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Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep (Deluxe Edition) (2008/2022)

Posted By: delpotro
Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep (Deluxe Edition) (2008/2022)

Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep (Deluxe Edition) (2008/2022)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+log+.cue) - 374 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 139 Mb | 01:00:39
Art Pop, Pop Rock | Label: BMG Rights Management

Bookended as it is by Russell Mael's wordless chorale vocals that help kick off the opening "Intro" and which recur in the soothing but strange conclusion to the final song, "Likeable," not to mention similar moments throughout the album, it's almost too easy to summarize Exotic Creatures of the Deep as Sparks' most involved tribute to the Beach Boys, late-'60s version. But as with nearly everything the band's ever done, one can't sum up an album quite as simply as that, and Exotic Creatures, if not as completely explosive as Hello Young Lovers at its heights, finds the rude creative health of the Maels still firing on all cylinders. The amalgam of orchestrations, feedback, and a new millennium's electronics evident in recent releases often sounds all the more integrated here, readily heard on the post-one-night-stand scenario lead single "Good Morning." Similarly, multi-part arrangements recur on efforts like "Strange Animal" and the outrageous "(She Got Me) Pregnant." That all said, the other key element to Sparks' continued success – Ron Mael's catchy melodies and utterly skew-whiff take on humanity and its foibles – equally holds sway, and if time lends some inevitable familiarity to the tropes, the variations are still strong enough to work wonders. The simmering political discontents that had already popped up in the Maels' 21st century work crystallize with "Let the Monkey Drive," a slam on a certain 43rd president with some of Ron's angriest piano parts, while they tip their hat to a noted disciple with "Lighten Up, Morrissey" (actually meant to be a portrayal of a despairing man whose girlfriend is so obsessed with said singer that their relationship is on the rocks). Compared to Hello Young Lovers, Exotic Creatures does sound a little starker at points, but it's often also subtler and slyer, tempering bombast in favor of sprightly but also uneasy melodies on songs like "The Director Never Yelled 'Cut'." Perhaps the most emblematic song of the whole album is a swaggering electro-glam stomp, at once reminiscent of their early English heyday and perfectly in sync with the post-schaffel pop universe, with a killer vocal performance by Russell topped by his intoning of the song title in the chorus – "I Can't Believe That You Would Fall for All the Crap in This Song."

Not many artists can claim to have 21 albums in their repertoire. Very few of those could say that their 21st album is as groundbreaking as their previous work, but in Sparks' case, they can. Exotic Creatures of the Deep is 13 tracks of pure eccentric off-kilter pop, and from the brothers Mael, you wouldn't expect anything else!
Tracklist:
1. Intro (01:02)
2. Good Morning (03:53)
3. Strange Animal (05:45)
4. I Can't Believe That You Would Fall for All the Crap in This Song (03:54)
5. Let the Monkey Drive (04:09)
6. Intro Reprise (00:24)
7. I've Never Been High (04:31)
8. (She Got Me) Pregnant (04:13)
9. Lighten Up, Morrissey (04:14)
10. This Is the Renaissance (03:45)
11. The Director Never Yelled 'Cut' (03:54)
12. Photoshop (04:01)
13. Likeable (06:13)
14. Brenda is Always in the Way (04:03)
15. Islington N1 (02:34)
16. Mr. Hulot (01:37)
17. I Am a Bookworm (01:32)
18. Where Would We Be Without Books (00:45)

Exact Audio Copy V1.6 from 23. October 2020

EAC extraction logfile from 24. February 2023, 21:20

Sparks / Exotic Creatures of the Deep

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVD+-RW GP60N 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 : E:\EAC\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -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%" -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 | 1:01.70 | 0 | 4644
2 | 1:01.70 | 3:53.03 | 4645 | 22122
3 | 4:54.73 | 5:45.71 | 22123 | 48068
4 | 10:40.69 | 3:54.33 | 48069 | 65651
5 | 14:35.27 | 4:09.35 | 65652 | 84361
6 | 18:44.62 | 0:24.35 | 84362 | 86196
7 | 19:09.22 | 4:31.23 | 86197 | 106544
8 | 23:40.45 | 4:13.51 | 106545 | 125570
9 | 27:54.21 | 4:14.38 | 125571 | 144658
10 | 32:08.59 | 3:45.44 | 144659 | 161577
11 | 35:54.28 | 3:54.20 | 161578 | 179147
12 | 39:48.48 | 4:01.58 | 179148 | 197280
13 | 43:50.31 | 6:16.11 | 197281 | 225491
14 | 50:06.42 | 4:03.52 | 225492 | 243768
15 | 54:10.19 | 2:34.41 | 243769 | 255359
16 | 56:44.60 | 1:37.01 | 255360 | 262635
17 | 58:21.61 | 1:32.26 | 262636 | 269561
18 | 59:54.12 | 0:45.46 | 269562 | 272982


Track 1

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\01 - Intro.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 80.2 %
Extraction speed 1.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 6C164E44
Copy CRC 6C164E44
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [937739FA] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\02 - Good Morning.wav

Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 2.6 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 4D14B0DE
Copy CRC 4D14B0DE
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [93856E61] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\03 - Strange Animal.wav

Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 3.1 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC B52027F7
Copy CRC B52027F7
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [CCBADBD2] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\04 - I Can't Believe That You Would Fall For All The Crap In This Song.wav

Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 3.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 6A90F42A
Copy CRC 6A90F42A
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [ED78F90A] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\05 - Let The Monkey Drive.wav

Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 3.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 33227658
Copy CRC 33227658
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [1B932F1B] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\06 - Intro Reprise.wav

Peak level 76.7 %
Extraction speed 1.7 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 76EDE0D1
Copy CRC 76EDE0D1
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [E4BCF8F8] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\07 - I've Never Been High.wav

Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 4.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC DB9FD1B5
Copy CRC DB9FD1B5
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [811B1128] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 8

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\08 - (She Got Me) Pregnant.wav

Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 4.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 70EFD4B8
Copy CRC 70EFD4B8
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [2095EAA1] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 9

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\09 - Lighten Up, Morrissey.wav

Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 4.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 57692F09
Copy CRC 57692F09
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [1129B51C] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 10

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\10 - This Is The Renaissance.wav

Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 4.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 1781C7EB
Copy CRC 1781C7EB
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [BE907AED] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 11

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\11 - The Director Never Yelled 'Cut'.wav

Peak level 98.4 %
Extraction speed 4.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E38C6E45
Copy CRC E38C6E45
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [86E4B96E] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 12

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\12 - Photoshop.wav

Peak level 98.7 %
Extraction speed 4.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC D9FF8E72
Copy CRC D9FF8E72
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [F3981C73] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 13

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\13 - Likeable.wav

Peak level 97.2 %
Extraction speed 4.9 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 2473ABFB
Copy CRC 2473ABFB
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [AD89EAC5] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 14

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\14 - Brenda Is Always In The Way.wav

Peak level 93.2 %
Extraction speed 4.6 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 2F4C804C
Copy CRC 2F4C804C
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [91014A0F] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 15

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\15 - Islington N1.wav

Peak level 85.7 %
Extraction speed 4.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 61B383CF
Copy CRC 61B383CF
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [B5902C42] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 16

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\16 - Mr Hulot.wav

Peak level 97.7 %
Extraction speed 4.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 49848FC5
Copy CRC 49848FC5
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [701CA1D4] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 17

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\17 - I Am A Bookworm.wav

Peak level 95.9 %
Extraction speed 4.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 09A65554
Copy CRC 09A65554
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [94393512] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 18

Filename E:\EAC\Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep - CD FLAC {BMG BMGCAT553CD}\18 - Where Would We Be Without Books.wav

Peak level 98.8 %
Extraction speed 3.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 34E59A28
Copy CRC 34E59A28
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [D2E51B18] (AR v2)
Copy OK


All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: _p_3eVLDXlwCUo.xEVaYFy_zOSQ-] found
Submit result: _p_3eVLDXlwCUo.xEVaYFy_zOSQ- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
2 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
3 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
4 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
5 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
6 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
7 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
8 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
9 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
10 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
11 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
12 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
13 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
14 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
15 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
16 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
17 | (27/27) Accurately ripped
18 | (27/27) Accurately ripped


==== Log checksum 64D94A22A5205BD8D06334D90A45F6FC9571D1AFF215B29087C2D0F7D2A2B2E8 ====

Thanks to the Original ripper !