Major seventh interval

also related, from the Marina Records website:

richard carpenter once said:
"I love major sevenths", and so do we!

For as long as I can remember, I've had a bias against this interval. Rather, the interval, divorced of a chord, is pretty cool, but a chord of 1-3-5-maj7 to me has *always* been something to dread, unless it was inserted in so completely an out-of-the-blue moment that I couldn't process it as a "lame melodramatic chord". I don't know why I have a problem with the major-maj7 chord, but I do. (I suspect the physics of this chord resolve into more consonances than the more-agreeable-to-me major-minor7, or major-9 w/minor7)

That said, a melody jumping from 1 to maj7 is pretty bold. I've tried this myself, and it's hard to fuck up; the interval is so large, and since you don't actually end up jumping an octave, it's also very dramatic. I wish I could make amends w/the chord.