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22:07
Sparks - Exotic Creatures Of The Deep (2008)
Artist: Sparks Album: Exotic Creatures Of The
Deep Year: 2008 Style:Indie Pop/Rock Format: eac-ape[
Quote
Well, they've done it again. I liked
Lil'Beethoven. I loved Hello Young Lovers. I suspect I will soon be
adoring Exotic Creatures of the Deep. It's a progression again,
continuing the sound that the Mael's have defined over the last couple
of records. There's humour, there's wit. There's catchy melodies and
cleverly constructed meters. There's also a thematic sound. I'm not
saying it all sounds the same, but almost like a concept album it's all
coming from one place. The top layer is Russell's multi-tracked
harmonies, like a choir of exotic angels, swooping through the repeating
and repetitive rhythms of the lyrics. Below that is the beautifully
constructed piano lines of Ron, counterbalancing his brother's melody.
Then there's the sparse boom boom of tom-toms and the strains of cello
in the bass, and violins through the treble. The production is just
beautiful, with an open and precise sound. As with the last couple
the biggest influence on the Mael sound (other than themselves) is
Philip Glass, though there is also a heavy dose of Lou Reed in the
Sprechgesang delivery of some of the verses. And I can also hear very
clearly the influence of Brian Wilson's "Smile", especially in "The
Director never yelled 'CUT!'" .
All in all, it is very easy
to fall in love with this CD and it is destined never to recieve the
acclaim or audience it deserves.
One point I would make
is that the Special Edition (with Ron and Monkey on the cover) that I
bought is anything BUT special. It's just a cheap cardboard sleeve for
the CD and book, so assuming the regular edition has an actual CD case,
I'd go for that one. And it's cheaper
01. Intro [0:01:02.07] 02. Good Morning [0:03:53.16]
03. Strange Animal [0:05:45.72] 04. I Can't Believe That You
Would Fall For All The Crap In This Song [0:03:54.15] 05. Let The
Monkey Drive [0:04:09.45] 06. Intro Reprise [0:00:24.25] 07.
I've Never Been High [0:04:31.20] 08. (She Got Me) Pregnant
[0:04:13.49] 09. Lighten Up, Morrissey [0:04:14.47] 10. This
Is The Renaissance [0:03:45.38] 11. The Director Never Yelled 'Cut'
[0:03:54.15] 12. Photoshop [0:04:01.69] 13. Likeable
[0:06:13.74]
Code
Exact Audio
Copy V0.99 prebeta 3 from 28. July 2007
EAC extraction logfile
from 20. September 2008, 11:33
Sparks / Exotic Creatures Of The
Deep
Used drive : TSSTcorpCD/DVDW SH-W162L Adapter: 1 ID: 1
Read mode : Secure Utilize accurate stream :
Yes Defeat audio cache : No Make use of C2 pointers :
Yes
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Fill up missing
offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing
silent blocks : No Null samples used in CRC calculations :
No Used interface : Installed external ASPI
interface
Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo
Peak level 99.8 % Range quality 100.0 % Copy
CRC 1734C90C Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
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No tracks could be verified as accurate You may have a different
pressing from the one(s) in the database
