The Crusaders - Images (1978) Remastered 2009

By 1978, the Crusaders sans the "Jazz" prefix were past their popular prime, and seemed to be recycling the same ideas that made them more famous when they started playing funkier music. While a limited urban crowd still gravitated toward what was becoming instrumental disco music, the ideas of the group had waned to the point where even commercial radio stations were less interested in this album as a whole. Images offers very little in terms of new or hit music, though Joe Sample attempted to compose songs that built on their prior success, especially like the successful album Free as the Wind from two years prior. Originally on the Blue Thumb label (sold to the MCA mega-conglomerate), this album was on the more commercial side of the label, which also included the National Lampoon LPs, Captain Beefheart, Dan Hicks, Jimmy Smith, T. Rex, and Mark-Almond. Of three tracks penned by Sample, "Merry-Go-Round" is the lowest common denominator, copping the urban funk of the Bill Withers hit "Just the Two of Us"; "Snowflake" is nothing like its delicate, wafting title, instead being too lively and fast; and "Fairy Tales" is the tune closest to overt primal disco. Drummer Stix Hooper contributes "Marcella's Dream," which is passable low-key blues-funk with some nice keyboard work from Sample. Wilton Felder's soul-drenched saxophone remained the high point of any recording the Crusaders did, as he stands out on his tune "Bayou Bottoms," a street-strutting standard-bearer for the era, and one of their better all-time tracks. "Covert Action," however, regresses into hollowed-out music with little heart or real soul. Electric bass guitarist Robert Popwell's "Cosmic Reign" starts out in some pseudo-Sun Ra space trip realm with diffuse synths and a bloogle/sound tube or three, but invariably is dependent on more street funk, and surprisingly even a brief hint of bop. While this is far from the worst – or the very best – recording the Crusaders produced in their checkered career, it offers no extra tracks or fresh insight, and is essentially a mediocre effort.

Review by Michael G. Nastos, Allmusic.com

Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015

EAC extraction logfile from 9. December 2015, 17:42

Crusaders / Images

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GH24NSB0 Adapter: 1 ID: 0

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
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 (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=ripped by Musicgate" %source% -o %dest%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 4:44.40 | 0 | 21339
2 | 4:44.40 | 6:52.57 | 21340 | 52296
3 | 11:37.22 | 4:16.58 | 52297 | 71554
4 | 15:54.05 | 6:14.21 | 71555 | 99625
5 | 22:08.26 | 7:20.29 | 99626 | 132654
6 | 29:28.55 | 5:20.19 | 132655 | 156673
7 | 34:48.74 | 4:55.71 | 156674 | 178869


Track 1

Filename D:\Musicgate\Crusaders - Images - 1978 (2009 Verve 0602517995710)\01 - Fairy Tales.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.0 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 04654C8B
Copy CRC 04654C8B
Accurately ripped (confidence 20) [35193228] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename D:\Musicgate\Crusaders - Images - 1978 (2009 Verve 0602517995710)\02 - Marcella's Dream.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC DEEB1CE2
Copy CRC DEEB1CE2
Accurately ripped (confidence 20) [0ACE1507] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename D:\Musicgate\Crusaders - Images - 1978 (2009 Verve 0602517995710)\03 - Bayou Bottoms.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC AEB07422
Copy CRC AEB07422
Accurately ripped (confidence 19) [387B4C02] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename D:\Musicgate\Crusaders - Images - 1978 (2009 Verve 0602517995710)\04 - Merry-Go-Round.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 501E00B3
Copy CRC 501E00B3
Accurately ripped (confidence 20) [ED3B3243] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename D:\Musicgate\Crusaders - Images - 1978 (2009 Verve 0602517995710)\05 - Cosmic Reign.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.7 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C9363927
Copy CRC C9363927
Accurately ripped (confidence 20) [54BB5D68] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename D:\Musicgate\Crusaders - Images - 1978 (2009 Verve 0602517995710)\06 - Covert Action.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC EB78ED9E
Copy CRC EB78ED9E
Accurately ripped (confidence 19) [8F1E373D] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename D:\Musicgate\Crusaders - Images - 1978 (2009 Verve 0602517995710)\07 - Snowflake.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 1.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A2154312
Copy CRC A2154312
Accurately ripped (confidence 19) [D142AACD] (AR v2)
Copy OK


All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

==== Log checksum A708C3F5633D673C74027BD1513EA9BB1F42A3CF5AD18DD57B72158037D05071 ====

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2016-12-14 20:18:15

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Crusaders / Images
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR10 0.00 dB -11.92 dB 4:45 01-Fairy Tales
DR13 0.00 dB -17.65 dB 6:53 02-Marcella's Dream
DR10 0.00 dB -11.75 dB 4:17 03-Bayou Bottoms
DR12 0.00 dB -13.97 dB 6:14 04-Merry-Go-Round
DR11 0.00 dB -13.39 dB 7:20 05-Cosmic Reign
DR13 0.00 dB -14.84 dB 5:20 06-Covert Action
DR11 0.00 dB -13.46 dB 4:56 07-Snowflake
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 7
Official DR value: DR12

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 950 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================