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After Hours - Against The Grain (1992) [2011]

Posted By: JET 1

Date: 14 May 2022 15:43:44

Against The Grain by the reformed UK AOR-sters After Hours. Now I say unexpected because this is a band that have been defunct for just a little under a quarter of a century with their last release coming in the shape of their debut effort Take Off from 1988! AOR Heaven have also reissued that album and on the strength of Against The Grain, it is an album I'll be investing in sharpish! The After Hours story goes all the way back to 1987, but after that debut release things started to really build for them, with European tours, appearances on German TV and a sponsorship deal with Adidas. However keyboard player Rick Young soon left the band, being replaced by ex Michael Schenker man Andy Nye, but with record labels dragging the band round the world to record album number two After Hours basically disintegrated, although that second release Afterhours did see the light of day in 1992.
So what makes Against The Grain so special? Well choruses to die for is a good start, then add to that superb interplay between guitarist Tim Payne and keyboard/guitar player Sean McMenemy, and an unfussy but sharp rhythm section in the shape of drummer Chris Pope and bassist Martin Wells. The icing on the cake though is the stunning vocal performance of John Francis who has a lived in, but seductive tone that is amazingly versatile and put simply, is a joy to listen to. Style wise Francis is refreshingly hard to tie down, but at varying times throughout this album everyone from Bernie Shaw (Uriah Heep), Paul Shortino (Rough Cutt/Quiet Riot) and Paul Carrack (Mike + The Mechanics) to Kip Winger, Eric Clapton and even Terence Trent D'Arby are brought to mind. If that sounds like a strange mix, then don't worry, it works like a dream!
Basically if you have a soft spot for classy AOR and melodic rock, then After Hours are capable of serving you up some delights, with "Stand Up", "Against The Grain" and "Let It Go" using equal measures of tight riffs, glossy backing vocals and driving keyboards to create some classy, punchy uptempo rock. Francis is immense on all of these tracks and is easily matched by Payne and McMenemy, with the trio also shining on the slower, yet equally memorable "I Need Your Love" and the bluesy "I Want Yesterday". "Eleventh Hour", as its title suggests adds a more mystical air to proceedings and is amongst the strongest moments on what is a universally impressive album and the acoustic version of the same song that closes the album is equally as effective.
For a variety of reasons there are many talented AOR acts from the UK that never really got the acclaim they deserved (FM, Dare and Strangeways to name but three) and now we can add After Hours to that list, hopefully Against The Grain will set the record straight!

EAC Log

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 31. March 2012, 10:46

After Hours / Against The Grain

Used drive : SlimtypeDVD A DS8A5SH Adapter: 0 ID: 1

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

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 320 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
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1 | 0:00.00 | 4:29.61 | 0 | 20235
2 | 4:29.61 | 4:09.63 | 20236 | 38973
3 | 8:39.49 | 4:04.24 | 38974 | 57297
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7 | 27:00.19 | 3:15.09 | 121519 | 136152
8 | 30:15.28 | 3:59.39 | 136153 | 154116
9 | 34:14.67 | 4:35.43 | 154117 | 174784
10 | 38:50.35 | 3:43.60 | 174785 | 191569
11 | 42:34.20 | 3:47.62 | 191570 | 208656

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename D:\My Music\After Hours - 2011 Against The Grain\After Hours - Against The Grain.wav

Peak level 99.6 %
Extraction speed 4.2 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 1CBED8CE
Copy CRC 1CBED8CE
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [924AE9CF] (AR v1)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [4BAB360C] (AR v1)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [7705E8D6] (AR v1)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [C7D712DB] (AR v1)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [3A6D3FFE] (AR v1)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [5D526048] (AR v1)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [B1268C8D] (AR v1)
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [3CA33155] (AR v1)
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [4F507D84] (AR v1)
Track 10 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [C0404DC4] (AR v1)
Track 11 accurately ripped (confidence 1) [59219400] (AR v1)

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

==== Log checksum 922768A91AAB028AC987DD36F1894D58C3A29D1888D6791EE32B47E3D986092B ====

Tracklist :::
1. Stand Up
2. Turn On Your Radio
3. Eleventh Hour
4. Against the Grain
5. Angel
6. When You're Around
7. Hold On
8. Let It Go
9. I Want Yesterday
10. I Need Your Love
11. Eleventh Hour (Acoustic Version)

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FLAC Image Lossless CD-Rip AOR Heaven AOR Melodic Rock After Hours