Carpenters – A Kind of Hush (1976)

Now this is an album even I didn't remember I had. It was among some vinyl albums I got from my grandmother. I'm probably listening to this album the first time now as a preparation for this blog post. The sounds on this album are incredibly cheesy, but some of the compositions are quite good actually. I feel like Carpenters would be one of the best bands to make amazing covers of. The original Carpenters songs are incredibly cheesy, but they have some interesting melodies and I'm sure with a different kind of production these could turn into something great. There actually is quite a good cover album of Carpenter's songs already. It features bands such as Sonic Youth and The Cranberries. I kind of wish I had that album instead of this one.



I think I know quite a few Carpenters songs because they've released so many hits, but I seriously can't recognise any of the songs on this album. Maybe it was released after their "best" years. The album cover is even cheesier than the songs. Those fake smiling expressions are kind of creepy. And the added strange sky and album title written in the steam in front of them are just crazy.

Some of the piano parts are actually kind of good, but the electric guitars are properly awful. I think the best song is I Need to Be In Love. It's super cheesy as well, but at least it's quite mellow and the melody is quite interesting. It sounds like a perfect cheesy karaoke song. One More Time works in a kind of similar way.

I was happy to take my grandmother's Carpenters albums when she offered them, because it's a well known band and as a collector I like owning things, but I haven't really listened to these albums at all. I think this might work well though as ironic listening while hanging out with your friends. There's something about listening to bad music together. I guess that's why Radio Helsinki's Paskalista (shit list) is so successful. It features really bad songs, but the DJ's attitude towards them makes them really funny.

I don't really have that much to write about this album and I feel like I just end up bashing this band really badly, so I'm going to stop here. I don't know if I'll ever return to this album, but I do like this blog, because it makes me actually listen to even the crappy albums I have at least once.

Listen to the album on Spotify.