Carpenters is the third studio album by the Carpenters. Released on May 14, 1971, it was their most successful studio album ever, reaching number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and number 12 in the UK. The album contained the hit songs "For All We Know", "Rainy Days and Mondays" and "Superstar".

It has been said that the strength of these recordings is what caused Richard Carpenter to ask his sister to front the band for their live performances instead of playing behind the drums. Amongst many fans, the album has simply been referred to as "The Tan Album", because the original LP cover, complete with overlapping flap, looked like an oversized tan envelope, and is presumably a play on The Beatles' so-called White Album.

In Cash Box's Top 100 Albums of 1971, Carpenters was listed as one of the year's ten biggest albums. This is the first album to feature the familiar Carpenters logo.

All lead vocals are by Karen, except on the tracks "Druscilla Penny", "Saturday", and the "Walk on By" segment of the Bacharach/David Medley, where Richard Carpenter sings lead vocal, with Karen in the background.

AllMusic gave the album a mixed review mocking the cover as, "a decorative picture of the duo (similar to a graduation photo)", also calling it very MOR, except for "Superstar". Similarly, Rolling Stone called the album "exceptionally sharp...MOR", calling "Rainy Days and Mondays", "Let Me Be the One" and "(A Place to) Hideaway" as more adequate than the other songs on the album, in spite of adding their prior album to their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. They also proclaimed that, "the Carpenters have more going for them than against."

The music of "Rainy Days and Mondays" was composed by Roger Nichols, and the lyrics were written by Paul Williams, who later recorded his own version of the song. It was released as a single and charted well in the United States at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Rainy Days and Mondays" was the Carpenters' second Nichols/Williams hit, after "We've Only Just Begun" of the Close to You album the previous year.

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