TRACKLIST

1. Stolen Car (feat. Ben Harper) . . . . . . . . . . .5:25  2. Sweetest Decline (feat. Dr. John) . . . . . . . . .5:39  3. Couldn't Cause Me Harm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4:48  4. So Much More. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5:41  5. Pass in Time (feat. Dr. John and Terry Callier) . .7:17  6. Central Reservation (Original Version). . . . . . .4:50  7. Stars All Seem to Weep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4:39  8. Love Like Laughter (feat. Ben Harper) . . . . . . .3:07  9. Blood Red River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4:15 10. Devil Song. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5:04 11. Feel to Believe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4:04 12. Central Reservation (The Then Again Version). . . .4:01

REVIEW
On her stunning sophomore album, Central Reservation, Beth Orton slips free of the electronic textures that colored her acclaimed 1996 debut, Trailer Park, stripping her music down to its raw essentials to produce a work of stark simplicity and rare poignancy. With the exception of a pair of Ben Watt-produced tracks ("Stars All Seem to Weep" and a remix of the title cut), Central Reservation rejects synthetic sounds and beats altogether in favor of an organic atmosphere somewhere between folk, jazz, and the blues; the focal point is instead Orton's evocatively soulful voice, which invests songs like "Sweetest Decline" and "Feel to Believe" with remarkable warmth and honesty. It's a risky move creatively as well as commercially - after all, the club culture was the first to champion Orton's talents - but it pays off handsomely; for all its brilliance, elements of Trailer Park already feel dated, but the new material possesses a timelessness that recalls the best of Nick Drake or Sandy Denny, with a haunting beauty to match. And while much has been made of the melancholy that pervades her music, ultimately Central Reservation is first and foremost a record about hope and survival; its emotional centerpiece, the seven-minute "Pass in Time" (a spine-tingling duet with legendary folk-jazz mystic Terry Callier), grapples with the death of Orton's mother, but its underlying message of healing and perseverance is powerfully life-affirming - her music hasn't merely discovered the light at the end of the tunnel, it's now bathing in it.

SPOILER!

CODE Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008 EAC extraction logfile from 8. February 2009, 21:39 Beth Orton / Central Reservation Used drive  : PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-216  Adapter: 1  ID: 0 Read mode              : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache      : Yes Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction                      : 96 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 Gap handling                                : Appended to previous track Used output format              : User Defined Encoder Selected bitrate                : 128 kBit/s Quality                        : High Add ID3 tag                    : No Command line compressor        : C:\Programmi\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe 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 TOC of the extracted CD     Track |  Start  |  Length  | Start sector | End sector     ---------------------------------------------------------         1  |  0:00.00 |  5:25.57 |        0    |    24431          2  |  5:25.57 |  5:39.30 |    24432    |    49886          3  | 11:05.12 |  4:48.28 |    49887    |    71514          4  | 15:53.40 |  5:41.60 |    71515    |    97149          5  | 21:35.25 |  7:17.65 |    97150    |  129989          6  | 28:53.15 |  4:50.12 |    129990    |  151751          7  | 33:43.27 |  4:39.53 |    151752    |  172729          8  | 38:23.05 |  3:07.50 |    172730    |  186804          9  | 41:30.55 |  4:15.55 |    186805    |  205984        10  | 45:46.35 |  5:04.50 |    205985    |  228834        11  | 50:51.10 |  4:04.37 |    228835    |  247171        12  | 54:55.47 |  4:01.60 |    247172    |  265306  Track  1     Filename E:\CDRip\Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999) [FLAC]\01 - Stolen Car.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 94.6 %     Track quality 99.9 %     Test CRC E5183B43     Copy CRC E5183B43     Accurately ripped (confidence 69)  [9AA648AC]     Copy OK Track  2     Filename E:\CDRip\Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999) [FLAC]\02 - Sweetest Decline.wav     Peak level 90.3 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 2E140DB8     Copy CRC 2E140DB8     Accurately ripped (confidence 70)  [344C8B3B]     Copy OK Track  3     Filename E:\CDRip\Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999) [FLAC]\03 - Couldn't Cause Me Harm.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:00.10     Peak level 92.8 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 788C1C23     Copy CRC 788C1C23     Accurately ripped (confidence 68)  [90C7CD3F]     Copy OK Track  4     Filename E:\CDRip\Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999) [FLAC]\04 - So Much More.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:00.45     Peak level 99.9 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC D626895F     Copy CRC D626895F     Accurately ripped (confidence 70)  [599613F6]     Copy OK Track  5     Filename E:\CDRip\Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999) [FLAC]\05 - Pass in Time.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:00.48     Peak level 99.9 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC A6E1A571     Copy CRC A6E1A571     Accurately ripped (confidence 70)  [75516428]     Copy OK Track  6     Filename E:\CDRip\Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999) [FLAC]\06 - Central Reservation (Original Version).wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:00.55     Peak level 90.3 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 8D58B587     Copy CRC 8D58B587     Accurately ripped (confidence 69)  [516ECD2E]     Copy OK Track  7     Filename E:\CDRip\Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999) [FLAC]\07 - Stars All Seem to Weep.wav     Peak level 92.8 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 1C32DB43     Copy CRC 1C32DB43     Accurately ripped (confidence 70)  [35C7FF65]     Copy OK Track  8     Filename E:\CDRip\Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999) [FLAC]\08 - Love Like Laughter.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:00.23     Peak level 90.3 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 4ECB574B     Copy CRC 4ECB574B     Accurately ripped (confidence 69)  [F9B28643]     Copy OK Track  9     Filename E:\CDRip\Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999) [FLAC]\09 - Blood Red River.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:00.63     Peak level 91.1 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC A2A0E572     Copy CRC A2A0E572     Accurately ripped (confidence 69)  [D966752C]     Copy OK Track 10     Filename E:\CDRip\Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999) [FLAC]\10 - Devil Song.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:00.58     Peak level 92.4 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 3C26C11E     Copy CRC 3C26C11E     Accurately ripped (confidence 66)  [1793A735]     Copy OK Track 11     Filename E:\CDRip\Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999) [FLAC]\11 - Feel to Believe.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:00.55     Peak level 67.3 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC AA6D28C3     Copy CRC AA6D28C3     Accurately ripped (confidence 66)  [F7F9B664]     Copy OK Track 12     Filename E:\CDRip\Beth Orton - Central Reservation (1999) [FLAC]\12 - Central Reservation (The Then Again Version).wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.15     Peak level 97.1 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC B187153D     Copy CRC B187153D     Accurately ripped (confidence 66)  [8B0E3E2D]     Copy OK All tracks accurately ripped No errors occurred End of status report