Richard Ashcroft - RPA & The United Nations Of Sound (2011)

As a big Ashcroft fan I couldn't wait to hear something new from him.I enjoyed "The Journey" and the single "Are You Ready",but was not prepared for a full,head on,Hip-Hop,bouncy,loopy,string of songs from Richard Ashcroft.

I was more "ready" for some "You On My Mind In My Sleep","Music is Power" type of an evening.I popped in the player,turned up the volume,and got ready.

I was already familiar with the lead off single"Are You Ready,"Born Again" was alright at first,"America" kicked up the momentum a bit,I was still waiting for that familiar Ashcroft signature tune."She Brings Me the Music" is as close as it gets to the old Richard sound….and it is a beautiful song to his wife.

The moment I waited for never really came,reason is…Richard completely and intentionally changes style on this record,top to bottom.The melodies are still there,the golden voice is also there,it's just wrapped in a funky and groovy beat.I admire the man for taking the risk and putting out some of his strongest material in such an unexpected genre.

At about the third listen is when it sunk in….this record isn't supposed to sound like anything from his past.The tracks are very well produced and they sound so much better live than on disc.

Critics have not been kind to this record for the simple reason,they want Richard to sound like The Verve again.If this album would have been put out by an unknown artist they would be praising the effort rather than tearing it apart.

Give it a shot,"Good Lovin'", "America", "Are You Ready", "She Brings Me the Music", "Let My soul Rest" and "Born Again" are a good start!

Review by martinone9, Amazon.com

Rebounding from the dissolution of the Verve’s reunion – not too difficult a task considering he instigated the split – Richard Ashcroft assembled the United Nations of Sound, a group that at the very least shook him free from the drowsy strumming of his proper solo efforts. RPA & the United Nations of Sound is painted on a larger canvas than any of those albums, attempting to approximate the cinematic grandeur of the Verve by using a different palette. Ashcroft swaps out psychedelia and guitars in favor of very, very bright surfaces, hippie sentiments, surging sampled strings, melodies that are just shy of being insistent, and a rhythmic trick bag stolen from the rave era. Apart from the loops soaring so high they touch a skyscraper, all of these signatures are items the Verve deliberately eschewed during their heyday, so it’s a bit of a surprise that this album sounds like a watered-down diluted Urban Hymns, with all the romantic darkness turned into something cheerfully dippy.

Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 5. April 2011, 23:50

Richard Ashcroft / United Nations Of Sound

Used drive : PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-112D Adapter: 2 ID: 0

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

Read offset correction : 48
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 : Installed external ASPI interface

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 : -5 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=EAC FLAC -5" %s


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 6:32.44 | 0 | 29443
2 | 6:32.44 | 4:57.06 | 29444 | 51724
3 | 11:29.50 | 4:20.26 | 51725 | 71250
4 | 15:50.01 | 5:27.28 | 71251 | 95803
5 | 21:17.29 | 4:25.14 | 95804 | 115692
6 | 25:42.43 | 4:48.11 | 115693 | 137303
7 | 30:30.54 | 3:30.23 | 137304 | 153076
8 | 34:01.02 | 4:18.19 | 153077 | 172445
9 | 38:19.21 | 4:53.39 | 172446 | 194459
10 | 43:12.60 | 4:16.22 | 194460 | 213681
11 | 47:29.07 | 3:12.64 | 213682 | 228145
12 | 50:41.71 | 5:29.64 | 228146 | 252884
13 | 56:11.60 | 4:58.45 | 252885 | 275279


Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename F:\Richard Ashcroft - United Nations Of Sound - 2011\Richard Ashcroft - United Nations Of Sound.wav

Peak level 97.3 %
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 4E95E39B
Copy CRC 4E95E39B
Copy OK

No errors occurred


AccurateRip summary

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Track 2 not present in database
Track 3 not present in database
Track 4 not present in database
Track 5 not present in database
Track 6 not present in database
Track 7 not present in database
Track 8 not present in database
Track 9 not present in database
Track 10 not present in database
Track 11 not present in database
Track 12 not present in database
Track 13 not present in database

None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database

End of status report

[CUETools log; Date: 07.05.2025 18:00:43; Version: 2.1.7]
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Track | CTDB Status
1 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
2 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
3 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
4 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
5 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
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7 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
8 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
9 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
10 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
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12 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
13 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
[AccurateRip ID: 001e621d-012ad51b-ae0e560d] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
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02 [03f248bf|333b8651] (02+10/12) Accurately ripped
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12 [616e551e|a15e1d8d] (02+11/13) Accurately ripped
13 [29b7fa8b|2f558035] (02+11/13) Accurately ripped

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13 95,7 [C82025D1] [9F59C5EC]

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2015-09-25 17:01:52

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Richard Ashcroft / United Nations Of Sound
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR6 -0.49 dB -7.49 dB 6:33 01-Are You Ready
DR5 -0.52 dB -7.18 dB 4:57 02-Born Again
DR5 -0.52 dB -7.47 dB 4:20 03-America
DR6 -0.46 dB -7.32 dB 5:27 04-This Thing Called Life
DR6 -0.37 dB -6.68 dB 4:25 05-Beatitudes
DR6 -0.32 dB -7.64 dB 4:48 06-Good Lovin'
DR5 -0.31 dB -7.29 dB 3:30 07-How Deep Is Your Man
DR7 -0.29 dB -11.86 dB 4:18 08-She Brings Me The Music
DR7 -0.23 dB -7.77 dB 4:54 09-Third Eye
DR8 -0.28 dB -9.50 dB 4:16 10-Royal Highness
DR7 -0.27 dB -8.69 dB 3:13 11-Glory
DR9 -0.26 dB -9.87 dB 5:30 12-Life Can Be So Beautiful
DR6 -0.38 dB -6.91 dB 4:59 13-Let My Soul Rest
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 13
Official DR value: DR6

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 953 kbps
Codec: FLAC
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