• Carpenters "Kind of Hush" LP

A&M Records

A Kind Of Hush is the seventh studio album by American pop duo Carpenters, originally released in June 1976 via A&M Records. A Kind Of Hush did not achieve the same level of commercial success as its immediate predecessors and perhaps reflected the punishing schedule the Carpenters had been putting themselves through. They had released a studio album almost every year since 1969 together with extensive live touring commitments.

Richard Carpenter has since commented that he felt the album suffered a little from lack of creativity and spontaneity. Despite this, the album contains some really strong material. The original song “I Need To Be In Love” is John Bettis’ favourite lyric he wrote for Karen Carpenter, and this turned out to be her favourite song as well.

There were successful single releases from the title track “There’s A Kind Of Hush” to “I Need To Be In Love” and “Goofus”. “Sandy” and “I Have You” are also strong original songs and the band covered another Neil Sedaka song “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do” on the album as well. This was the first album not to feature Karen on drums.