll find yourself humming these tunes just as you would some of those fabulous radio hits that The Carpenters produced in the 1970's. A perfect example is 'SLOW DANCE', which initially struck me as being not much more than filler, but with multiple spinnings emerged as my favorite track - a wonderful showcase for the huskier timbre of Karen's uniquely sultry voice. \n\nNothing on this album is going to make you forget about 'We've Only Just Begun' and 'Superstar' any time too soon. Nevertheless, LOVELINES is a stylish affair (indicated by the classy black & white portrait on the cover) with 12 songs that - in terms of vocal arrangement, lyric content, and instrumentation - surpass in sophistication some of their earlier hits such as 'Sing' and 'Close To You.' I feel confident in saying that purchasing LOVELINES and then exercising a little patience with it will pay off nicely for most fans of this great pop duo. I really love the album, and with the exception of their greatest hits collection, SINGLES 1969-1981, this is the Carpenters' cd that I most frequently listen to. Need I say more?\n\n\n\nThe Best Was Saved For Last, January 29, 1999\nReviewer: A music fan\n"Lovelines" is the final Carpenters album, according to Richard's liner notes written in 1989. Since then a number of compiliations have emerged culling songs from "Ticket To Ride" all the way to "Lovelines." The title of the album comes from a bouncy tune Karen recorded for her legendary and then unreleased solo album. "Lovelines" is a Carpenter album that contains tunes from Karen's solo effort, a concept that years ago was denied by the Carpenters fan club. According to the editor of the fanclub newsletters, there would never be a release containg sides from Karen's album. Nevertheless, the songs assembled here were well chosen and beautifully sequenced. The songs produced by Richard and Phil Ramone differ only in arrangement, Richard used basic piano, bass, drum structure building the songs from there, augmenting his pieces with strings; Phil relied on electronic equipment, if one listens closely you can hear where Quincy Jones tweaked the original arrangments, it makes one think "Karen sings "Thriller." The bonafide Carpenter tunes hail from 1977's "Passage" to the final Karen effort "Made In America" released in 1981. Two stand-out cuts on this album are "Where Do I Go From Here" which was also recorded by Barry Manilow for his "Even Now" album and "You're The One" which was an outtake from "Passage" and makes it the oldest tune on this release, it's also one of Karen's finest performances. The other tunes on this album were recorded in the years 1979-1980. Two standards "When I Fall In Love" and "Little Girl Blue" were recorded for the music specials and the arrangements penned by Peter Knight of Moody Blues fame. Karen should have recorded an album of standards as these two tunes suggest. Her solo efforts were a bit of a stretch, her voice floating above arrangements that were a little too "canned," it seems she dubbed her voice over pre-recorded music beds and used to promote songs written for someone else. The one song that was beneath her is "Remember When Loving Took All Night." It's disco that better suits Olivia Newton-John. Outside of this one mis-step, this album belongs with the rest of the Carpenter classics.\n\n\nHalf.com Details \nContributing artists: Michael Brecker \nProducer: Phil Ramone, Richard Carpenter \n\nAlbum Notes\nThe Carpenters: Karen Carpenter (vocals); Richard Carpenter (keyboards, background vocals).\n\nAdditional personnel includes: Eric Johns-Rasmussen, David Williams, Tim May, Tony Peluso (guitar); Jay Dee Maness (pedal steel guitar); Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone); Bob James, Rob Mounsey (keyboards); Joe Osborn (bass); Ron Tutt (drums); Airto Moreira, Paulinho Da Costa (percussion).\n\nRecorded at A&R Recording Studios, New York, New York; A&M Recording Studios, Hollywood and Kendun Recorders, Burbank, California.\n\nCompiled by Richard Carpenter in 1989, seven years after the death of his sister Karen, LOVELINES consists primarily of unreleased material. Ten of the album's 12 songs are previously unheard, with four of those coming from Karen's shelved 1979 solo album produced by Billy Joel producer Phil Ramone, an album that also remained unreleased until 1996.\n\nHighlights of LOVELINES include "Remember When Lovin' Took All Night," the bizarre "The Uninvited Guest," and the achingly beautiful "When I Fall I Love." Though these were unreleased tracks, they're by no means inferior leftovers. This CD was remastered by Richard Carpenter in 1998 as part of a general overhaul of the Carpenters' A&M catalogue. A special Japanese limited-edition of this CD features 32-bit digital remastering and an LP-style slipcase.\n\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nWhere 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 Nielsen 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.\n\nKaren 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.\n\nRichard 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 Body 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. (RS 571 - Feb 8, 1990) -- ROB HOERBURGER
This rock cd contains 12 tracks and runs 46min 38sec.
Freedb: 9e0aec0c
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