(Rock, jazz rock) Jeff Beck - Flash - 1985, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

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Apparently, Jeff's work with Rod Stewart the previous year on his Camouflage album didn't go completely un-resulted. All of a sudden, after five years of relative inactivity, Beck had decided that he wanted to be really, really cool - like his old pal Roderick, for instance, or like his new pal Mick Jagger with his solo career, or like David Bowie (you get my drift, anyway). To do this, however, it was necessary to sacrifice his reputation - which he did without even blinking an eye. Eh, well, just look at the album cover - Jeff as a hip Eighties star! There are eleven songs on this dull, intolerable record, and all of them are just your typical Eighties dance pop, chock full of drum machines, hi-tech synthey 'riffs', and all that 'cool' electronic stuff that goes with such things, so that at times it all ends up sounding like Modern Talking. Even the two most obvious exceptions on this album are still drenched in the Eighties. The most notable of these, and presumably the album's 'big hit', is the cover of Curtis Mayfield's 'People Get Ready', where Beck gets in some really deep, moving soloing in a Clapton vein (if you heard Clapton's 'Holy Mother', you'll know what I mean). Unfortunately, he made a big mistake by inviting Rod Stewart to perform it - possibly as a 'return of favour' after Beck's work on Camouflage. I mean, Rod pulls it off well, but with his reputation all washed-up and gone, it naturally ends up completely insincere and sleazy, a brain-washing commercial number. And even so, it's the only breath of fresh air on the whole record. The other 'exception' is a brave stab at Eighties metal, on the closing 'Back On The Streets' - here it is the only song penned by Beck himself. With all my love for Eighties metal, though, you know how much I love this tune.
Elsewhere, Jeff relies completely on 'corporate' songwriters - most of the 'songs' are written by his producer Nile Rodgers, with a few unremarkable exceptions, and sung by a certain Jimmy Hall who does have some kind of voice but has no personality at all, and that's the only thing I can say about him. Yeah, Jeff is all over the place this time - unlike his past efforts, here he handles most of the soloing work himself, and I'll be the first to admit that some of his soloing is downright brilliant, lead guitar work of such a quality that most Eighties bands could only hope for. But, as someone clver has remarked, what good is a solo if it doesn't belong to a song? Worthless, shitty tracks like the robotic 'Get Workin'' (did it inspire Mick Jagger for 'Let's Work', I wonder?), or the overblown, anthemic 'Gets Us All In The End' cannot be considered songs by any means. The lyrics, for the most part, are as banal as possible, with the lead-off track ('Ambitious') setting the pattern for the whole record with its 'He's not a bad man, just ambitious'. Well, Beck ain't a bad man, by all means. Ambitious, though. Very ambitious. By the way, that one song is even kinda catchy and funky, but the banal lyrics and the horrendous production suck all the life out of it. On a couple of tracks Beck goes completely instrumental, and that's really better, because it saves you at least some of the problems. This means that sometimes you can just concentrate on the guitarwork, like on the pretty decent 'Escape' (even if it has a terribly overlong introduction), which, as I said, is impressive nevertheless. Plus, Beck gets visited by old friends like Jan Hammer or Carmine Appice from time to time. But who cares? It's obvious that the album's main point lies in songs like 'Stop, Look And Listen' (more like 'Stop Looking And Listening') and 'Nighthawks' (more like 'Where Are The Hunters?'). A complete and unabashed sell-out, and one of the worst spots on Beck's reputation. No, I'm not a huge Beck fan by any means, but this is different from a simple dislike of an artist: it is a case when the artist got too much sucked in by the commercial machine. This, at least, was never a problem with Beck in the past. It's all the more sad when we actually consider the amount of effort and skill he put into his guitar solos on this record. Even on the most horrible numbers like 'Gets Us All In The End' he makes his guitar do unbelievable tricks - it actually seems to me that Beck's instrumental technique has only improved over the years. I suppose that if you are able to close your ears to the backing track and just concentrate on the soloing, you might as well raise the rating here a couple of points. Unfortunately, I can't, and Jimmy Hall gets on my nerves, too. Not to mention Rod. Stay away.

01 - Ambitious.flac
02 - Get Us All In The End.flac
03 - Escape.flac
04 - People Get Ready - with Rod Stewart.flac
05 - Stop, Look And Listen.flac
06 - Get Workin'.flac
07 - Ecstasy.flac
08 - Night After Night.flac
09 - You Know, We Know.flac
Artwork
Flash.log
Flash_Noncompliant.CUE
Flash_Single Wav.CUE
info.txt
Jeff Beck - Flash.m3u
tau.txt
thumb.jpg
Artwork\Back.png
Artwork\Disc.png
Artwork\front.jpg
Artwork\Front.png
Artwork\In.png

EAC extraction logfile from 9. January 2008, 11:37 for CD
Jeff Beck / Flash

Used drive : PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-112D Adapter: 0 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No

Used output format : C:\Program Files\FLAC\flac.exe (User Defined Encoder)
320 kBit/s
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=EAC FLAC -8" %s

Other options :
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Installed external ASPI interface

Track 1
Filename D:\music\rip\Jeff Beck - Flash (1985) [FLAC] {1992 Sony, Epic}\01 - Ambitious.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 88.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC CA1F2AAF
Copy CRC CA1F2AAF
Copy OK

Track 2
Filename D:\music\rip\Jeff Beck - Flash (1985) [FLAC] {1992 Sony, Epic}\02 - Get Us All In The End.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:00.20

Peak level 93.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 47B5F9BE
Copy CRC 47B5F9BE
Copy OK

Track 3
Filename D:\music\rip\Jeff Beck - Flash (1985) [FLAC] {1992 Sony, Epic}\03 - Escape.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:00.30

Peak level 82.7 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC DB827290
Copy CRC DB827290
Copy OK

Track 4
Filename D:\music\rip\Jeff Beck - Flash (1985) [FLAC] {1992 Sony, Epic}\04 - People Get Ready - with Rod Stewart.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:01.24

Peak level 80.7 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 24BC9DF3
Copy CRC 24BC9DF3
Copy OK

Track 5
Filename D:\music\rip\Jeff Beck - Flash (1985) [FLAC] {1992 Sony, Epic}\05 - Stop, Look And Listen.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:00.80

Peak level 64.3 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC FB64ACD8
Copy CRC FB64ACD8
Copy OK

Track 6
Filename D:\music\rip\Jeff Beck - Flash (1985) [FLAC] {1992 Sony, Epic}\06 - Get Workin'.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:00.09

Peak level 69.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC B58E4E3B
Copy CRC B58E4E3B
Copy OK

Track 7
Filename D:\music\rip\Jeff Beck - Flash (1985) [FLAC] {1992 Sony, Epic}\07 - Ecstasy.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:00.36

Peak level 70.4 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 5ED4419A
Copy CRC 5ED4419A
Copy OK

Track 8
Filename D:\music\rip\Jeff Beck - Flash (1985) [FLAC] {1992 Sony, Epic}\08 - Night After Night.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:00.22

Peak level 66.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 1280D666
Copy CRC 1280D666
Copy OK

Track 9
Filename D:\music\rip\Jeff Beck - Flash (1985) [FLAC] {1992 Sony, Epic}\09 - You Know, We Know.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:00.26

Peak level 95.3 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 06A61AD4
Copy CRC 06A61AD4
Copy OK

No errors occured

End of status report

431752313 49105100 01 - Ambitious.wav
1465300393 64597724 02 - Get Us All In The End.wav
3860541753 49697804 03 - Escape.wav
3771728004 52007468 04 - People Get Ready - with Rod Stewart.wav
1380565078 47192924 05 - Stop, Look And Listen.wav
2148795547 38078924 06 - Get Workin'.wav
3980235187 37267484 07 - Ecstasy.wav
2410190654 39196124 08 - Night After Night.wav
607174971 59329244 09 - You Know, We Know.wav

auCDtect: CD records authenticity detector, version 0.8.2
Copyright (c) 2004 Oleg Berngardt. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2004 Alexander Djourik. All rights reserved.
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Processing file: [01 - Ambitious.wav]

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This track looks like MPEG with probability 79%

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Processing file: [02 - Get Us All In The End.wav]

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This track looks like CDDA with probability 100%

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Processing file: [03 - Escape.wav]

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This track looks like CDDA with probability 99%

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Processing file: [04 - People Get Ready - with Rod Stewart.wav]

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Could not qualify the source of this track.

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Processing file: [05 - Stop, Look And Listen.wav]

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This track looks like CDDA with probability 76%

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Processing file: [06 - Get Workin'.wav]

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Could not qualify the source of this track.

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Processing file: [07 - Ecstasy.wav]

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This track looks like MPEG with probability 85%

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Processing file: [08 - Night After Night.wav]

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This track looks like MPEG with probability 79%

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Processing file: [09 - You Know, We Know.wav]

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This track looks like CDDA with probability 92%

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Final Conclusion:
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These tracks looks like CDDA with probability 100%