Never a Dull Moment

Rod Stewart | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 17, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Audio Fidelity
• ASIN: B002NXSSBU
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #229,105 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. True Blue

2. Lost Paraguayos

3. Mama You Been On My Mind

4. Italian Girls

5. Angel

6. Interludings

7. You Wear It Well

8. I'd Rather Go Blind

9. Twistin' The Night Away

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

The fourth Rod Stewart album to contain his trademark acoustic-electric mix of instruments and bluesy vocals, Never a Dull Moment feels anything but formulaic, kicking off with the aw-shucks modesty of "True Blue" and rollicking on through the enduring original "You Wear It Well." Some of the best tunes here are covers--Bob Dylan's searching "Mama You Been on My Mind," a soulful reading of Sam Cooke's "Twistin' the Night Away," and a scorching take on Etta James's "I'd Rather Go Blind"--but, as always, Stewart manages to make them sound of a piece with his own compositions. Unlike the promises proffered by some album titles, Never a Dull Moment (ironic though it was, given the cover painting of a terminally bored Stewart) proved to be dead-on. --Daniel Durchholz --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Product Description

Rod's huge 1972 follow-up to Every Picture reached #2 and produced three more hit songs: You Wear It Well; Angel (written by Jimi Hendrix), and Twistin' the Night Away . Nine tracks in all. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars my personal favorite, August 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Never a Dull Moment (Audio CD)

Many people under the age of 45 are unaware that until the mid-70's, Rod Stewart was taken quite seriously. He rather lost his way after that (as did most everyone else), but his first four albums were remarkably original and enduring syntheses of folk, rock, soul and R&B. "Every Picture" and "Never A Dull Moment" stand as his peak achievements. Because "Every Picture" was such a watershed, "Never" tends to get overlooked, but it offers similar rewards and is my personal favorite. Stewart's sublime cover of "I'd Rather Go Blind" alone is worth the price of admission. If you're a Rod Stewart fan, you shouldn't miss it. Enjoy.

41 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Review for the Audio Fidelity release AFZ 058, November 23, 2009

By 

Timmothy R. Acheson "Tim" (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Never a Dull Moment (Audio CD)

UPDATE: I used to agree with two stars, but now one. The artwork, while an attempt to recreate the LP, is stretched. So glad I jumped off the AF train!!
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I actually think the packaging is pretty cool as it recreates the style of the original LP. However, I rip all of my CDs to FLAC, so I don't need to take the disc out every time I want to hear the music. The packaging almost made me think AF was kicking it up a notch and starting to release some high quality products. That was prior to discovering the clipped peaks on this disc.

I was a member on Steve Hoffman's forum (under the name Dream Operator) and I noticed posts from people wondering if this release sounded better than the Dennis Drake master. I decided to put up some samples from this version so people could get an idea of the sound. I opened the first track (True Blue) in a sound editing program and created a 30 second sample. Then I opened the second track (Lost Paraguayos) to make a sample of that. It was then that I noticed the end of the song had consistently leveled peaks. I zoomed in and found the peaks are actually clipped (flat-topped). Other songs on the album have clipped peaks as well, but Lost Paraguayos was the worst offender.

I sent Steve Hoffman a private message about this (after issues with other discs, he asked me to contact him about AF issues in the future)and he told me they don't have peak limiters at RTI. He said he would have his copy in a week.

I then emailed Marshall Blonstein (President of Audio Fidelity), but I did not receive a reply. After a few days, I posted on Steve Hoffman's forum about the clipped peaks. The post was mild and did not make any accusations. The post was removed in less than a minute and I was soft banned (my account appears active, but I cannot access anything on the site when I log in).

I sent another email to Marshall [...], but this time I received a reply from Heather. She said he was out of the country and would be returning on Monday (11/16/2009). I sent Marshall another email on 11/19 and asked if he had a chance to read my previous email and asked what his thoughts were. I still have not received a reply.

I don't think the disc sounds bad and the dynamic range is quite good. However, the disc does not live up to the promise on their website: "The original dynamic range of the recordings are not maximized, brickwalled, limited or compressed in any way during remastering." (also printed on all previous AF CDs, though slightly different). Clipped peaks are the result of some type of compression. Whether it was a peak limiter or perhaps the analog-to-digital converters were simply over-driven by accident, I do not know.

This is the third CD from Audio Fidelity's 2009 releases to reveal compression (The Doors - The Soft Parade and The Pretenders - The Pretenders being the other two discs). Sad for that company that attempts to build their reputation on producing albums without additional compression.

For the record, Kevin Gray is credited for remastering this, not Steve Hoffman. Steve was credited for the other two Audio Fidelity discs that have compression. These guys appreciate dynamic music, so it's hard to say why these issues are happening.

[...]

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Albums of 1972: No. 4, June 1, 2005

By 

Steve Vrana (Aurora, NE) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Never a Dull Moment (Audio CD)

On NEVER A DULL MOMENT, Rod Stewart did not stray from the formula of the hugely successful EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY. This is another stunning collection of Faces-style rockers, British folk and soul.

The album kicks off with the raucous "True Blue," which is the only track to feature all of his his Faces' mates. The other two Stewart/Ron Wood-penned songs are the folk rock of "Lost Paraguayos" and the rocker "Italian Girls." The final original is "You Wear It Well," co-written with guitarist Martin Quittenton, his collaborator on "Maggie May." While "You Wear It Well" topped the U.K. charts, it only reached No. 13 in the U.S. The other single (No. 40) was a touching rendition of Jimi Hendrix's "Angel." Other covers include Dylan's "Mama, You Been on My Mind," "I'd Rather Go Blind" and Sam Cooke's "Twistin' the Night Away."

While Stewart would go on to bigger commercial success and superstar status in the late-Seventies, EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY and NEVER A DULL MOMENT are the twin pillars of his career. If you ever wondered why the critics were so unmerciful when he recorded songs like "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" it's because they remembered what an amazing singer/songwriter/interpreter he could be. ESSENTIAL