Reviews

Michael Carpenter - Baby
Not Lame/Pure Pop

"Sydney-based singer,songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Michael Carpenter might be a familiar face around the local traps, what with playing not only with the Pyramidiacs and Eva Trout but singing and playing bass out front of his own band the Bandits and the Finkers, but it took an American indie label to pick up his songwriting and release his debut solo album, Baby. Which means if you want a copy, you're lucky local distributors Pure Pop have picked up the Not Lame catalogue.

Even more ironic is the fact that this obviously hyperactive young man wasn't even writing songs in his own right until late 1995 (though a decade or so before, he was writing for his then band The Broken Heroes) and he started by default - a session in his studio blown out. Yet there's a collection of 'pure power pop' as accomplished in composition and execution as anything conceived by a writer in this genre with double the experience. The influences are obvious - The Beatles in particular, especially on tracks like She Dreams, Tonight and The Real Thing, and the Beach Boys, on Thinking About You, Mystic People and All I Want, stacked harmonies everywhere - but they're also all reverently acknowledged. The scary part is that practically all the voices and all the instruments are Carpenter, with minimal vocal help from the odd friend. Not that the short, sharp guitar solos are going to make Clapton or Hendrix nervous, but they pump along more than adequately on a track like full-tilt rocker Just Like You.

There's also an indication of broader possibilities with the quietly sublime, sparsely produced Beautiful Wonderful, where Carpenter just allows the lilting melody carry the piece. Here and there his voice can sound like Paul McCartney or Gerry Rafferty, which ain't no bad thing. And if anything, the album is all about vocals, multi-layered in classic mode, which makes the uncredited bonus tracks more than mere 'value for money' additions. You get a great insight into just how effective, for instance the way Carpenter has arranged the counterpointing vocal lines of opening track Thinking About You have been conceived. Great stuff, and it just goes to show, once again, that Australia's music industry's missed opportunity need not prevent the world from hearing great locally produced music. "
Review by MICHAEL SMITH (DRUM MEDIA)

Michael Carpenter - Baby
Not Lame Records

"Carpenter, from the Bra, has taken a bloody long time - something like five years- to get this CD up & out but the attention to detail here justifies the time he's spent. It's pretty much a pop album that takes it's lead from the Beatles, The Foo Fighters and the Beach Boys plus the late seventies (Joe Jackson etc) power pop boom time. All the trademarks of the power pop greats are here: a heap of sharp and snappy playing over short and feisty tunes with, one would imagine, a heap of commercial potential. Like the recent Cotton Mather album Carpenter's reverence for the Beatles manifests itself in an extraordinary ability to replicate the vocals and arrangements of that band. But he's got it down (especially on Tonight) so well that it's hard to begrudge him the derivative nature of a couple of tracks. The Beatles/Beach Boys harmonies are a Carpenter specialty and it's his approach to vocals, fuelled by an obvious love, that gives Baby it's real personality. That and the fact that Carpenter has a confident and assured touch with instrumental melody.

I don't mean to say this with a disparaging air but most of this album would slot right into place on MMM. Sadly, it lacks major label backing so he can pretty much kiss that good bye and it's too poppy for JJJ to latch onto. Problem.

Solution? There isn't one, but if I was Carpenter I'd be trying college radio in America, this would surely appeal to the market that brought us the pop of Matthew Sweet and Matchbox 20. If you aren't sure how much you like Baby, then let the extra track, a
multi- layered vocal and guitar version of opener Thinking About You, let you decide."
***1/2
Review by NEAL HUNT

 

Michael Carpenter - Baby
(When/Castle)

"Balding Aussie does his own thing and makes an album you might want to keep It's an album made in Heaven for MOJO readers. Well, if not Heaven exactly, a home studio somewhere in deepest Oz. Which, in the case of this one-man-band offering, is near enough. She Dreams, for instance, is The Beatles-meets-The Beach Boys with a touch of Byrdian jangle : pure Time Machine plus. Cynics will protest that Carpenter rips off countless familiar licks, but he achieves it with considerable panache and adds enough of his own personalityto calm any copycat fears. Elsewhere, Beautiful Wonderful displays the multi-talented one's way with somethingsoft and sensitive, while Waiting - one of two unlisted tracks - demonstrates the Carpenter way with a slice of pure a cappella, just to prove that there's life beyond powerpop. Even when it's as potent as this. "
Review by FRED DELLAR (MOJO)

 

"Michael Carpenter's Baby is not only a leading contender for Best Debut Of 99, but stands to appear on more than a few overall Best Of 99 lists as well. Worthy of whatever praise comes its way, Baby not only sets a high standard for Carpenter, but for pop as well. "
Review by Claudio Sossi (SHAKE IT UP web site)

"Michael Carpenter is a talent of the first tier…[his CD] typifies all that is wondrous about pop music."
Review by Alan Haber (PUREPOP.COM) October 1999

"Michael Carpenter…has the rare gift of combining eloquence in both music and lyric, with a very engaging pop sound."
Review by David Bash (AMPLIFIER MAGAZINE)

"A superb debut. There is no aspect of this record that is not top notch."
Review by Mick Bennett (AUDITIES MAILING LIST)


"Antipodean power-pop producer debuts with fine twangy solo effort Michael Carpenter begins the Special Thanks list on the back of this album by signalling his allegiance to The Beatles, but there's more to his cleverly arranged songs than a simple hankering for the Fab Four. Indeed, the multi-tracked harmonies, chirpy choruses and chiming guitars also suggest The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Flamin' Groovies and The Byrds. Carpenter's experience of these melodic icons has come through his own record collection, and it's his understanding of his favourite artists and his interpretation of them that makes Baby a truly charming album. He invariably lacks the killer couplets of his mentors and he struggles on the one ballad here, but for the most part Baby offers simple, melodic enjoyment."
*** out of 5
Review by Dave Henderson (Q MAGAZINE)

"I was fortunate enough last year to be gifted with a 'demo' CD from an Aussie artist called Stagefright. Consisting of Sydney resident Michael Carpenter singing and playing everything (the cad!), the 'demo' CD contained six memorable slices of a very tasty pop pie.
Well, lo and behold, Carpenter has impressed (powerpop monarch) Bruce Brodeen enough to warrant a full-length release - Baby - on Brodeen's premier Not Lame label. Best of all, Carpenter has decided to drop the decidedly dodgy moniker altogether.

Carpenter's musical raison d'être is straightforward - powerpop with a tinge of folk rock - think the Beatles circa Rubber Soul or the magnificent early Byrds (when Gene Clark was still a member) complimented by a vocal harmonic density that would not be alien on a Beach Boys LP. Best of all, Carpenter's recording and production expertise (he has been involved with notable Aussie outfits like The Pyramidiacs, and most recently The Finkers) sets Baby apart from albums made in the basement - no garage rock comparisons are relevant here. Meaning: powerful songs presented with accomplished sound, there is absolutely no reason why any one who loves melody-driven guitar pop will not find Baby irresistible.

With the honest-to-goodness-should-be-radio-hits quality of tracks like You're The One; Love is the …; The Real Thing and Thinking About You, it is a sobering indictment that is an obscure, unknown talent whilst those less deserving continue to hog the attention." (8.5)
Review by Power of Pop website

 

Baby - Michael Carpenter
Label: Not Lame Records/When! Records
Released: 1999
Highlights: Thinking About You She Dreams Tonight Love Is Like... Missing You Know
Rating: 10/10

"Michael Carpenter’s debut album, Baby, is one of the best Australian pop albums I've heard, up there with the likes of The Orange Humble Band, DM3 and The Chevelles (and probably the best never to be actually released in Australia). What is even more remarkable is that he plays every instrument himself with only some close friends helping with backing vocals. Highlights include the stunning harmonies of Thinking About You, the hypnotic 12-string jangle of She Dreams, the knockout power chords of Tonight, the rocking Just Like You and the touching finale Missing You Know. Micheal Carpenter writes songs straight from the heart, with an infectious honesty that can’t help but warm even the coldest heart. Everything I love about pop music is here and more. It may have taken over 4 years to complete but Baby is a stunning debut. "
Review by Pop On Top website