Julian Cope - My Nation Underground (1988)

Recruiting another key sideman, percussionist Rooster Cosby, Cope approached an album that, by the end of recording, he was on the verge of disowning. Inspired moments aside, one can understand why: My Nation Underground has just about everything going for it (good sound, neat cover, some sharp songs) except for Cope's own vision. That he rebounded from this with three far more individual efforts – the semi-official Skellington and Droolian, and the masterful Peggy Suicide – makes all that much more sense when giving My Nation Underground an ear. The high points that are here are actually quite fine – though he professed to hate the results, his rushed run-through of the cheese classic "5 O'Clock World," spliced with a bit from "I Know a Place," is a kicky, fun way to start the album. "Charlotte Anne," meanwhile, manages the odd trick of sounding like a snaky Peter Gabriel track circa his third album plus just enough fillips and touches to make it a Cope song, especially with his mid-song spoken word bit. Most of the time, though, Cope, Skinner, DeHarrison, and company sound like they're fulfilling a record company brief to make a saleable commercial alternative album, late-'80s style. Ron Fair's production touches tended towards the anonymously clichéd, pushing forward Saint Julian's one big problem and making it more consistent throughout. The title track is a good example of something which should be right going terribly wrong – the squelchy synths and arrangement almost drown Cope's idiosyncratic lyric, while the backing chorus sounds unfortunately like the type of pseudo-funky thing to be expected from contemporaneous Steve Winwood or Eric Clapton. Even the cover of the old Shadows of Knight nugget "Someone Like Me" falls a bit victim to this, despite the very Teardrops-like horn arrangement.

Review by Ned Raggett, Allmusic.com

This is by far Cope's most commercial album. A lot of Cope heads hate album this because there is little evidence of acid fueled madness here. However, although it's more mainstream than Peggy Suicide etc, these are great songs, well produced but without being cheesy. It's more upbeat without the tinges of paranoia and cynicism seen elsewhere. He's a versatile artist, flashes of this album can be seen in his later more varied work, but this showed he was capable of producing a entirely mainstream lp without having to sell out.

Review by Fido Dido, Amazon.co.uk

'Commercial' albums which don't make money are hard to see dispassionately, especially if you are the artist. Post-'St Julian', Cope's comeback stalled with this follow up (it kinda stalled after the 'Shut Your Mouth' single).

This is the least 'credible' Cope album, unchallenging and with 'Big' production, but it's one extreme of his catalogue, interesting as such, and much stronger than reputation makes it.

There are signs of a creative struggle - uncharacteristically a couple of covers appear and one was offered as a single - but 'Charlotte Anne' and 'My Nation Underground' are gorgeous. This is certainly one to buy if it's re-released cheaply. The preceding 'St Julian' is the one worth splashing out on import or at auction, the subsequent 'Peggy Suicide' is cheap as chips and stunning.

Review by Mr. Robert J. Fawcett, Amazon.co.uk

The songs on this album sound very pop and almost lightweight and whimsical compared to those on Peggy Suicide but the music on My Nation Underground is remarkably well crafted and likeable. The title track has never really grown on me and it goes on way too long, sometimes I skip it, but the rest of the tunes on this short CD are all gems to me. I bought this album in 1992 with Peggy Suicide right after it came out and I was just discovering Julian Cope. The fact that I am still listening to both of those CD's after all these years is a testament to how good they are.

Review by Steven D. Handley, Amazon.com

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

Отчёт EAC об извлечении, выполненном 4. февраля 2013, 13:05

Julian Cope / My Nation Underground

Дисковод: ASUS DRW-1814BLT Adapter: 4 ID: 0

Режим чтения : Достоверность
Использование точного потока : Да
Отключение кэша аудио : Да
Использование указателей C2 : Нет

Коррекция смещения при чтении : 6
Способность читать области Lead-in и Lead-out : Нет
Заполнение пропущенных сэмплов тишиной : Да
Удаление блоков с тишиной в начале и конце : Нет
При вычислениях CRC использовались нулевые сэмплы : Да
Интерфейс : Встроенный Win32-интерфейс для Win NT/2000
Обработка зазоров : Добавлено к предыдущему треку

Выходной формат : Пользовательский кодировщик
Выбранный битрейт : 128 kBit/s
Качество : Высокий
Добавление ID3-тега : Нет
Утилита сжатия : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Дополнительные параметры : -V -8 -T "Genre=%genre%" -T "Artist=%artist%" -T "Title=%title%" -T "Album=%albumtitle%" -T "Date=%year%" -T "Tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "Comment=EAC1.0b2 FLAC -8" %source%


TOC извлечённого CD

Трек | Старт | Длительность | Начальный сектор | Конечный сектор
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:45.40 | 0 | 16914
2 | 3:45.40 | 3:55.17 | 16915 | 34556
3 | 7:40.57 | 4:55.68 | 34557 | 56749
4 | 12:36.50 | 7:15.07 | 56750 | 89381
5 | 19:51.57 | 4:14.50 | 89382 | 108481
6 | 24:06.32 | 2:11.00 | 108482 | 118306
7 | 26:17.32 | 2:38.10 | 118307 | 130166
8 | 28:55.42 | 4:35.43 | 130167 | 150834
9 | 33:31.10 | 6:08.25 | 150835 | 178459


Трек 1

Имя файла R:\Раздача\Julian Cope - 1988 - My Nation Underground\01 5 O'Clock World.wav

Длина предзазора 0:00:02.00

Пиковый уровень 100.0 %
Скорость извлечения 4.9 X
Качество трека 100.0 %
CRC теста 3B590A66
CRC копии 3B590A66
Копирование… OK

Трек 2

Имя файла R:\Раздача\Julian Cope - 1988 - My Nation Underground\02 Vegetation.wav

Пиковый уровень 100.0 %
Скорость извлечения 5.5 X
Качество трека 100.0 %
CRC теста C20D4323
CRC копии C20D4323
Копирование… OK

Трек 3

Имя файла R:\Раздача\Julian Cope - 1988 - My Nation Underground\03 Charlotte Anne.wav

Пиковый уровень 100.0 %
Скорость извлечения 6.3 X
Качество трека 100.0 %
CRC теста D99E60AE
CRC копии D99E60AE
Копирование… OK

Трек 4

Имя файла R:\Раздача\Julian Cope - 1988 - My Nation Underground\04 My Nation Underground.wav

Длина предзазора 0:00:00.40

Пиковый уровень 89.0 %
Скорость извлечения 7.2 X
Качество трека 100.0 %
CRC теста 6AC8938E
CRC копии 6AC8938E
Копирование… OK

Трек 5

Имя файла R:\Раздача\Julian Cope - 1988 - My Nation Underground\05 China Doll.wav

Длина предзазора 0:00:00.07

Пиковый уровень 86.0 %
Скорость извлечения 7.3 X
Качество трека 100.0 %
CRC теста 35BB0F31
CRC копии 35BB0F31
Копирование… OK

Трек 6

Имя файла R:\Раздача\Julian Cope - 1988 - My Nation Underground\06 Someone Like Me.wav

Длина предзазора 0:00:00.52

Пиковый уровень 90.2 %
Скорость извлечения 5.2 X
Качество трека 100.0 %
CRC теста 829DF2D2
CRC копии 829DF2D2
Копирование… OK

Трек 7

Имя файла R:\Раздача\Julian Cope - 1988 - My Nation Underground\07 Easter Everywhere.wav

Пиковый уровень 100.0 %
Скорость извлечения 2.4 X
Качество трека 99.6 %
CRC теста 17CA5170
CRC копии 115A55F7
Копирование… OK

Трек 8

Имя файла R:\Раздача\Julian Cope - 1988 - My Nation Underground\08 I'm Not Losing Sleep.wav

Пиковый уровень 100.0 %
Скорость извлечения 7.4 X
Качество трека 99.9 %
CRC теста B3732BB6
CRC копии B3732BB6
Копирование… OK

Трек 9

Имя файла R:\Раздача\Julian Cope - 1988 - My Nation Underground\09 The Great White Hoax.wav

Длина предзазора 0:00:00.05

Пиковый уровень 96.8 %
Скорость извлечения 8.9 X
Качество трека 100.0 %
CRC теста 1FF4CA65
CRC копии 1FF4CA65
Копирование… OK

Ошибок не произошло

Конец отчёта

==== Контрольная сумма отчёта 3E931E202F03324D53504413289481BE3A2D1F5275252DF618084799FBBE9282 ====

[CUETools log; Date: 30.03.2018 19:47:04; Version: 2.1.4]
[CTDB TOCID: oBZzNGYlwkIZHF6TAa2LApxLP5A-] found.
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
2 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
3 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
4 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
5 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
6 | (12/12) Accurately ripped
7 | (11/12) Differs in 1369 samples @00:00:44-00:00:45,00:00:58-00:00:59,00:01:12-00:01:13,00:01:40-00:01:41,00:01:68-00:01:69,00:02:07-00:02:08,00:02:21-00:02:22,00:02:35-00:02:36,00:02:49-00:02:50,00:02:64-00:02:65,00:03:03-00:03:04
8 | (11/12) Accurately ripped
9 | (11/12) Accurately ripped
[AccurateRip ID: 000d7c8f-0062c8b0-7a094b09] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
01 [da6d2ea2|e32319cb] (00+07/14) Accurately ripped
02 [03a52a2d|eb3f6021] (00+07/14) Accurately ripped
03 [d789b147|e916077d] (00+07/13) Accurately ripped
04 [fe27fe5c|80a7c05a] (00+07/14) Accurately ripped
05 [8baa82ab|4bd9e895] (00+07/14) Accurately ripped
06 [3d6e238f|9ed217d3] (00+07/14) Accurately ripped
07 [51b1038a|a155903c] (00+00/14) No match
08 [8f7f76ba|86e8ced4] (00+07/14) Accurately ripped
09 [72526d02|579cc45b] (00+07/14) Accurately ripped
Offsetted by 2475:
01 [76c2e839] (03/14) Accurately ripped
02 [b6712479] (03/14) Accurately ripped
03 [4bef0340] (03/13) Accurately ripped
04 [bdd3c25a] (03/14) Accurately ripped
05 [623a9c38] (03/14) Accurately ripped
06 [478256ec] (03/14) Accurately ripped
07 [8c2cd858] (00/14) No match (V2 was not tested)
08 [aea8410f] (03/14) Accurately ripped
09 [027e2a9d] (03/14) Accurately ripped

Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 100,0 [92D32438] [8A7F7670]
01 100,0 [3B590A66] [194803E9] CRC32
02 100,0 [C20D4323] [8847A4F6] CRC32
03 100,0 [D99E60AE] [F5229E4E] CRC32
04 89,0 [6AC8938E] [0159E3B8] CRC32
05 86,0 [35BB0F31] [F29F6DD5] CRC32
06 90,2 [829DF2D2] [63D5B639] CRC32
07 100,0 [115A55F7] [30CAD85A] CRC32
08 100,0 [B3732BB6] [733C8B4E] CRC32
09 96,8 [1FF4CA65] [A64E5BFD] CRC32

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2018-03-30 19:47:54

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Julian Cope / My Nation Underground
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR13 0.00 dB -15.28 dB 3:46 01-5 O'Clock World
DR14 0.00 dB -16.88 dB 3:55 02-Vegetation
DR15 0.00 dB -16.25 dB 4:56 03-Charlotte Anne
DR13 -1.01 dB -16.45 dB 7:15 04-My Nation Underground
DR13 -1.30 dB -17.31 dB 4:15 05-China Doll
DR12 -0.89 dB -15.23 dB 2:11 06-Someone Like Me
DR13 0.00 dB -15.37 dB 2:38 07-Easter Everywhere
DR15 0.00 dB -16.96 dB 4:36 08-I'm Not Losing Sleep
DR13 -0.28 dB -16.83 dB 6:08 09-The Great White Hoax
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 9
Official DR value: DR13

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 921 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================