Evelyn "Champagne" King - Open Book (2007) / AvaxHome

Whenever there is some type of event where the DJ is spinning old-school soul, funk, and disco - an event that could be taking place anywhere from Cherry Hill, NJ to Newcastle, England - one question that inevitably comes up a lot is "Whatever happened to?" You know, whatever happened to McFadden & Whitehead (sadly, both died in the 2000s), or whatever happened to Teena Marie? ("Lady T" came out with an album called Sapphire in 2006.) And if the DJ is playing crowd-pleasers like 1977's "Shame" or 1982's "Love Come Down," someone inevitably wonders what Evelyn "Champagne" King has been up to. King flew under the radar in the '90s and early 2000s, but admirers of the Bronx native's '70s and '80s hits will be glad to know that she is in generally good form on her 2007 comeback album Open Book. King, who turned 47 on July 1, 2007, hasn't lost anything in terms of vocal power - and she has respectable material to work with on a CD that, for the most part, successfully balances 2007 considerations and old-school R&B considerations. The album's most overtly 2007-sounding track is the single "Skillz," which is very much in the hip-hop-minded Mary J. Blige/Beyoncé Knowles/Olivia vein. "Skillz" tries a little too hard to be relevant to 2007 tastes and ends up sounding a bit forced, but even so, the tune is catchy. Most of the time, however, Open Book achieves a more organic and natural-sounding balance of the classic and the contemporary (by 2007 standards), and that approach serves King well whether she is embracing a quiet storm groove on the laid-back "Whole Lotta Yum Yum," getting into dance diva mode on "The Dance" (which house fans will definitely appreciate) or favoring an urban/adult contemporary blend on the title song (an introspective ballad). Although not in a class with essential gems like 1977's Smooth Talk, 1981's I'm in Love, and 1982's Get Loose, Open Book is a generally pleasing and respectable return to the studio for the veteran singer.

~Review by Alex Henderson

Release of this album/CD: 2007, August, 28 [CD Big Day/Jaggo Records (USA), Cat.# 026 311 005 2 / UPC: 802631100520]
℗&© 2008 Big Day/Jaggo Records 3266 Craig Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90068.
Distributed by B-Dub/Universal Music Group Distribution.
Made in the USA

Credits:

Art Direction, Design – Dale Voelker
Engineer – Don Tittle (tracks: 12), Freddie Fox (tracks: 2 to 11), Preston Glass (tracks: 2 to 11), Rob Canon (tracks: 1)
Executive-Producer – Tom Cartwright
Management – Troy Bronstein
Mastered By – Joel Jaffe
Photography By – Pat Johnson

Tracklist:

01. Skillz (03:34)
02. Whole Lotta Yum Yum (04:55)
03. Open Book (05:26)
04. Standing On The Rock of Love (05:05)
05. Nobody Knows (05:14)
06. (You Deserve) An Academy Award (04:52)
07. Paradise (04:43)
08. True To My Boo (05:01)
09. Creepin' (05:14)
10. Not That Kinda Party (05:02)
11. The Dance (05:29)
12. The Dance (Soul Seekerz Remix) (03:51)

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V1.5 from 20. February 2020

EAC extraction logfile from 26. August 2020, 17:18

Evelyn "Champagne" King / Open Book

Used drive : ASUS DRW-24B1ST a Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : No
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 : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : Yes
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:33.72 | 0 | 16046
2 | 3:33.72 | 4:54.72 | 16047 | 38168
3 | 8:28.69 | 5:25.58 | 38169 | 62601
4 | 13:54.52 | 5:05.29 | 62602 | 85505
5 | 19:00.06 | 5:14.29 | 85506 | 109084
6 | 24:14.35 | 4:51.60 | 109085 | 130969
7 | 29:06.20 | 4:42.54 | 130970 | 152173
8 | 33:48.74 | 5:01.01 | 152174 | 174749
9 | 38:50.00 | 5:14.23 | 174750 | 198322
10 | 44:04.23 | 5:02.02 | 198323 | 220974
11 | 49:06.25 | 5:28.74 | 220975 | 245648
12 | 54:35.24 | 3:50.55 | 245649 | 262953

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename C:\Users\M@ce\Music\Archives\Rips\Evelyn ''Champagne'' King - Open Book.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 8.4 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 342C7C12
Copy CRC 342C7C12
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [E4E66F3B] (AR v2)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [C68110B1] (AR v2)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [2CE11211] (AR v2)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [6C13ED1C] (AR v2)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [A7E19837] (AR v2)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [9B0FFB1E] (AR v2)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [8E69D0EB] (AR v2)
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [630F9C6F] (AR v2)
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [13C51510] (AR v2)
Track 10 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [BD8052F0] (AR v2)
Track 11 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [1F61D720] (AR v2)
Track 12 accurately ripped (confidence 2) [D10ABCB2] (AR v2)

All tracks accurately ripped

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: KUm6UxxdxOIYcsYqibsJMGIIsD0-] disk not present in database
Submit result: KUm6UxxdxOIYcsYqibsJMGIIsD0- has been uploaded

==== Log checksum 0808B9CB2F4B6F6F8E233CD61CA0048B0431EB7F17C3C4D277B69C348DBB04B9 ====

Dynamic Range Meter log

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Evelyn 'Champagne' King / Open Book
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR8 -0.20 dB -9.33 dB 3:34 01-Skillz
DR6 -0.20 dB -8.11 dB 4:55 02-Whole Lotta Yum Yum
DR6 -0.20 dB -8.64 dB 5:26 03-Open Book
DR7 -0.20 dB -8.91 dB 5:05 04-Standing On The Rock of Love
DR7 -0.20 dB -9.04 dB 5:14 05-Nobody Knows
DR8 -0.20 dB -9.38 dB 4:52 06-(You Deserve) An Academy Award
DR6 -0.20 dB -7.95 dB 4:43 07-Paradise
DR7 -0.20 dB -8.94 dB 5:01 08-True To My Boo
DR7 -0.20 dB -8.38 dB 5:14 09-Creepin'
DR6 -0.20 dB -8.14 dB 5:02 10-Not That Kinda Party
DR6 -0.10 dB -7.35 dB 5:29 11-The Dance
DR6 -0.64 dB -7.96 dB 3:51 12-The Dance
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 12
Official DR value: DR7

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 912 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

Thanks to my friend, M@ce

See also:
Get Loose (1982) [2010, Expanded]
So Romantic (1984) {Japan for Europe}
The Best Of (1990)
The Complete RCA Hits [2CD] (2016)

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