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Strawbs - Settlement (2021)

Posted By: v3122
Strawbs - Settlement (2021)

Strawbs - Settlement (2021)
EAC | Flac(Image) + Cue + Log & MP3 CBR 320Kbps
Esoteric Antenna, EANTCD 1087 | RU | ~ 357 or 132 Mb | Artwork(jpg) -> 5.25 Mb
Folk Rock, Prog Rock

For a band that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019, Strawbs still sound amazingly spry on Settlement. That’s a testament to both their staying power and their ability to transcend genres to create music that relates to the world in which we are currently trapped. Dave Cousins assembled a lineup of old hands, Dave Lambert on guitar, bassist Chas Cronk, and Tony Fernandez on drums, all veterans of the classic Strawbs bands of the ‘70s. With the addition of Dave Bainbridge on keyboards, he has a pretty stellar group. To produce the disc, he called on Blue Weaver, keyboard player in those ‘70s bands. There was only one problem, the entire album was recorded with none of the participants ever in the same room together thanks to Covid-19.

Despite all that, the recording sounds in many ways like Strawbs classics From the Witchwood, Grave New World, Bursting at the Seams and Hero and Heroine. Yet rather than creating a formula Cousins and company deal with the issues that are on everyone’s minds these days. Getting off to a scathing start, “Settlement” blasts at the politics that have left large parts of the world trying to dig out from policies that have let the rich get richer on the backs of the poor. Guitars slash, bass booms and keyboards accuse the guilty. This is a band that knows how to rock even when doing so remotely.

The dichotomy of Strawbs is fully displayed on “Strange Times” where the bombast is replaced by something more soft and subtle. An acoustic guitar takes the lead as Cousins sings of “Times of danger/ Times of grief/ Such are these strange times.” Having always been able to take a gentle tone, the band finds bits of comfort in the midst of so much chaos surrounding us all.

Dave Lambert’s “The Visit” is at its heart a ghost story, just the sort of thing that the digs its teeth into. The chorus “Stay away from your window/ Lock all your doors/ Don’t let your children alone” offers some of the mystery at the core of the song. Lambert sings with a mixture that combines the matter-of-fact nature of the song, along with the mystery of the visitor. Following that up is the first of two instrumentals in the collection, “Flying Free,” a guitar-based piece serving as a coda to “The Visit.”

Playing with how we look at the world, “We Are Everyone,” a Chas Cronk co-write with Cousins offers a look at how we need to stick together, yet Cousins’ vocal delivery suggests a more malevolent attitude. The keyboards bridge the two points of view creating a weird energy that adds to the uncertainty of the piece. It’s one of those moments when you begin to realize that things aren’t always the way they seem. The vocals of Cousins and Cathryn Craig, along with Cronk’s keyboards, only add to the mystery of the piece.

Hope and majesty are on display in the second instrumental, “Chorale,” in which the band combines elements from synthesizers with what sounds like a church organ, creating a unique blend. Telling the tale of boxing champion Jack Dupree, “Champion Jack” is a song highlighting the boxer’s life, along with his time spent in a Japanese POW camp. The combination of instruments used to tell the tale builds on a bed of keyboards that create tension and eventually release as the song nears the end with a vivid guitar solo.

While Strawbs have travelled a tangled road, we can still rejoice in their ability to make great music under the most trying of circumstances. Settlement proves that despite the ravages of time there is more to accomplish.

By Bob Fish, spectrumculture.com
Strawbs - Settlement (2021):

Strawbs - Settlement (2021)

Tracklist:

01. Settlement
02. Strange Times
03. Judgement Day
04. Each Manner Of Man
05. The Visit
06. Flying Free
07. Quicksilver Days
08. We Are Everyone
09. Chorale
Off The Beaten Tracks:
10. Champion Jack
11. Better Days (Life Is Not A Game)
12. Liberty

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 21. April 2021, 12:12

Strawbs / Settlement

Used drive : ASUS DRW-24D5MT Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

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 : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 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 "Genre=%genre%" -T "Artist=%artist%" -T "Title=%title%" -T "Album=%albumtitle%" -T "Date=%year%" -T "Tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "Comment=%comment%" %source%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:00.59 | 0 | 22558
2 | 5:00.59 | 4:30.28 | 22559 | 42836
3 | 9:31.12 | 7:17.34 | 42837 | 75645
4 | 16:48.46 | 4:27.41 | 75646 | 95711
5 | 21:16.12 | 4:42.46 | 95712 | 116907
6 | 25:58.58 | 2:13.09 | 116908 | 126891
7 | 28:11.67 | 2:26.18 | 126892 | 137859
8 | 30:38.10 | 4:56.57 | 137860 | 160116
9 | 35:34.67 | 3:14.29 | 160117 | 174695
10 | 38:49.21 | 7:20.55 | 174696 | 207750
11 | 46:10.01 | 3:53.55 | 207751 | 225280
12 | 50:03.56 | 5:43.74 | 225281 | 251079


Track 1

Filename H:\Sket4er\Strawbs – Settlement 2021\01 Settlement.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 74.4 %
Extraction speed 1.1 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 2DA13D89
Copy CRC 2DA13D89
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 1) [5C954575], AccurateRip returned [0DF5A35B] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename H:\Sket4er\Strawbs – Settlement 2021\02 Strange Times.wav

Peak level 88.1 %
Extraction speed 1.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC CECF1949
Copy CRC CECF1949
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 1) [DF927200], AccurateRip returned [7CA4F9AB] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename H:\Sket4er\Strawbs – Settlement 2021\03 Judgement Day.wav

Peak level 86.9 %
Extraction speed 1.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FE6063A7
Copy CRC FE6063A7
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 1) [E44E179F], AccurateRip returned [E389B47D] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename H:\Sket4er\Strawbs – Settlement 2021\04 Each Manner Of Man.wav

Peak level 77.6 %
Extraction speed 1.4 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC FAC76328
Copy CRC FAC76328
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 1) [F1EC47EE], AccurateRip returned [9D2637DE] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename H:\Sket4er\Strawbs – Settlement 2021\05 The Visit.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 1.7 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 7A667C0F
Copy CRC 7A667C0F
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 1) [FE7A2F02], AccurateRip returned [0D4DE7B2] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename H:\Sket4er\Strawbs – Settlement 2021\06 Flying Free.wav

Peak level 94.1 %
Extraction speed 1.3 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 7DBED4C2
Copy CRC 7DBED4C2
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 1) [AD3148A9], AccurateRip returned [5CBF14E5] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename H:\Sket4er\Strawbs – Settlement 2021\07 Quicksilver Days.wav

Peak level 93.1 %
Extraction speed 1.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C95363DC
Copy CRC C95363DC
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 1) [12824341], AccurateRip returned [7EC6FB0D] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 8

Filename H:\Sket4er\Strawbs – Settlement 2021\08 We Are Everyone.wav

Peak level 90.0 %
Extraction speed 1.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 74A1701D
Copy CRC 74A1701D
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 1) [899C4F78], AccurateRip returned [1DB1E144] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 9

Filename H:\Sket4er\Strawbs – Settlement 2021\09 Chorale.wav

Peak level 87.3 %
Extraction speed 1.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E06E57CE
Copy CRC E06E57CE
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 1) [CE53FA95], AccurateRip returned [7DFE25CD] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 10

Filename H:\Sket4er\Strawbs – Settlement 2021\10 Champion Jack (Off The Beaten Tracks).wav

Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 2.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0C6250CE
Copy CRC 0C6250CE
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 1) [456F56FD], AccurateRip returned [F72C5ED9] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 11

Filename H:\Sket4er\Strawbs – Settlement 2021\11 Better Days (Life Is Not A Game) (Off The Beaten Tracks).wav

Peak level 77.2 %
Extraction speed 1.8 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC E59A2FCE
Copy CRC E59A2FCE
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 1) [2538FFDC], AccurateRip returned [AEAC7576] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 12

Filename H:\Sket4er\Strawbs – Settlement 2021\12 Liberty (Off The Beaten Tracks).wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.1 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 9889EC07
Copy CRC 9889EC07
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 1) [F258A83B], AccurateRip returned [5539C340] (AR v2)
Copy OK


No tracks could be verified as accurate
You may have a different pressing from the one(s) in the database

No errors occurred

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: owNwtnvZrEQtDlghK0vHHmahpt0-] found
Submit result: already submitted
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (15/15) Accurately ripped
2 | (15/15) Accurately ripped
3 | (15/15) Accurately ripped
4 | (15/15) Accurately ripped
5 | (15/15) Accurately ripped
6 | (15/15) Accurately ripped
7 | (15/15) Accurately ripped
8 | (15/15) Accurately ripped
9 | (15/15) Accurately ripped
10 | (15/15) Accurately ripped
11 | (15/15) Accurately ripped
12 | (15/15) Accurately ripped


==== Log checksum 41809242E8CE72D83687BE08621C7755B31CCE93440850AEDFA445AFB399D6A7 ====


[CUETools log; Date: 19.07.2021 1:02:25; Version: 2.1.4]
[AccurateRip ID: 0018fbdb-00e639a0-850d130c] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
01 [a8f13148|5c954575] (0+0/6) No match
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03 [bfae6401|e44e179f] (0+0/6) No match
04 [8b7b877b|f1ec47ee] (0+0/6) No match
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06 [3e51c603|ad3148a9] (0+0/6) No match
07 [8f86ed65|12824341] (0+0/6) No match
08 [c4dfa284|899c4f78] (0+0/6) No match
09 [5c4b3897|ce53fa95] (0+0/6) No match
10 [281d4968|456f56fd] (0+0/6) No match
11 [4c49a3ff|2538ffdc] (0+0/6) No match
12 [c3eea544|f258a83b] (0+0/6) No match
Offsetted by 6:
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02 [2fe5763f] (0/6) No match (V2 was not tested)
03 [c26c78df] (0/6) No match (V2 was not tested)
04 [38caa98b] (0/6) No match (V2 was not tested)
05 [a35fc8b8] (0/6) No match (V2 was not tested)
06 [eeed83e9] (0/6) No match (V2 was not tested)
07 [fced62eb] (0/6) No match (V2 was not tested)
08 [5b47596b] (0/6) No match (V2 was not tested)
09 [0d787594] (0/6) No match (V2 was not tested)
10 [dd57e40a] (0/6) No match (V2 was not tested)
11 [d79160ff] (0/6) No match (V2 was not tested)
12 [29866e92] (0/6) No match (V2 was not tested)

Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 98,8 [57D81C3D] [57E460E0]
01 74,4 [2DA13D89] [5327A09F] CRC32
02 88,1 [CECF1949] [344CA890] CRC32
03 86,9 [FE6063A7] [8213C927] CRC32
04 77,6 [FAC76328] [F93C4D5C] CRC32
05 98,8 [7A667C0F] [93F41A2E] CRC32
06 94,1 [7DBED4C2] [EC966978] CRC32
07 93,1 [C95363DC] [FB77F522] CRC32
08 90,0 [74A1701D] [F5E9670F] CRC32
09 87,3 [E06E57CE] [C729E9B6] CRC32
10 98,7 [0C6250CE] [735E2D25] CRC32
11 77,2 [E59A2FCE] [389AAD37] CRC32
12 98,8 [9889EC07] [3147607B] CRC32


Strawbs - Settlement (2021)

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