America - Silent Letter + Alibi (2010) [2 albums on 1CD] RE-UP / AvaxHome

Digitally remastered two-fer featuring two albums from America, their first albums as a duo after the departure of Dan Peek. 1979's Silent Letter was the last that George Martin produced for them, while 1980's Alibi showed the band edging towards a slick adult contemporary sound. 22 tracks total.

allmusic.com reviews -
Silent Letter: In a way, Silent Letter was a new beginning for America. Although they were still produced and arranged by George Martin, they had signed with a new label, Capitol Records, and had decided to delve deeply into lush adult contemporary, which was a different beast than the folky Californian soft rock that made their reputation. The change in sound didn't result in new hits (ironically, the same year they released Silent Letter they scraped the charts with a cover of "California Dreamin'" that was not included on the record), but it did revitalize them, ever so slightly. There is a fair amount of filler scattered throughout Silent Letter, along with a couple of interestingly awkward and ambitious songs like the segmented closer "High in the City," but there are also several very fine soft rock numbers. As a matter of fact, the opening one-two punch of "Only Game in Town" and "All Around" (which has a killer chorus) makes the record sound like it will be excellent. It begins to drift a little bit after that, but it never strays too far; every time that the album seems to lose momentum, it regains it. The end result may be flawed, but in an enjoyable way. And compared to the records that preceded it and some of albums that followed it, Silent Letter certainly seems like a latter-day highlight for America.

Alibi: George Martin stopped working America as the '70s became the '80s. Truth be told, it probably wasn't that painful of a departure. The time had come to part ways with Martin – not only had they spent a decade with the celebrity producer, they were moving toward a slick, radio-ready adult contemporary direction that was entirely too calculated for Martin. So, they split, and Sir George effectively went into retirement while America worked with Matthew McCauley and Fred Mollin for 1980's Alibi. Essentially, the album picks up where Silent Letter left off, meaning that it's a set of pleasant soft pop, but it's slicker and slighter than its predecessor. That's not to say that it's without moments; like its predecessor, Alibi opens strongly with a pair of winners ("Survival," "Might Be Your Love"), and there are moments (such as "You Could've Been the One" or "Right Back to Me," which has a nice, bouncy chorus) that deliver later in the album. Still, it meanders fast and it meanders far, even into such ridiculous territory as the faux hard rock (in the sense that the Eagles' "Life in the Fast Lane" is hard rock) of "Hangover," whose lyrics are at least worth a chuckle or two. Ultimately, Alibi suffers from not only its uneven material, but from the production, which is nowhere near as invitingly lush as Silent Letter. Nevertheless, McCauley and Mollin's production does sound exactly like MOR radio in 1980, and fans of that era may find this to be an enjoyable artifact, even with its flaws. Nevertheless, Alibi doesn't qualify as one of America's better latter-day efforts (even though it's certainly not one of their worst). They did this sound better on the subsequent View From the Ground.

Tracks:

01. Only Game In Town
02. All Around
03. Tall Treasures
04. 1960
05. And Forever
06. Foolin'
07. All Night
08. No Fortune
09. All My Life
10. One Morning
11. High In The City
12. Survival
13. Might Be Your Love
14. Catch That Train
15. You Could've Been The One
16. I Don't Believe In Miracles
17. I Do Believe In You
18. Hangover
19. Right Back To Me
20. Coastline
21. Valentine
22. One In A Million

Tracks "1-10" is "Silent Letter" Album.
Tracks "11-22" is "Alibi" album.

Remastered in 2006 at Sound Performance by Andrew Thompson.

EAC-LOG

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

EAC extraction logfile from 26. August 2012, 20:06

America / Silent Letter / Alibi

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GSA-H60N Adapter: 2 ID: 0

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

Read offset correction : 667
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 : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 4:15.01 | 0 | 19125
2 | 4:15.01 | 3:22.49 | 19126 | 34324
3 | 7:37.50 | 3:19.00 | 34325 | 49249
4 | 10:56.50 | 3:11.70 | 49250 | 63644
5 | 14:08.45 | 3:14.11 | 63645 | 78205
6 | 17:22.56 | 2:55.10 | 78206 | 91340
7 | 20:17.66 | 3:21.04 | 91341 | 106419
8 | 23:38.70 | 3:19.73 | 106420 | 121417
9 | 26:58.68 | 3:04.32 | 121418 | 135249
10 | 30:03.25 | 2:14.03 | 135250 | 145302
11 | 32:17.28 | 3:05.49 | 145303 | 159226
12 | 35:23.02 | 3:14.67 | 159227 | 173843
13 | 38:37.69 | 3:46.20 | 173844 | 190813
14 | 42:24.14 | 3:03.27 | 190814 | 204565
15 | 45:27.41 | 3:10.16 | 204566 | 218831
16 | 48:37.57 | 3:25.07 | 218832 | 234213
17 | 52:02.64 | 3:44.36 | 234214 | 251049
18 | 55:47.25 | 3:43.15 | 251050 | 267789
19 | 59:30.40 | 3:31.23 | 267790 | 283637
20 | 63:01.63 | 3:28.18 | 283638 | 299255
21 | 66:30.06 | 3:37.49 | 299256 | 315579
22 | 70:07.55 | 2:54.57 | 315580 | 328686

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename C:\Documents and Settings\Admin\Рабочий стол\Rip by ALLexxess\America\2010 Silent Letter - Alibi (BGO Records)\America - Silent Letter - Alibi.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 6.2 X
Range quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 68A5DF18
Copy CRC 68A5DF18
Copy OK

No errors occurred

AccurateRip summary

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Track 16 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 3) [155EC6D2], AccurateRip returned [9030E5D9] (AR v2)
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Track 18 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 3) [549E05B7], AccurateRip returned [FE6BE91A] (AR v2)
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Track 22 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 3) [77E00851], AccurateRip returned [47059CA4] (AR v2)

No tracks could be verified as accurate
You may have a different pressing from the one(s) in the database

End of status report

==== Log checksum AE682FF97F03D5DCBC21E10BF51268FE662A7BCE78A557038ECAFE064B6BEEBC ====

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