Teaming with Greg Kurstin -- a producer best-known for helming Adele's Grammy-winning 25, but also a musician in his own right, collaborating with Inara George in the savvy retro duo the Bird and the Bee -- is a signal from Paul McCartney that he intends Egypt Station, his 18th solo album, to be a thoroughly modern affair. It is, but not in the way that the glitzy 2013 album New, with its fair share of Mark Ronson productions, was. Kurstin doesn't specialize in gaudiness, he coaxes his collaborators to act like a bright, colorful version of their best selves, which is what he achieves with McCartney here. Apart from "Fuh You" -- a vulgar throwaway novelty recorded with Ryan Tedder -- Egypt Station is a handsome and clever collection where McCartney hits many familiar marks but the difference is, he gets there in a different fashion than before. Perhaps the mini-suites, pleas for peace, rocking boogie, and romantic ballads are the very definition of McCartney's wheelhouse, but he takes some subtle chances here, both in the arrangement and, especially, the lyrics. All the slower songs are peppered with haunting images of darkness creeping at the edges, while McCartney revives the carnality that marked "Press" -- not just on the straightforward "Fuh You" but on "Come on to Me," a considerably better song than the Tedder exercise. Such twists are welcome but what's satisfying about Egypt Station is what's always satisfying about a McCartney record: the hooks and imagination that are so rampant seem effortless. The thing that Kurstin brings to the table is a refinement, letting McCartney's ideas shine incandescently while also revealing that a record this clever isn't tossed off, it's crafted in every respect.
~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 6 from 9. April 2015
EAC extraction logfile from 31. May 2019, 15:59
Paul McCartney / Egypt Station (Explorer's Edition) CD1
Used drive : ATAPI iHAS122 C Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
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
Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 0:41.68 | 0 | 3142
2 | 0:41.68 | 4:26.70 | 3143 | 23162
3 | 5:08.63 | 4:10.42 | 23163 | 41954
4 | 9:19.30 | 3:34.08 | 41955 | 58012
5 | 12:53.38 | 3:13.17 | 58013 | 72504
6 | 16:06.55 | 3:23.54 | 72505 | 87783
7 | 19:30.34 | 3:04.51 | 87784 | 101634
8 | 22:35.10 | 2:59.02 | 101635 | 115061
9 | 25:34.12 | 2:35.21 | 115062 | 126707
10 | 28:09.33 | 5:02.16 | 126708 | 149373
11 | 33:11.49 | 3:20.68 | 149374 | 164441
12 | 36:32.42 | 3:17.21 | 164442 | 179237
13 | 39:49.63 | 3:29.11 | 179238 | 194923
14 | 43:18.74 | 6:57.63 | 194924 | 226261
15 | 50:16.62 | 0:46.45 | 226262 | 229756
16 | 51:03.32 | 6:22.55 | 229757 | 258461
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename C:\Users\London\Desktop\Paul McCartney - Egypt Station (Explorer's Edition) CD1.wav
Peak level 99.8 %
Extraction speed 8.5 X
Range quality 99.9 %
Test CRC FE040523
Copy CRC FE040523
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [342DF034] (AR v2)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [EB62F786] (AR v2)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 127) [99B5C312] (AR v2)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 127) [2B865C61] (AR v2)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [14FC604F] (AR v2)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [48A78649] (AR v2)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [D57B20DF] (AR v2)
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [91326136] (AR v2)
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [AFBE0561] (AR v2)
Track 10 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [3693A4B4] (AR v2)
Track 11 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [0D7A182E] (AR v2)
Track 12 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [A1473514] (AR v2)
Track 13 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [2EA044EA] (AR v2)
Track 14 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [19EAD872] (AR v2)
Track 15 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [649968CF] (AR v2)
Track 16 accurately ripped (confidence 128) [05DF58B1] (AR v2)
All tracks accurately ripped
End of status report
---- CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
[CTDB TOCID: H0.nuUzdLnnsy_KaiEZ2JTJBoLo-] found
Submit result: H0.nuUzdLnnsy_KaiEZ2JTJBoLo- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (712/713) Accurately ripped
2 | (713/713) Accurately ripped
3 | (712/713) Accurately ripped
4 | (713/713) Accurately ripped
5 | (713/713) Accurately ripped
6 | (712/713) Accurately ripped
7 | (712/713) Accurately ripped
8 | (712/713) Accurately ripped
9 | (712/713) Accurately ripped
10 | (712/713) Accurately ripped
11 | (712/713) Accurately ripped
12 | (713/713) Accurately ripped
13 | (712/713) Accurately ripped
14 | (712/713) Accurately ripped
15 | (712/713) Accurately ripped
16 | (706/713) Accurately ripped, or (2/713) differs in 1095 samples @06:22:33-06:22:42
==== Log checksum 8E094DD69F37D6E7F58C88709CF36538E2E6CD4AECE31069916F9352AEB2BA0E ====
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 6 from 9. April 2015
EAC extraction logfile from 31. May 2019, 8:30
Paul McCartney / Egypt Station (Explorer's Edition) CD2
Used drive : ATAPI iHAS122 C Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
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
Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:41.07 | 0 | 16581
2 | 3:41.07 | 3:15.28 | 16582 | 31234
3 | 6:56.35 | 2:44.08 | 31235 | 43542
4 | 9:40.43 | 3:57.33 | 43543 | 61350
5 | 13:38.01 | 5:33.48 | 61351 | 86373
6 | 19:11.49 | 2:56.25 | 86374 | 99598
7 | 22:07.74 | 4:19.11 | 99599 | 119034
8 | 26:27.10 | 3:35.60 | 119035 | 135219
9 | 30:02.70 | 3:16.01 | 135220 | 149920
10 | 33:18.71 | 3:02.43 | 149921 | 163613
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename C:\Users\London\Desktop\Paul McCartney - Egypt Station (Explorer's Edition) CD2.wav
Peak level 99.8 %
Extraction speed 7.7 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 11714BE5
Copy CRC 11714BE5
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 not present in database
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
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
End of status report
---- CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6
[CTDB TOCID: kEnqCnD.g0GXNjfzObWdmu6.b2o-] found
Submit result: kEnqCnD.g0GXNjfzObWdmu6.b2o- has been confirmed
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
6 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
7 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
8 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
9 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
10 | (20/20) Accurately ripped
==== Log checksum A938FD4D065209F077E053EAF6ED550D0CD28092E39CF8747FF89BC30447F377 ====