Ah, but this is the trick. The sweetness is the pain. If this sounds familiar, it’s because all the music we love unreservedly, without benefit of irony or external justification or historical context, relies on the same formula. It’s just that Richard Carpenter has put the formula first. In recent years, his impious devotees — the people producing the songs you’ll hear on pop radio if you turn it on right now — have taken him to mean not “formula first and foremost” but “formula alone,” which is why none of athe cts on the charts today will ever be able to lay claim to a string of singles as profound as those contained on The Singles 1969-1973. Our great hope lies in this, however: the plans have already been laid out. You can put the record on and hear them for yourself. It’s just a matter of being willing to build the house. Sooner or later somebody’s going to do it, and then pop music will be more than pleas and promises. Until then, well, it’s either *NSync or Polish black metal, which is reportedly really beginning to heat up. We have our ears open and will keep you posted.