The duo’s best album, and the place to start beyond the hits compilations. Up to the release of A Song for You, the Carpenters’ success had seemed an awesome if somewhat fluky phenomenon…
The duo's best album, and the place to start beyond the hits compilations. Up to the release of A Song for You, the Carpenters' success had seemed an awesome if somewhat fluky phenomenon, built on prodigious talent, some beautifully crafted pop sensibilities, and a very fortunate choice of singles…
The duo's best album, and the place to start beyond the hits compilations. Up to the release of A Song for You, the Carpenters' success had seemed an awesome if somewhat fluky phenomenon, built on prodigious talent, some beautifully crafted pop sensibilities, and a very fortunate choice of singles(Bruce Eder - AllMusic Guide)
2002’s ESSENTIAL COLLECTION is basically an updated, new and improved version of FROM THE TOP. After a decade in the marketplace, Universal felt it could better the Carpenters box set, so Richard was asked to re-compile it, this time making sure that all of the hits were included – one of the weaknesses of FROM THE TOP. Richard added a couple of rarities to it as well – the Karen/Ella Medley, which hadn’t yet been issued in the States, and a Japanese Morinaga High Crown Chocolate commercial that had been an extra on a DVD release. ESSENTIAL COLLECTION marks the first appearance of a minor change to the album mix of “Solitaire” as a few mouth/saliva sounds are removed to make Karen’s vocal track sound smoother.
The trio of Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, and Karine Polwart first came together as a writing experiment coming out of the pandemic lockdown. With touring off the calendar, multi-Award winning US singer-songwriter Carpenter was looking for something new and reached out to Fowlis and Polwart, two highly acclaimed Scottish singer-songwriters whose work she had long admired.