The Best Carpenters Album of 'Em All

Pretty much anyone who knows me knows I love the Carpenters with a 36-year old intensity that has never really slacked off (seriously, the Carps were the first music I loved, even as an infant. Ask anyone in my family!).

For years I wondered just what it was about the Carpenters that I instantly grasped on to. Was it Karen's melancholy vocal delivery (and let's face it, no one ever sounded like Karen Carpenter before or since)? Or was it the fact that the songs were amazingly well-crafted pop tunes that have since become standards?

It's been over 30 years now since I first heard Horizon (released in 1975). And, like the rest of the Carpenters canon, it hasn't really aged one bit. Richard produced all their music so it would be timeless, and time has proven he was right. Although for many the Carpenters are the 1970s incarnate, their music isn't dated. Of course, at the time, it was incredibly unhip to like them at all--but some revisionist thinking through the years has cast the Carpenters in a much more favorable light. The bottom line is that no one made records that sounded this good.

Of all their albums, Horizon is, to me, the most cohesive and the most mature, and therefore, my most favorite. With the exception of the hits "Only Yesterday" and the number-one "Please Mr. Postman," and the B-side "Happy," the songs are lush, long, languid and lovely. The album is "bookended" by two piano-and-vocal-only songs, about a minute long each, called "Aurora" and "Eventide," and between those bookends is some of Karen's finest vocal work. She sings almost exclusively in her rich lower register (for years, before my voice changed, it was way too low for me to sing along to!). The production is crystalline; she sounds like she's sitting right beside you. And when you factor in that she was barely 25 years old when she sang these songs, it really does make you think--where did that voice come from?

Horizon was probably the last "big selling" Carps record...the quality of their output diminished significantly, with few exceptions, following 1975. But I think it's the one that best typifies what made them so great. I loved it when I was six--and I love it today.

Standout tracks:

1. I Can Dream, Can't I
2. Solitaire
3. Desperado
4. Love Me For What I Am
5. Aurora/Eventide
6. Only Yesterday

'New' World Party

I was thrilled yesterday to come across a new single by World Party, "What Does It Mean Now?"

World Party was formed when Karl Wallinger left the band the Waterboys back in the late '80s. Well, actually, World Party IS Karl Wallinger. Two great albums--Private Revolution and the amazing 1990 release Goodbye Jumbo (which includes two of my favorite songs of that era, "Put the Message in the Box" and "Way Down Now") were followed by 1993's Bang, which was fine, and an album I haven't heard called Egyptology about four years ago.

The new album was actually recorded in 2000. Dumbing Up will finally be released stateside in May. The new single is classic World Party--a great melody, bouncy, jangly guitar and Wallinger's clever word work. Take a sneak peak of the single by clicking here.

Perfection on Vinyl, Part Three: Dusty in Memphis

This album is a gem. You need it.

Here's why: It's probably one of the classiest, coolest, most lovely-sounding records ever recorded by a female artist. And I stand by that.

Dusty in Memphis was released just around the time that I came into this world (OK, it's five days older than me--Jan. 13, 1969). Dusty Springfield on this record produced a "white soul classic," according to some, but I just call it a classic.

Standout tracks:
Son of a Preacher Man
Just a Little Lovin
I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore
Breakfast in Bed

Actually, there isn't a track on this album that isn't a standout. I can't recommend it any more strongly to you.

Tin Roof--Rusted!

Happy Birthday, Cindy Wilson of the B-52s! Cindy turns 49 today.

Cindy, along with her brother, the late Ricky Wilson, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland and the inimitable Fred Schneider, made some of the most fun, innovative and kitschy music ever to be laid to vinyl.

My fave B's songs:

1. 52 Girls
2. Song for a Future Generation
3. Private Idaho
4. Give Me Back My Man
5. Roam

The Girl With the Come-Hither Voice

I can't say enough about Julie London. She was one of the most popular female singers of the 50s and 60s, and her debut album Julie Is Her Name, released in 1955, contained the huge hit "Cry Me a River" (NOT, dear readers, the Justin Timberlake song).

After k.d. lang cited her as a vocal influence about 10 years ago, I came across a CD version of that album, coupled with Julie Is Her Name Vol. 2, released a few years later. I was instantly enthralled with both her voice and the production--it's literally just a bass, a jazzy electric guitar, and that voice. She was dubbed "The girl with the Come-Hither voice," and for damned good reason. Smoky, low, intimate, and above all else, sexy, Julie London's vocal delivery was a revelation (and at the time very controversial).

London may be known to you as Nurse Dixie from the 1970s drama "Emergency." She was also briefly married to Jack Webb, from TV's Dragnet. She retired from the business in the late '70s and died in 2000 following a stroke at the age of 74.

Julie London has seen a bit of a comeback among aficionados of 50s swingin' music. I strongly suggest checking out a track or two from Julie is Her Name (and keeping it on hand for 'mood music,' if you catch my drift). I mean, look at her. The chick was sex incarnate.

George's Troubles

Poor George Michael. He was found slumped over the steering wheel of his car in London yesterday--then busted for drugs. Read about it here.

Rather coincidental that two 80s celebs, George and Boy George, who at the end of last year were in the middle of a catty bitch-match, have both found themselves on the wrong end of the law lately. What's next? Limahl getting busted?