Bodies of Water - Spear in the City (2017)
Bodies of Water - Spear in the City (2017)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+log+.cue) | 00:40:45 | 251 Mb
Indie Folk | Label: Thousand Tongues
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+log+.cue) | 00:40:45 | 251 Mb
Indie Folk | Label: Thousand Tongues
Spear in the City, Bodies of Water’s fourth album, has been a long time coming. Six years have passed since the self-described gospel group’s last album, but the new record shows no signs of rust even though the band’s married co-leaders David and Meredith Metcalf have been dabbling in other styles of music in the interim.Tracklist:
Bodies of Water don’t play traditional gospel, although it’s one element of their sound. Instead, the group sits at the intersection of indie rock and soul, with an emphasis on vocals and atmosphere instead of big guitar riffs. Their lyrics tend towards the spiritual without usually getting specific enough to be explicitly faith-based.
It’s interesting that “Spear in the City” is the album’s slowest, quietest song. It’s also the record’s centerpiece, a notable bit of breathing space among a set of more energetic tracks. It’s essentially a lullaby, with quiet, Spanish-flavored acoustic guitar, barely-there bass, and a mostly just a shaker keeping the beat. The Metcalfs sing together, with Meredith’s high harmony blending nicely with David’s rich baritone. The oblique lyrics, about a flying, nonstop spear smashing through walls, objects, and even people, are typical of the album. There seems to be symbolism there, but for me, it was just out of reach.The record’s opener “Dark Water” is a better representation of the band’s style. Rich minor key piano chords mesh nicely with the syncopated drumbeat and are eventually joined by a guitar playing an arpeggio, adding color to the already-strong groove. David’s lead vocals are accompanied call-and-response style by a group of chorale-style voices. Lyrically, David describes a great flood that washes away the city and doesn’t stop until it reaches the mountains. “Dark Water” focuses on things that are being lost to the flood, as David lists them off. Schools, churches, parking lots, hospitals, and discotheques all make the list, which is interesting even as it falls short of evocative.
This listing technique resurfaces in “I’m Set Free”, which pairs a low-key shuffle with lyrics about leaving earthly trappings and electronic devices behind. Quiet claves, bongos, and organ all add to the song’s subtle bounce. For the last chunk of the song, David abandons more narrative lyrics to list a bunch of electronic music subgenres simply. So we get “Free from the jungle / Free from the ambient / Free from the Hi-NRG / Free from the house”, and in this song, the list does become evocative simply because it’s so unexpected. It helps that the chorale voices behind him become thicker and richer as the list repeats to the end of the song.
It’s interesting that the fuller Bodies of Water’s arrangements get, the more they resemble Arcade Fire. “Here Among You” is one of the most blatantly spiritual songs on the album, with lyrics about a voice from up above bringing The Word to the faithful. It even ends with the refrain, “When the world’s on fire / When it’s ceased to turn / You and I will never burn.” That is all set to a martial drumbeat, a lightly chugging guitar riff, and a squiggly synth line. The voices rise in chorus on the refrain, and portentous low piano notes transition the song from the refrain back to the verses. “Hold Me Closer” has a similar style, with soaring vocals from David, hard-hitting rhythms and choral voices in the refrain. Both songs could easily pass for early Arcade Fire tracks. I don’t think that Bodies of Water are imitating them, though. Instead, I believe they pull from similar sources of inspiration, and it highlights how much, consciously or not, Win Butler and Regine Chassagne took from gospel music in their early days.
The Metcalfs are pretty dedicated to their core sound, but the few times they stretch a bit on Spear in the City, they’re quite successful. “Spear in the City” is the most notable example, but “Heartbeating” and “Echoes” also try different things. “Heartbeating” takes its title seriously, with a heavy, pounding floor tom rhythm driving the whole song. Syncopated claps and buzzing synths add flavor to the song and it doesn’t feel like anything else on the album. “Echoes” puts the synth front and center while still using a relaxed tempo and some prominent electric piano in the verses. This gives it the feel of an early ‘80s pop song in the style of Genesis’ “That’s All”.
Spear in the City is a strong album from start to finish. Bodies of Water find a nice lyrical balance between the spiritual and non-secular, and musically they have a solid songwriting style. This isn’t super-catchy, sugary sweet pop music, but the record’s subtle melodies and hooks keep the songs interesting, regardless if those hooks are coming from a piano, guitar, or a chorus of voices.
1. Dark Water
2. Here Among You
3. I'm Set Free
4. Hold Me Closer
5. Teachers
6. Spear in the City
7. Heartbeating
8. Echoes
9. The Garden
10. New World
11. Visions of the Mountain
Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015
EAC extraction logfile from 16. August 2017, 11:15
Bodies of Water / Spear in the City
Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GT50N Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 103
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 : -8 -e -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 4:53.25 | 0 | 21999
2 | 4:53.25 | 4:16.52 | 22000 | 41251
3 | 9:10.02 | 4:04.50 | 41252 | 59601
4 | 13:14.52 | 2:51.42 | 59602 | 72468
5 | 16:06.19 | 1:14.42 | 72469 | 78060
6 | 17:20.61 | 3:47.06 | 78061 | 95091
7 | 21:07.67 | 4:13.09 | 95092 | 114075
8 | 25:21.01 | 4:23.20 | 114076 | 133820
9 | 29:44.21 | 1:29.69 | 133821 | 140564
10 | 31:14.15 | 5:01.34 | 140565 | 163173
11 | 36:15.49 | 4:29.55 | 163174 | 183403
Track 1
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\01 - Dark Water.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FAFF3715
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 2
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\02 - Here Among You.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC CF1EFF0B
Copy CRC CF1EFF0B
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\03 - I'm Set Free.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.4 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 8574592C
Copy CRC 8574592C
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\04 - Hold Me Closer.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 98D01591
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 5
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\05 - Teachers.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC EAD07CE8
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\06 - Spear in the City.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.6 X
Track quality 99.9 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 7
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\07 - Heartbeating.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 3.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 8
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\08 - Echoes.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 3.0 X
Track quality 99.9 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 9
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\09 - The Garden.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 3.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 10
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\10 - New World.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 3.3 X
Track quality 99.9 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 11
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\11 - Visions of the Mountain.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 4.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
No errors occurred
End of status report
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[CTDB TOCID: sQtt73lAmL_jPkw1lzf0ZIwmtOg-] disk not present in database
Submit result: sQtt73lAmL_jPkw1lzf0ZIwmtOg- has been uploaded
==== Log checksum 20B90C7A4A778280ABA9681704F00A813B7F3A1D2EFBD75B9381682312CAB869 ====
EAC extraction logfile from 16. August 2017, 11:15
Bodies of Water / Spear in the City
Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GT50N Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 103
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 : -8 -e -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 4:53.25 | 0 | 21999
2 | 4:53.25 | 4:16.52 | 22000 | 41251
3 | 9:10.02 | 4:04.50 | 41252 | 59601
4 | 13:14.52 | 2:51.42 | 59602 | 72468
5 | 16:06.19 | 1:14.42 | 72469 | 78060
6 | 17:20.61 | 3:47.06 | 78061 | 95091
7 | 21:07.67 | 4:13.09 | 95092 | 114075
8 | 25:21.01 | 4:23.20 | 114076 | 133820
9 | 29:44.21 | 1:29.69 | 133821 | 140564
10 | 31:14.15 | 5:01.34 | 140565 | 163173
11 | 36:15.49 | 4:29.55 | 163174 | 183403
Track 1
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\01 - Dark Water.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FAFF3715
Copy CRC FAFF3715
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\02 - Here Among You.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC CF1EFF0B
Copy CRC CF1EFF0B
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\03 - I'm Set Free.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.4 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 8574592C
Copy CRC 8574592C
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\04 - Hold Me Closer.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 98D01591
Copy CRC 98D01591
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\05 - Teachers.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC EAD07CE8
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\06 - Spear in the City.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 2.6 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 2877B7F9
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\07 - Heartbeating.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 3.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0178415C
Copy CRC 0178415C
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 8
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\08 - Echoes.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 3.0 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 071CA3DC
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 9
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\09 - The Garden.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 3.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C3823750
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 10
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\10 - New World.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 3.3 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 84D2DDE3
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 11
Filename C:\Rips v2\Bodies of Water - Spear in the City [TT006] (FLAC)\11 - Visions of the Mountain.wav
Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 4.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 54BB80EF
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
No errors occurred
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
[CTDB TOCID: sQtt73lAmL_jPkw1lzf0ZIwmtOg-] disk not present in database
Submit result: sQtt73lAmL_jPkw1lzf0ZIwmtOg- has been uploaded
==== Log checksum 20B90C7A4A778280ABA9681704F00A813B7F3A1D2EFBD75B9381682312CAB869 ====
Thanks to the Original ripper antuhev !