The one hundred eighty-first album: #181 The Carpenters - Close To You
While I feel like I keep talking about rock and roll diversifying, with blues and jazz albums coming in between those, I've forgotten how good it feels to get a simple, straight forward pop album. The Carpenters know how to create this, with some lovely harmonies, soe good melodies, and solid covers. Burt Bacharach's Close To You, which lends its title to the album, is the famous example, but Help gets its own twist that sounds a bit folksier and, to be honest, quite seventies here. It shows how, while the album isn't experimental, it's clearly their own sound that works well. Sure, it's fairly inoffensive in what it does, but it's the right amount of relaxed to stay listenable.