The Ultimate Collection by The Carpenters, in some peoples eyes the epitome of 70's easy listening muzak, in my opinion purveyors of wonderful music which benefited from superb musical arrangements and vocals delivered by one of the all time great singers of popular music. At their (frequent) best there was something rather unusual in their recordings, as they were crafted to perfection and everything about their performances was polished with precision, yet they did not sound sterile or lacking in emotion. To combine that sense of perfection with emotional depth takes an awful lot of skill I think. I don't care what anybody say's, to me the music of the Carpenters fully deserves to be called "great". Karen Carpenter's tragic early death was a great loss to music.