The Carpenters have become like Abba were for me about 15 years ago - I can lose hours at a time just listening to their best songs with the volume up high. I actually never really dared to venture beyond my favorites from Abba's hits, but with the Carpenters I have a few LPs and recently picked up a 5-CD reader's digest set, allowing me to hear some less famous tracks by them.

This track is a bit of a revelation for me. Highly produced, early 70s. Piano-led, with strings, guitar, bass etc, and Richard providing some backing vocals. Karen's singing is beautiful as ever, although her voice sounds a bit funny - she over-pronounces words like 'goes'. The verse is plaintive and moody, while the brief chorus is funky in that glorious way tracks from the early 70s can be funky. This section is reprised with pretty sick flute playing!

In all, a really beautiful track that for me showcases all the best things the Carpenters have to offer. The band are still stigmatized by many, for reasons I'm not exactly clear on. I understand that this kind of highly produced, clean sounding music might not be for everyone, but if you've just been put off listening to them because they're not very cool, maybe give this track a try!

One of my favorite tracks from this classic album. Clare Torry's vocals are absolutely haunting without saying an actual word. I always used to visualize being sucked up into space (undoubtedly because of the song's title) when I heard this song. Then I watched it with the Wizard of Oz and now I always invision Dorothy Gale in the eye of the storm...

The day I bought this LP I got home late so I only had time to throw on the first track of the first side before my girlfriend asked me to turn it off. As soon as I heard it I knew immediately that I wanted to hear it again. I woke up with the song bouncing in my head. I was gonna be late to work, but I recorded the song so I could listen to it on the commute. I must have listened to it all the way to work and all the way home, so about 30 times before I tired of it. Why is it so great, you ask? I would say it was the Stevie factor as he wrote, produced and played nearly all of the instruments on this, his writing partner's debut album, but Syreeta really wails on her vocal parts infusing the song with an undeniable optimism. This was the year when Stevie really started to get adventerous with his music and you can tell that he took some additional liberties on this album then he did on his own from the same period, Music of My Mind. His version of this song from his album is great, but doesn't have the same synthesizer groove that bubbles along with the funky drums like syreeta's does. Marvelous song. I gave it to a friend and within days his friends' minds were all blown as well.

A really quiet song, guitar tuned low, has a more traditionally folksy sound than other Drake tunes, which are pretty unique-sounding for the most part. But with his song it works well, and it's my favorite on this record.

An extraordinary track that begins its life as an awkward attempt at country and western before very quickly resolving itself an removing it self from conventional pop music ,seven minutes later your life will never be the same again.How four conventional instruments could carve something so cosmic is beyond belief,not cosmic in a Floyd way or even a Grateful Dead way but truly other worldly.Ferry,s pledge that he would do ANYTHING for his girl resonate against weird synths ,weird guitar and heart breaking saxophone ,the wiords become the music and the music becomes the words ,a truly cerebral conclusion is achieved This is used to staggering effect in the Daniel Craig film "Flashbacks of a Fool" and to hear and see this track is almost overwhelming.