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Boston - Life, Love & Hope (2013) [Japanese SHM-CD]

Posted By: jclane

Date: 7 Jan 2014 19:15:00

Thanks to the meticulous approach Tom Scholz takes when recording Boston albums, every album since their second one, 1978's Don't Look Back, has taken nearly a decade to see the light of day. It's no different with 2013's Life Love & Hope, which follows cold on the heels of 2002's Corporate America. Using a crew of vocalists including longtime collaborator Brad Delp (who tragically committed suicide in 2007) and cleanly processed layers of guitars, keys, and drums much the same way he always has, a majority of the album plays like vintage Boston – especially the tracks that feature Delp, like the aching love song "Didn't Mean to Fall in Love," which borrows heavily from "More Than a Feeling," and a new version of Corporate America's "Someone." Another male vocalist on the album, David Victor, sounds a lot like Delp and does a fine job filling his shoes on the album's best song, "Heaven on Earth." When these songs click, it's almost like a time machine trip back to the late '70s. Sometimes they don't click, though, and that brings the record down quite a few notches. Some of the songwriting is clichéd and a little trite lyrically, the vocals a little overwrought, and – most damningly – the overall sound isn't as full and rich as a '70s Boston album, with the drums sounding curiously tinny and the mix oddly unbalanced. The guitars mostly sound amazing and exactly like one would expect Boston guitars to sound, but quite often the vocals are too far out front, the drums are buried, and the mix feels slapped together. The album sounds more like a GarageBand demo than it does a studio album that someone spent ten years slaving over. Even though it fell short of being a good Boston album, at least Corporate America sounded like a finished product. Life Love & Hope doesn't, and hearing it might lead a devoted Boston follower to believe that, despite the few moments when things come together nicely, maybe Scholz has finally lost his touch. Check back in another decade for further developments.

Allmusic

Track Listing

01. Heaven On Earth - 3:37
02. Didn't Mean To Fall In Love - 5:13
03. Last Day Of School (Instrumental) - 2:02
04. Sail Away - 3:42
05. Life, Love & Hope - 3:57
06. If You Were In Love - 4:10
07. Someday - 3:44
08. Love Got Away - 4:28
09. Someone (2.0) - 4:00
10. You Gave Up On Love (2.0) - 4:05
11. The Way You Look Tonight - 3:52

Bonus track

12. Someday (Tom Scholz vocal version) - 3:45

EAC

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

EAC extraction logfile from 6. January 2014, 18:05

Boston / Life, Love & Hope

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
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:37.47 | 0 | 16321
2 | 3:37.47 | 5:13.03 | 16322 | 39799
3 | 8:50.50 | 2:02.42 | 39800 | 48991
4 | 10:53.17 | 3:42.34 | 48992 | 65675
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7 | 22:43.47 | 3:44.59 | 102272 | 119130
8 | 26:28.31 | 4:28.70 | 119131 | 139300
9 | 30:57.26 | 4:00.26 | 139301 | 157326
10 | 34:57.52 | 4:07.60 | 157327 | 175911
11 | 39:05.37 | 3:52.35 | 175912 | 193346
12 | 42:57.72 | 3:44.39 | 193347 | 210185

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename D:\My Music\Boston - 2013 Life, Love & Hope (Japanese Edition)\Boston - Life, Love & Hope.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 4.2 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC B9755135
Copy CRC B9755135
Copy OK

No errors occurred

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All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

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CUETools

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Personnel

• Tom Scholz – lead and rhythm guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, backing vocals
• Gary Pihl – rhythm and lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
• Curly Smith – drums, percussion, harmonica, backing vocals
• Kimberley Dahme – bass, guitar, vocals
• Jeff Neal – drums, percussion, backing vocals
• Tommy DeCarlo – lead vocals, keyboards, percussion
• David Victor – guitar, vocals
• Tracy Ferrie – bass guitar, backing vocals

Released Date: December 3, 2013
Format: SHM-CD, Album
Length: 46:42