I like Punk, Metal, Industrial, Kraut Rock, and every obnoxious, unlistenable crap to come down the pike and was angry that nobody had told me that Stockhausen was not like Philip Glass but wrote stuff chock full of noise and bleeps. On the other hand, I have an appreciation for pure Pop for now people, the perfectly crafted three minutes that made radio great, and the most perfect are the works of the Carpenters. Great singles and Karen could really sing.
So there. Bleah! 
Liking the Carpenters has been cool for at least ten years now. Where you been?
Long ago and oh, so far away
I fell in love with you before the second show…
“If I Were a Carpenter” was kind of disappointing although “Superstar” was cool. Yeah I love em too. And I get all misty eyed thinking of Chris Farley and David Spade singing along to them in “Tommy Boy.”
oh and nice Nick Lowe reference dropzone
I agree - I’d put my music taste and knowledge up against anybody, and I love the Carpenters to death.“Yesterday once more” is one of the more perfect songs ever crafted by mankind’s craven hand.
Yer on, punk.
I included it just for YOU! 
Their music puts me at the top of the world.
I heard that Richard Nixon really liked them, too.
I don’t know what that means.
(Karen really did have a great voice)
Yeh sooner or later, I think we all hear something endearing in The Carpenters. I still keep them tucked with The Bee Gees and John Denver in my guilty pleasure file. But I’ve stopped pretending Karen’s voice doesn’t turn me into a big ol’ pussycat. I even picked up The Carpenters’ Christmas on CD last year. Sweet Og, what a wuss. 
If I could pick a singing voice out of the great panoply of deep and resonant lovely women’s voices, I might just chose hers.
And then I’d use it to sing real songs. 
If lovin’ the Carpenters is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.
Another Carpenters fan, although I wish they had turned their talents to something a little more challenging than the MOR stuff they did.
I wish Karen had lived and been healthy, because I think they might have gained a lot more depth and credibility had they continued to perform for the next 30 years.
‘I Can Dream, Can’t I?’ from the 1938 musical “Right this Way” was so perfect for Karen’s voice.
*I can see
No matter how near you’ll be
You’ll never belong to me
But I can dream, can’t I?
Can’t I pretend that I’m locked in the bend of your embrace?
For dreams are just like wine
And I am drunk with mine
*
Her voice was pure pop perfection. Good enough in fact that it made the often sappy material listenable.
Check Swing Out Sister. Corrine Drewery’s voice approaches Karen Carpenter’s (almost) and they filter a sixties/seventies pop/soul appreciation through a modern Brit/pop/jazz sensibility and have created a string of eight albums (not counting live and best-of) over the last eighteen years that are nothing short of wonderful.
“Merry Christmas Darling” still kills me every year - never fails.
Karen’s voice on that song always sends chills down my spine.
Sappy? Those lyrics drilled into your brain and fired explosive rock anchors. Given their number, whoever wrote them new exactly what they were doing too.
It’s been 30 years, and they still pop up and hang around for days at a time.
A week of involuntarily humming “why do birds suddenly appear…” used to be torture, but I’ve come to accept them as the finely crafted bits bits of song that they are; right up there with Amazing grace, The bear went over the mountain and Let’s go ridin in the car car.
“Little Altar Boy” does it for me. Richard has said he thinks it’s her best vocal recording, ever.
For me the song that convinced that Karen wasn’t just another pop princess was Rainy Days and Mondays. M friends always sneered at the Carpenters but listening to her sing that song proved to me that they were were wrong. The darkness, the loneliness, the pain were there if only you were paying attention. I too wish Karen had lived longer so that she could have matured as a singer. She had a great gift but never got the chance to learn how to use it fully. That, to me, is a tragedy.