Curved Air - Second Album (1971) [Japan 1st Press, 1997]
EAC Rip | FLAC: Image+Cue+Log | 266 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps | 101 Mb | Scans | Time: 42:24
Genre: Rock, Progressive Rock, Art Rock | Label: Warner Bros. (Japan) | Cat.#: WPCR-1455
EAC Rip | FLAC: Image+Cue+Log | 266 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps | 101 Mb | Scans | Time: 42:24
Genre: Rock, Progressive Rock, Art Rock | Label: Warner Bros. (Japan) | Cat.#: WPCR-1455
Second Album was the second album released by British rock group Curved Air. It reached No. 11 in the UK Charts on 9 October 1971, and "Back Street Luv" became a UK No. 4 chart hit on 7 August 1971.
Time has not treated Curved Air's second album kindly. Of course it was always dominated by "Back Street Luv," which isn't simply one of the band's own finest moments, it's also one of the crucial singles of the early 1970s. But across this straightforward reissue of the accompanying album, the savage innovation which was the hallmark of their Air Conditioning debut, and the brilliant eclecticism which would characterize their next set, is nowhere in sight. Which is weird, because it always used to sound quite good. In its place, a crop of relatively straightforward but sonically flat rock songs are distinguished by Sonja Christina's most conventional, cool vocals yet – only "Back Street Luv" truly draws any true emotion out of her, while the band's much vaunted classical/rock fusion only shakes its fist during the closing "Piece of Mind," although it must be admitted that when it shakes, it really shakes. A building, foreboding 13-minute epic, crowned by a genuinely spine-tingling recitation from TS Eliot's "The Wasteland," "Piece of Mind" is the kind of performance which you just know was played endlessly in college dorm rooms of the age. The segues from mounting rock to pondering piano seem hopelessly old-fashioned now, the building tension of violin and percussion seems obvious and hackneyed. In 1971, though, Curved Air were pioneers in every sense of the word and it is neither their fault, nor this album's, that we're not so easily impressed any longer. But maybe it isn't time which has treated this album so poorly, but the slipshod manner in which this album has been converted to CD. It sounds lifeless, sludgy, even (in places) a little slow. It has certainly not been remastered; it may not even have used the best quality tapes. Albums this ambitious need loving care and patient attention to cut the aural ice today. This one got neither. ~ Review by Dave Thompson (allmusic.com)
Track Listing
01. Young Mother (5:58)
02. Back Street Luv (3:41)
03. Jumbo (4:10)
04. You Know (4:11)
05. Puppets (5:29)
06. Everdance (3:08)
07. Bright Summer's Day '68 (2:54)
08. Piece Of Mind (12:53)
Produced by Curved Air & Colin Caldwell
The Band
• Sonja Kristina (ex: Strawbs, Mask): vocals
• Darryl Way (ex: Darryl Way's Wolf, Sisyphus, Rock Meets Classic): violin, piano on "Puppets", backing vocals
• Francis Monkman (ex: 801, Sky, The Alan Parsons Project, Beyond The Planets, Sisyphus, The Shadows): guitar, keyboards, VCS3 synthesizer
• Ian Eyre: bass guitar
• Florian Pilkington-Miksa (ex: The Kiki Dee Band): drums
Notes
Especially rare ones!–Very rare CD!!
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011
EAC extraction logfile from 5. February 2013, 13:42
Curved Air / Second Album
Used drive : Optiarc BDRW BD-M100A Adapter: 0 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 102
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 : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:58.00 | 0 | 26849
2 | 5:58.00 | 3:41.05 | 26850 | 43429
3 | 9:39.05 | 4:10.45 | 43430 | 62224
4 | 13:49.50 | 4:11.35 | 62225 | 81084
5 | 18:01.10 | 5:29.58 | 81085 | 105817
6 | 23:30.68 | 3:08.50 | 105818 | 119967
7 | 26:39.43 | 2:54.55 | 119968 | 133072
8 | 29:34.23 | 12:53.05 | 133073 | 191052
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename C:\Users\Desktop\Curved Air 2\Curved Air - Second Album.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 4.7 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F36CA6E1
Copy CRC F36CA6E1
Copy OK
No errors occurred
End of status report
==== Log checksum 8E4DD66E1E04F4DE85F07E21AFC702EE276517E072DBF00EC15C2555E2DB51A1 ====
EAC extraction logfile from 5. February 2013, 13:42
Curved Air / Second Album
Used drive : Optiarc BDRW BD-M100A Adapter: 0 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 102
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 : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Date=%year%" -T "Genre=%genre%" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:58.00 | 0 | 26849
2 | 5:58.00 | 3:41.05 | 26850 | 43429
3 | 9:39.05 | 4:10.45 | 43430 | 62224
4 | 13:49.50 | 4:11.35 | 62225 | 81084
5 | 18:01.10 | 5:29.58 | 81085 | 105817
6 | 23:30.68 | 3:08.50 | 105818 | 119967
7 | 26:39.43 | 2:54.55 | 119968 | 133072
8 | 29:34.23 | 12:53.05 | 133073 | 191052
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename C:\Users\Desktop\Curved Air 2\Curved Air - Second Album.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 4.7 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F36CA6E1
Copy CRC F36CA6E1
Copy OK
No errors occurred
End of status report
==== Log checksum 8E4DD66E1E04F4DE85F07E21AFC702EE276517E072DBF00EC15C2555E2DB51A1 ====
Many thanks to the original uploader: uta5erika5
See also:
* Curved Air 1970 Air Conditioning [Japan SHM-CD, 2015]
* Curved Air 1971 Second Album [Japan SHM-CD, 2015]
* Curved Air 1972 Phantasmagoria [Japan SHM-CD, 2015]
* Curved Air 2014 North Star