Tracklist

Side 1

1. We've Only Just Begun
2. Love is Surrender
3. Maybe It's You
4. Reason to Believe
5. Help
6. (They Long to Be) Close to You

Side 2

1. Baby It's You
2. I'll Never Fall in Love Again
3. Crescent Noon
4. Mr. Guder
5. I Kept On Loving You
6. Another Song

Thoughts

I love Karen Carpenter, even more so since reading this biography of her life and too-short career. I've listened to the first album the Carpenters released already, and it seemed about the right time to dip into their next studio offering.

The album kicks off in great style with Carpenters classic We've Only Just Begun, showcasing Karen's silky smooth vocals. There's an authenticity there, when she says 'we've only just begun', you think she's talking about you, and you believe her. There's a mix of genres on show, Love is Surrender leans more into the slightly hippy sixties sound, whilst Reason to Believe is a country song through and through.

There's another Beatles cover too. The previous album was re-released after the success of their Ticket to Ride cover, now we've got a reworking of Help. The good news is, they've made it their own with a focus on harmonies, changing up the rhythms, and far more drumming than the original.

The problem comes with Close to You. A legendary song, and I'm sure many people's go to for karaoke. But placed in the middle of the tracklist like it is, it's an absolute mood killer, stopping the album stone dead. It tries to recover but ends up veering off into oddities instead - Mr Guder, a revenge track about a former boss, and we end the record with a jazzy instrumental.

Karen's voice will buy a lot of grace but this can't be a 5 out of 5 album when things come to an abrupt halt halfway through and never really get going again.

Rating: 3 / 5