Customer Reviews

Never a Dull Moment

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

[...]

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

Before entering the realm of spiky, bottle-blonde hair and pink jumpsuits, Rod Stewart turned out a handful of magnificent folk-rock records, beginning with "An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down" (titled "The Rod Stewart Album" in the US), and ending with 1972's "Never A Dull Moment".

"Never A Dull Moment" is essentially a reprise of "Every Picture Tells A Story" with its eclectic mix of rock, folk, blues and country. It may contain fewer recognized classics, but song for song it is almost as sublime as its predecessor.
It is Stewart's hardest-rocking album up to that point, opening with the tough electric "True Blue", and featuring the Stonesy "Italian Girls", a swaggering, bluesy take on Hendrix's "Angel", and the "Maggie May"-follow-up "You Wear It Well". But Rod Stewart is equally magnificent on the driving, acoustic folk-rock of "Lost Paraguayos" and a superb, soulful cover of Dylan's "Mama You Been On My Mind".
"I'd Rather Go Blind" is a masterful interpretation of the Etta James-tune, and the album finally winds down with a great, swinging cover of one of Sam Cooke's best songs, "Twisting The Night Away".

The originals and the covers are equally effective, making "Never A Dull Moment" a masterful record with plenty of highlights and precious few let-downs.
4 1/2 stars. Rod Stewart never got quite this good ever again.

It's not his last great album (that was Smiler). It's his greatest. Rod can be the best rock singer of them all with his ability to be the "guy in the song" (like Sinatra did with pop). That changed with his sex symbol identity in the 70's (sorry, Rod). Give a listen to these songs. He was at the top of his form singing from his soul and not his image. "Mama, you've been on my mind" is the pinacle of his sensitivity (his greatest gift) and with the more fun songs like "Twistin' the night away" he made the song a party (his other gift). This collection of performances showed the best that Rod could be and that's pretty darn good.

How do you make a solo album? Call your band mates. How do you follow up a serious classic album? Make a fun classic album! Step 1: call the Faces, Step 2: Add some awesome studio musicians, Step 3: Rock'n'Roll. One of the most underrated,unabated albums ever recorded, it never disappoints from song 1 to song end. True Blue kicks off the album in a raw and rythmic jam followed by one of the greatest exiles of FM radio the loose rockin' "Lost Paraguayos" where all guitars,vocals,horns,bass & sloppy drums SHINE! Next The Faces make Dylan their own with "Mama You Been on My Mind" and then roar through the infectious riff rock of Italian Girls". A simplified soulful garage rock version of Hendrix's "Angel" keeps the good times rolling. The classic " You Wear it Well" starts the second half of the album which concludes with 2 smokin' remakes: Etta James would be proud of the boy's take on her classic "I'd Rather Go Blind" and next is a get up and party version of Sam Cooke's "Twistin' the Night Away". WARNING this album makes you want to play it over and over again!!!

What can one say about this amazing work? This and "Every Picture Tells A Story" undeniably caught Stewart at the peak
of his game, a peak which would slowly erode over the next
three or four albums and never again be recaptured. But when
he was hot, he was hot. Every track here is a winner, and
there are many classics--personal favorites include the winning
opener "True Blue", the perfect "Italian Girls" (which blends
his hard-rock and mandolin-folk styles inside a hilarious
lyric), the endearing hit "You Wear It Well" and the larynx-tearing "I'd Rather Go Blind". Although musically it is almost identical to "Every Picture Tells A Story", this is certainly not a bad thing and the songwriting is every bit its equal. The only less than classic performance here is the
lightweight "Twistin' The Night Away", but other fans seem to
like it. In short, it is very hard to choose between this and
"Every Picture" as his very best album; taken along with
"Gasoline Alley", these represent three of the greatest
consecutive album releases of the 70s.

Rod Stewart's fourth album had the unenviable task of being the follow up to the all-time classic Every Picture Tells A Story. While it is not on the same level, Never A Dull Moment is a superb album. The album opens with the endearing "True Blue" and closes out with a roaring take on Sam Cooke's "Twistin' The Night Away" which was tailor made for him. In between the album is another excellent mixture of acoustic based music that is his trademark. "Italian Girls" is a fun song and he shreds his voice on a impassioned cover of Etta James' "I'd Rather Go Blind". "You Wear It Well" was the big hit on the album and it has a loping sound infused by a violin.

This may very well be the last good Rod Stewart album ever made in his long and creative career. "Never A Dull Moment," Ron Woods last apperance on a Rod Stewart album, is a record with the same great songs as on previous releases, but shows a band in turmoil. Yet at the same time, the rift in the group makes for great song material and intense lyrics. As usual, many of the tracks are accustic but far from tiresome! This cd gets better and better everytime i play it and will definately be a welcome addition to any music lovers collection.

I received my copy of the Audio Fidelity remaster of Rod Stewart's 'Never a Dull Moment' today. I give this item only 2 stars due to the poor packaging. Normally, this is not something I care too much about. But, in this case, I feel that it does have an impact. The CD itself is in a slimline case with the spindle on the front, rather than the back side. The disc it put in backwards to make the title visible. The actual cover is separate and is over sized in the respect that it would not fit into any jewel case, let alone the backwards slimline provided. While the idea may have been to reproduce the original album packaging (can't say, since I never owned the original vinyl), I don't feel it adds any value. Overall, it looks like perhaps this is some kind of packaging experiment that gave no consideration to practicality. I prefer to be able to store my discs with their packaging and with the disc right-side up and on the right side of the case when it is a single disc. The cover does have a pocket that may be intended as storage for the disc, I don't really know. I do know that I'm not going to store this kind of disc in such a way as to invite damage. As to the remaster, it's not bad, but nothing to write home about either (as I have found with many of the Audio Fidelity titles). Like others I have purchased, it requires a bit more volume to really bring the low end out. So, two stars from this customer. A passable remaster and, in my opinion, some unfortunate packaging decisions.