250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 192 The Carpenters - Ticket To Ride

 

Sometimes it pays to slow things down. Drag  the cartrridge back to the start if the side, close everything, but everything down. And actually listen to the record spinning on your turntable.Show it the respect it deserves.

 That's what I'm doing now The Carpenters Ticket To Ride. is the record that's spinning  It's The Carpenters' debut album..Came out originally  in October 1969 as Offering and was then repackaged, renamed and rereleased in November 1970 as Ticket To Ride after their version of the Beatles tune was a hit.  

The record is not spoken about in the same hallowed times as the likes of Marquee Moon or Suicide for example but it's still a rather remarkable album. The vocals are split fairlt equally between Karen and Richard and Karen provides most of the vocals.It's state of the art , middle of the road orchestrated shmaltz on one level but actually it has a cosmic drag that is worthy of the deepest respect. Just as Iggy, Lou and David's records of the time are

There's something about Karen's vocals and the marshmallow production values of the Carpenters songs that drags me back across the decades to my childhood self. I won't be at all alone in that respect. I imagine The Carpenters was the soundtrack to millions of peoples earliest memories.My mum relaxing, her shoes off and her feet up on the sofa at the end of the day. Listening to The Carpenters Greatest Hits

 My parents didn't have many records growing up. It was The Carpenters, The Seekers, Louis Armstrong, The Dutch Swing College Band and later ABBA. We just had Greatest Hits for the most part. But  when I see Carpenters records now in second hand shop I seize on them. It's a portal back to the childhood state and who doesn't seize on that opporuinuty with the hungriest relish when they see it.

This talks of ordinary lives and the acceptance of suburbia every bit as profoundly as any Modern Lovers, Feelies or Cure record. It's The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family, The Ice Storm and John Updike's  Couples writ large. It's the best £2 pounds I've spent in a very long time.....