Artist: Gracious | Album: This Is…Gracious!! | Released: 1971, 2006 | Label: Philips, Japan | Catalog #: UICY-93180 | Genre: Rock, Progressive Rock | Country: UK | Duration: 00:42:22
No sophomore jinx here: on their second album, Gracious truly hits its stride. The first half of the album is a four-part suite, “Super Nova.” After its Floydian opening instrumental, the band launches into the bleak “Blood Red Sun”; with a dystopic narrative of environmental holocaust and its martial drumbeat, it’s an ideal complement to King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man.” Strange, then, that this should lead to “Say Goodbye to Love,” an effectively weepy guitar ballad of lost romance and tear-jerking harmonies. It’s on the second half of the album, though, that Gracious hits escape velocity. On “C.B.S.” the band shifts effortlessly from a groovy clavinet jam to a bouncing barrelhouse piano in the verse. “Blue Skies and Alibis” is a prime example of Martin Kitcat’s Mellotron technique; powered along by Cowderoy’s graceful guitar, smoky vocals, and a lush piano progression worthy of Joe Jackson, it’s one of their most enduring tracks. A truly undervalued gem, This Is… Gracious! sat on the shelves for two years after completion before being issued; it’s a shame that it was to be last anyone heard from the band for the next two decades.
Tracklisting:
01. Super Nova: Arrival of the Traveller (4:06)
02. Super Nova: Blood Red Sun (6:36)
03. Super Nova: Say Goodbye To Love (3:26)
04. Super Nova: Prepare To Meet Thy Maker (7:32)
05. C.B.S. (7:06)
06. What’s Come To Be (3:33)
07. Blue Skies and Alibis (4:58)
08. Hold Me Down (5:04)
Log Exact Audio Copy
EAC extraction logfile from 14. May 2007, 14:54 for CD
Gracious / This Is...Gracious!!
Used drive : BENQ DVD DD DW1620 Adapter: 0 ID: 2
Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 618
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo
Other options :
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Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Installed external ASPI interface
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename D:flogger77CDImage.wav
Peak level 99.8 %
Range quality 99.9 %
CRC E4D7C144
Copy OK
No errors occured
End of status report
Single download
Gracious – Super Nova: Arrival of the Traveller 4:06 
Gracious – Super Nova: Blood Red Sun 6:36
Gracious – Super Nova: Say Goodbye To Love 3:26
Gracious – Super Nova: Prepare To Meet Thy Maker 7:32
Gracious – C.B.S. 7:06
Gracious – What’s Come To Be 3:33
Gracious – Blue Skies and Alibis 4:58
Gracious – Hold Me Down 5:04
Category:Rock
Main catalog
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