Carly Simon - Christmas Is Almost Here (2002) Expanded Edition 2003

Carly's peak years were in the seventies, but she still sings as good as she ever did. This is a lovely album, with a mix of slow and mid-tempo songs, including some standards which everybody knows, together with some wonderful new songs.

Carly and Willie Nelson sing a duet - Pretty paper, which Willie wrote and Roy Orbison had a hit with back in the sixties.

Carly wrote The land of Christmas (Mary), while Heaven is a song originally written by Carly's daughter Lucy, which Carly and Lucy rewrote as a Christmas song.

Twelve gates to the city is apparently a very old song, but I don't ever remember hearing it before despite having a large Christmas music collection.

All these songs are brilliant, but perhaps the title track is the best of the lot - it certainly sets the mood of the album.

This is a masterpiece, as anybody familiar with Carly's music would expect. It's probably not one to play during the height of Christmas festivities (there are plenty of other, more upbeat, Christmas albums that serve that purpose well), but rather, this is one that you play when things have quietened down, and you can just relax.

Review by Peter Durward Harris

Christmas albums by major veteran pop stars long past their commercial prime are usually not highlights of their catalogs, and for the most part this isn't an exception. There are, too, some of the failings common to these kinds of projects: unmemorable treatments of songs that have been heard too often (like "O Come, All Ye Faithful" and "Silent Night") and some bland, middle-of-the-road arrangements. Yet for at least some of the time, this is definitely an above-average holiday offering. Don Was' presence as co-producer ensures some creativity and diversity to the sound, as do the contributions of top session players like Jim Keltner, Billy Preston, and Benmont Tench. Simon's vocals are strong, and most surprisingly, one of the two originals, "The Land of Christmas (Mary)," is not only pretty straight-ahead and gutsy, but sounds a lot better than most of the contemporary material she did on her secular records in the 1980s and 1990s. Some mild blues gospel overtones make it into "Twelve Gates to the City" (the one song to feature Billy Preston, on organ and vocals), and a reggae beat is set to "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." A couple of unclichéd selections make it into the program with Willie Nelson's "Pretty Paper" (on which Nelson himself duets with Simon) and John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)." It's not an exciting release by any means, but it's not as immediately forgettable as many holiday efforts by similar performers are.

Review by Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

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

EAC extraction logfile from 22. February 2013, 19:25

Carly Simon / Chrismas Is Almost Here

Used drive : Optiarc DVD RW AD-7243S Adapter: 5 ID: 0

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

Read offset correction : 48
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\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 | 3:53.47 | 0 | 17521
2 | 3:53.47 | 2:45.23 | 17522 | 29919
3 | 6:38.70 | 3:28.72 | 29920 | 45591
4 | 10:07.67 | 3:17.73 | 45592 | 60439
5 | 13:25.65 | 3:10.32 | 60440 | 74721
6 | 16:36.22 | 3:10.55 | 74722 | 89026
7 | 19:47.02 | 2:24.50 | 89027 | 99876
8 | 22:11.52 | 3:05.03 | 99877 | 113754
9 | 25:16.55 | 3:09.07 | 113755 | 127936
10 | 28:25.62 | 3:29.08 | 127937 | 143619
11 | 31:54.70 | 3:08.72 | 143620 | 157791
12 | 35:03.67 | 4:12.13 | 157792 | 176704
13 | 39:16.05 | 1:23.35 | 176705 | 182964


Track 1

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\01 Christmas Is Almost Here.wav

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Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 80F581EA
Copy CRC 80F581EA
Accurately ripped (confidence 15) [6DD0A31F] (AR v1)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\02 White Christmas.wav

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Test CRC 370812C6
Copy CRC 370812C6
Accurately ripped (confidence 15) [02EAD5AB] (AR v1)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\03 O Come, All Ye Faithful.wav

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Peak level 98.8 %
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Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0FC5AD1A
Copy CRC 0FC5AD1A
Accurately ripped (confidence 15) [D3F351EB] (AR v1)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\04 The Land Of Christmas.wav

Peak level 99.8 %
Extraction speed 2.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 69226811
Copy CRC 69226811
Accurately ripped (confidence 15) [2B9E845A] (AR v1)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\05 Silent Night.wav

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Test CRC 84263C8D
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Accurately ripped (confidence 15) [CFEC1CE0] (AR v1)
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\06 Twelve Gates Of The City.wav

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Peak level 98.8 %
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Test CRC F70AA6D5
Copy CRC F70AA6D5
Accurately ripped (confidence 15) [DA9F2FA3] (AR v1)
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\07 I'll Be Home For Christmas.wav

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Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC B0221442
Copy CRC B0221442
Accurately ripped (confidence 15) [E306FFA7] (AR v1)
Copy OK

Track 8

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\08 God Rest Ye Merry, Gentleman.wav

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Test CRC FB4DCD0D
Copy CRC FB4DCD0D
Accurately ripped (confidence 15) [BB1A821F] (AR v1)
Copy OK

Track 9

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\09 Heaven.wav

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Test CRC A77A025D
Copy CRC A77A025D
Accurately ripped (confidence 15) [DB7FB382] (AR v1)
Copy OK

Track 10

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\10 Pretty Paper.wav

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Test CRC D7D22EB5
Copy CRC D7D22EB5
Accurately ripped (confidence 15) [03428C69] (AR v1)
Copy OK

Track 11

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\11 Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.wav

Peak level 94.1 %
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Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC ACEE54C4
Copy CRC ACEE54C4
Accurately ripped (confidence 15) [0D785A73] (AR v1)
Copy OK

Track 12

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\12 Happy X-Mas (War Is Over).wav

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Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FE12E068
Copy CRC FE12E068
Accurately ripped (confidence 14) [3A2B28B9] (AR v1)
Copy OK

Track 13

Filename F:\Music\Carly Simon\Christmas Is Almost Here\13 Forgive.wav

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Test CRC 320D8513
Copy CRC 320D8513
Accurately ripped (confidence 14) [C46DF5B9] (AR v1)
Copy OK


All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

==== Log checksum CA0FB4C8C2E9D9144DCE3A79754EA5BD2B932C0F6638E4CED8AF9D853DCD24AA ====

[CUETools log; Date: 18.12.2017 18:22:42; Version: 2.1.4]
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Track | CTDB Status
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9 | (11/11) Accurately ripped
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[AccurateRip ID: 001423c2-00c81ec2-ae09870d] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
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03 [d3f351eb|f596984a] (16+10/26) Accurately ripped
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Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 100,0 [49CD34C6] [02ED9740]
01 98,8 [80F581EA] [1EA9DB77] CRC32
02 100,0 [370812C6] [7619A5E7] CRC32
03 98,8 [0FC5AD1A] [6092D4DC] CRC32
04 99,8 [69226811] [A70439B0] CRC32
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08 88,1 [FB4DCD0D] [927A9A11] CRC32
09 88,1 [A77A025D] [EFF76792] CRC32
10 93,3 [D7D22EB5] [B089A5E8] CRC32
11 94,1 [ACEE54C4] [5B40691D] CRC32
12 87,2 [FE12E068] [47118D38] CRC32
13 98,8 [320D8513] [2F96D96D] CRC32

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2017-12-18 18:18:18

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Carly Simon / Chrismas Is Almost Here
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR7 -0.10 dB -10.44 dB 3:54 01-Christmas Is Almost Here
DR10 0.00 dB -14.06 dB 2:45 02-White Christmas
DR10 -0.10 dB -13.25 dB 3:29 03-O Come, All Ye Faithful
DR7 -0.01 dB -9.02 dB 3:18 04-The Land Of Christmas
DR8 -2.10 dB -12.75 dB 3:10 05-Silent Night
DR10 -0.10 dB -13.49 dB 3:11 06-Twelve Gates Of The City
DR10 -0.29 dB -14.25 dB 2:25 07-I'll Be Home For Christmas
DR9 -1.10 dB -11.97 dB 3:05 08-God Rest Ye Merry, Gentleman
DR8 -1.10 dB -12.53 dB 3:09 09-Heaven
DR9 -0.60 dB -11.80 dB 3:29 10-Pretty Paper
DR11 -0.52 dB -15.72 dB 3:09 11-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
DR8 -1.19 dB -11.60 dB 4:12 12-Happy X-Mas (War Is Over)
DR7 -0.10 dB -11.50 dB 1:23 13-Forgive
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 13
Official DR value: DR9

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 790 kbps
Codec: FLAC
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