Both are bands that I will always dearly love.
But let's start with their 'bad' stuff. Come on, they did put out either way too sacchariney moments (The Carpenters) or way too embarrassing pop schlock (ABBA). Even though Karen Carpenter was an amazingly emotional singer, it is hard for me to enjoy things like "Bless The Beasts And The Children" or "Top Of The World" (way too damn slick without any clever twists in it), and the list goes on and on. Karen can't save songs like those from falling into the traps of corniness and banality.
As for ABBA, most of the weaker stuff they put out was in the early years (unlike the Carpenters, who had flashes of brilliance alongside moments of embarrassment all through their career). Can someone honestly enjoy songs like "Nina, Pretty Ballerina" or "Me And Bobby And Bobby's Brother"? Or something like "King Kong Song"? For the love of God, you'd need to drink a good amount of lager before you start to tolerate these schlagers. And even "Two For The Price Of One", released on their last studio album, isn't all that far from their early stuff. Geez, where did all the maturity come from all of a sudden?
But none of the above matters really. The Carpenters may have been the target of hatred for all the "serious" rock music listeners in the '70s, but they sure as hell wouldn't have outlasted all the muck that surrounded them on the charts had they not been talented and unique. Richard Carpenter's arrangement skills were pure genius, he was able to turn a Burt Bacharach-written semi-obscure b-side into an evocative pop masterpiece ("Close To You") and this was true of other of their hits as well. But of course that wouldn't have mattered much had not one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time sung those songs. Karen was capable of singing saccharine material like "We've Only Just Begun" or "Yesterday Once More" and make you feel her personal pain in every note she let out of her mouth. When they got a great song and Richard created a great arrangement for it all that was needed was a great Karen vocal, and boy, did she ever deliver. "Rainy Days And Mondays" is the ultimate example of this for me.
The Carpenters might have had their schtick, but they were capable of inserting some diversity into the proceedings later in their career as well. Check out Passage from 1977, it has mild country rock ("Sweet Sweet Smile"), their traditional ballads ("I Just Fall In Love Again", "Two Sides"), a jazzy send-up ("Bwana She No Home") and a prog-rock cover to top things off ("Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft", listen to this one and you might get rid of your prejudices against The Carpenters).
However, I did choose ABBA. The Carpenters didn't write much of their songs, not that I think it barely matters but in their reliance to the corporate songwriters they didn't always receive such good stuff. However, once Björn and Benny had gotten rid of their early banal Scandinavian schlager creations, they started putting out hits at the speed of lightning. There's no need for me to describe how amazing arrangements on songs like "Mamma Mia", "Dancing Queen", "The Eagle", "Gimme Gimme Gimme" or "One Of Us" are, it's all been done by people who can describe these things far more adequately than I can. Needless to say, those dazzling harmonies and Benny's gift to constantly come up with new melodic ideas on his various keyboards contributed a lot to the overall sound. They also had a far stronger run of albums than The Carpenters, everything released by our favourite American duo from the end of the '60s to the beginning of the '80s was patchy (with their self-titled album from 1971 and Passage being the highlights for me). Abba on the other hand released near-perfect material from 1975 to 1981, and you shouldn't just stick with the hits, check out the strong album tracks too, such as "When I Kissed The Teacher", "My Love My Life", "The Eagle", "On And On And On", "When All Is Said And Done", etc. Plus I think that at the tail end of their career they reached out to the same sense of vulnerability that Karen Carpenter did (check out "The Winner Takes It All" and "The Day Before You Came"), Agnetha Fältskog's vocals played an important part there (Frida had more range and vocal talent in technical terms but she couldn't have done what Agnetha did in those songs).
Good face-off this one.
