INTERPRETATIONS: A 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION contains three previously unreleased tracks.

The Carpenters: Karen Carpenter (vocals, drums); Richard Carpenter (keyboards, background vocals).

Additional personnel: Tony Peluso, Tim May, Dennis Budimir, Fred Tackett (guitar); Jay Dee Maness (pedal steel guitar); Bob Messenger (flute); Earl Dumler (oboe); Tom Morgan (harmonica); Chuck Findley (trumpet); Pete Jolly (keyboards); Joe Osborn (bass); Hal Blaine, Jim Gordon, Cubby O'Brien, Larrie Londin (drums)

Producers: Richard Carpenter, Jack Daugherty, Karen Carpenter.

Engineers include: Ray Gerhardt, Roger Young, Dave Iveland.

Includes liner notes by Paul Grein & Richard Carpenter.

Digitally remastered by Arnie Acosta.

Recorded between March 1970 & March 1980.

Although the Carpenters were hardly considered fashionable during their '70s commercial heyday (rock critics particularly detested them), by the time this greatest-hits album (fleshed out with a few previously unreleased tracks) was released, the critical consensus was swinging in their favor. Maybe it was a '90s irony thing (lounge revival, anyone?); more likely it was just that with the passage of time, people could finally hear the melancholy that lurked under the surface-happy face of the Carpenters' lush production style. In any case, this is a terrific best-of, with all the hits plus their all-time weirdest cover, Klaatu's "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft." You make the call: Karen and Richard Carpenter--secret space cadets?