The Carpenters - Close To You (Top 500 Countdown Update)

We tend to think of bands like The Velvet Underground as being experimental and dismiss bands like The Carpenters as being pop centric. The problem with that is that it ignores the fact that though the goals and audiences The Carpenters were going after were different than that of The Velvet Underground they were no less experimental. In the middle of this massive change in popular music Richard Carpenter went against the grain to develop a completely unique sound revolving around the strong singing of his sister Karen. Like many of the experimental albums on this countdown he often misses the mark on Close to You, like their cover of "Help," but it's an interesting album that has aged well, because it still sounds so unique even today.