Paul McCartney - Off The Ground [EAC-FLAC] [RePoPo]

******************************************************************************* Paul McCartney - Off The Ground ******************************************************************************* CD: Paul McCartney - Off The Ground YEAR: 1993 01. Off The Ground [0:03:41.27] 02. Looking For Changes [0:02:48.70] 03. Hope Of Deliverance [0:03:21.63] 04. Mistress And Maid [0:03:00.67] 05. I Owe It All To You [0:04:51.03] 06. Biker Like An Icon [0:03:26.02] 07. Peace In The Neighbourhood [0:05:06.25] 08. Golden Earth Girl [0:03:44.53] 09. The Lovers That Never Were [0:03:42.62] 10. Get Out Of My Way [0:03:32.38] 11. Winedark Open Sea [0:05:26.55] 12. C'mon People [0:07:42.00] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ALLMUSIC REVIEW ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Stephen Thomas Erlewine Flowers in the Dirt did earn good reviews but perhaps more important was its accompanying tour, McCartney's first full-fledged world tour in years. Given the tour's enthusiastic reception, McCartney could wait until 1993 to deliver the album's proper sequel, Off the Ground. Though it isn't as consciously ambitious, Off the Ground certainly picks up where Flowers left off, as McCartney feels no shame in making an album that doesn't aim for the charts (though success would certainly be welcomed), yet is still classy, professional, and ambitious. Two key differences appear: It's a leaner production (making the mid-tempo numbers seem less cloying and giving the rockers real kick), and McCartney's social conscience dominates the record (which is easily his most politically active, as he rails against animal testing and pleads for world peace several times). He doesn't leave love or whimsy behind ("Biker Like an Icon" is easily his worst, most studied stab at whimsy), and he still has a pair of fine McCartney/McManus songs ("Mistress and Maid," "The Lovers That Never Were") to pull out. This all results in a record that has its virtues — it's clean and direct, where many of his solo albums are diffuse and meandering, and it's serious-minded where many rely on cutesiness — but, overall, Off the Ground feels like less than the sum of its parts, possibly because the seriousness is too studied, perhaps because the approach is a bit too stodgy. Nevertheless, this has nearly as many successful moments as Flowers in the Dirt, standing as a deliberately serious comeback record by an artist who spent too much time relying on his natural charm, and who feels no shame in overcompensating at this stage of the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOME WIKIPEDIA INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recording and structure When the sessions for the album began in the fall of 1991, McCartney decided to use his current touring band as session musicians, most of whom had already appeared on Flowers In The Dirt. In addition, his collaboration with Elvis Costello was rekindled with both "Mistress And Maid" and "The Lovers That Never Were" emerging from their songwriting sessions and reserved for this album. Unlike Flowers In The Dirt, however, Costello would not appear on Off the Ground. One of the main differences between Flowers In The Dirt and Off The Ground is the leaner, more direct sound. With the musicians sounding less studied than they had on the previous release, Off The Ground has a relaxed, natural feel by comparison. Another change is McCartney's increased interest in social issues, be it the scathing anti-animal cruelty rocker "Looking For Changes" (McCartney and his wife Linda long-time vegetarians by this time) or paeans for a better world ("Hope Of Deliverance" and "C'Mon People"). Release "Hope Of Deliverance" was chosen as the lead single, being released in the last week of December 1992 and the album following in February 1993. While Off The Ground hit #5 in the UK and reached #17 in the US, and eventually went gold, it also has the distinction of being the first Paul McCartney album to not contain a sizeable US hit single since Wings' Wild Life in 1971. While "Hope of Deliverance" floundered there, it managed to reach #18 in the UK, where "C'Mon People" would become a minor hit as well. Worldwide positions for the album were generally good, but that was mainly because Off the Ground was released during the very poorly competitive post-Christmas season. As a matter of fact, the album spent only 6 weeks inside the Top 100 in the UK, even reaching #5 there. In Germany, the album was particularly successful, with "Hope of Deliverance" reaching #3 on the singles charts and the album spending 4 weeks at #2. Some weeks following the album's release, McCartney launched "The New World Tour", taking in many successful shows across the globe during the summer months. These gigs would be documented on the album Paul Is Live, which follow at the end of 1993. Although generally considered a slightly weaker successor to Flowers In The Dirt and now somewhat overlooked, Off The Ground is prized by many McCartney followers. The feet on the album cover are actually of McCartney, his wife Linda and his touring band. "C'Mon People" is followed by a hidden excerpt of an unlisted song called "Cosmically Conscious", originally written by McCartney in 1968 during The Beatles' transcendental meditation retreat in India ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EAC LOG EXTRACT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- xact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008 EAC extraction logfile from 18. July 2009, 18:17 Paul McCartney / Off The Ground Used drive : HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GSA-H55N 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 : Installed external ASPI interface 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 : F:Archivos de programaExact Audio CopyFLACFLAC.EXE Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=%e" %s -o %d ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACCURIP REPORT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Verification date: 18/07/2009 18:18:58] [Disc ID: 001411e6-00bef7e5-a00bd10c] Track [ CRC ] Status 01 [972df8fb] (03/101) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #4 02 [bfafdc63] (03/101) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #4 03 [39050484] (03/102) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #4 04 [b5942a4d] (03/100) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #4 05 [667cde09] (03/99) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #4 06 [c297f846] (03/99) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #4 07 [36fa42fa] (03/100) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #4 08 [c2ac4f2a] (03/98) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #4 09 [c27bd178] (03/97) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #4 10 [45f008f3] (03/96) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #4 11 [8b8a9c28] (03/98) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #4 12 [9faa8594] (03/93) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #4 Offsetted by 425: 01 [58bb706c] (08/101) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #3 02 [658176ad] (08/101) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #3 03 [79b199e6] (09/102) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #3 04 [730b5cf7] (08/100) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #3 05 [25642f4f] (08/99) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #3 06 [962daf7d] (08/99) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #3 07 [97bfd866] (08/100) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #3 08 [002514a8] (08/98) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #3 09 [4d27d008] (08/97) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #3 10 [ce06c6b3] (08/96) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #3 11 [8b636322] (08/98) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #3 12 [fdce71f6] (07/93) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #3 Offsetted by 935: 01 [0dcb995a] (77/101) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 02 [bdbc6c80] (77/101) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 03 [cce38df1] (77/102) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 04 [9a586797] (76/100) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 05 [e60e790f] (75/99) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 06 [412ee03b] (75/99) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 07 [cd2cc1ff] (76/100) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 08 [65d2de59] (74/98) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 09 [2f33aab6] (73/97) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 10 [179ec281] (72/96) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 11 [4161686d] (74/98) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 12 [28505a2e] (70/93) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #1 Offsetted by 1307: 01 [1964f06e] (13/101) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 02 [5ecb85c5] (13/101) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 03 [61a42bd1] (13/102) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 04 [fdcc9754] (13/100) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 05 [8c4489a5] (13/99) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 06 [38dc5baa] (13/99) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 07 [e320e762] (13/100) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 08 [91924dc8] (13/98) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 09 [494c4934] (13/97) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 10 [ba1b63c2] (13/96) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 11 [b62a8eca] (13/98) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 12 [46943d87] (13/93) Accurately ripped as in pressing(s) #2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ (A REQUEST) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's usual to post comments only to complain about a torrent which doesn't work in your configuration. It's normal, after a few hours/days downloading and expecting a release, to feel deceived if it doesn't work properly, and expressing this is legitimate. I've often found one comment (negative) on a movie/CD downloaded by 2000+ people, and since that single negative feedback, people simply stop downloading and therefore, sharing. But a few times it was due not to the torrent itself, but to some issues on the downloader side (not updated codecs, misused tools...), and that's unfair for the person who took the time to share it for free. IF YOU FIND THIS RELEASE DESERVES TO BE RECOMMENDED TO OTHERS, HELP BY DROPPING A LINE AFTER YOU'VE CHECKED IT. This way, You'll help in keeping the torrent alive, almost as much as keeping it in your HDD until a 1:1 ratio is reached. Thanks ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Gregavi (2009-07-20)

Thanks repopo. Any chance you have PMac's first solo disc....in FLAC of course.