(Soul) Nicole Willis And The Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin' Up - 2005, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

X Lossless Decoder version 20101117 (125.1)
XLD extraction logfile from 2010-11-18 00:31:00 -0800
Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators / Keep Reachin' Up
Used drive : SONY DVD RW DW-U21A (revision AADB)
Ripper mode             : CDParanoia III 10.2
Disable audio cache     : OK for the drive with a cache less than 2750KiB
Make use of C2 pointers : NO
Read offset correction  : 48
Max retry count         : 100
Gap status              : Analyzed, Appended (except HTOA)
TOC of the extracted CD
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    ---------------------------------------------------------
        1  | 00:00:00 | 03:37:15 |         0    |    16289
        2  | 03:37:15 | 03:28:64 |     16290    |    31953
        3  | 07:06:04 | 03:24:01 |     31954    |    47254
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        6  | 18:36:30 | 04:01:10 |     83730    |   101814
        7  | 22:37:40 | 02:59:61 |    101815    |   115300
        8  | 25:37:26 | 03:37:26 |    115301    |   131601
        9  | 29:14:52 | 06:06:18 |    131602    |   159069
       10  | 35:20:70 | 02:42:50 |    159070    |   171269
       11  | 38:03:45 | 01:40:26 |    171270    |   178795
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    Track 07 : OK (confidence 13, with different offset)
    Track 08 : OK (confidence 12, with different offset)
    Track 09 : OK (confidence 4, with different offset)
    Track 10 : OK (confidence 3, with different offset)
    Track 11 : NG
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Track 01
    Filename : /Volumes/The Basement/01-Torrents-Up to What/Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin' Up (2007)/01 - Feeling Free.flac
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Track 02
    Filename : /Volumes/The Basement/01-Torrents-Up to What/Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin' Up (2007)/02 - If This Ain't Love (Don't Know What Is).flac
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Track 03
    Filename : /Volumes/The Basement/01-Torrents-Up to What/Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin' Up (2007)/03 - Keep Reachin' Up.flac
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    Filename : /Volumes/The Basement/01-Torrents-Up to What/Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin' Up (2007)/04 - Blues Downtown.flac
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Track 05
    Filename : /Volumes/The Basement/01-Torrents-Up to What/Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin' Up (2007)/05 - My Four Leaf Clover.flac
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Track 06
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Track 08
    Filename : /Volumes/The Basement/01-Torrents-Up to What/Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin' Up (2007)/08 - Holdin' On.flac
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Track 09
    Filename : /Volumes/The Basement/01-Torrents-Up to What/Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin' Up (2007)/09 - No One's Gonna Love You.flac
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Track 11
    Filename : /Volumes/The Basement/01-Torrents-Up to What/Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - Keep Reachin' Up (2007)/11 - Outro (Bonus Track).flac
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TITLE "Keep Reachin' Up"
PERFORMER "Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators"
REM GENRE "Soul"
REM DATE "2007"
REM DISCID 93094F0B
FILE "01 - Feeling Free.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "Feeling Free"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 02 AUDIO
    TITLE "If This Ain't Love (Don't Know What Is)"
    INDEX 00 03:36:11
FILE "02 - If This Ain't Love (Don't Know What Is).wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "03 - Keep Reachin' Up.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 03 AUDIO
    TITLE "Keep Reachin' Up"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "04 - Blues Downtown.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 04 AUDIO
    TITLE "Blues Downtown"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "05 - My Four Leaf Clover.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 05 AUDIO
    TITLE "My Four Leaf Clover"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "06 - A Perfect Kind Of Love.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 06 AUDIO
    TITLE "A Perfect Kind Of Love"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
FILE "07 - Invisible Man.wav" WAVE
  TRACK 07 AUDIO
    TITLE "Invisible Man"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 08 AUDIO
    TITLE "Holdin' On"
    INDEX 00 02:58:45
FILE "08 - Holdin' On.wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 09 AUDIO
    TITLE "No One's Gonna Love You"
    INDEX 00 03:35:67
FILE "09 - No One's Gonna Love You.wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 10 AUDIO
    TITLE "Soul Investigators Theme"
    INDEX 00 06:04:54
FILE "10 - Soul Investigators Theme.wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00
  TRACK 11 AUDIO
    TITLE "Outro (Bonus Track)"
    INDEX 00 02:39:28
FILE "11 - Outro (Bonus Track).wav" WAVE
    INDEX 01 00:00:00

Who left soul music out to dry, banishing real horn sections, stellar string arrangements, relentless guitar and bass lines, butt-shaking drum work, catchy refrains, serious organ grinding and truly inspired vocals? With today’s shrinking album sales and greater stress placed on big name marketing, it makes me wonder if there’s a grand conspiracy in place that aims to make all ears go gaga over the likes of Beyonce, Jessica Simpson or, God help us, Fergie. Putting my paranoia aside for a moment to focus on true talent, what I really dig are the original funk-soul divas like Betty Davis, Marva Whitney or Lynn “The Female Preacher” Collins to inject some serious soul licks into my welcoming mix. Their recordings were built on the raw emotional power of the human voice and framed by the topnotch competence of gifted backing bands, not digital cover-up techniques attempting to solve the mystery of how many ways a producer can polish a turd. Thankfully, Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators are every bit as tight, gifted and necessary as their most worthy predecessors were some thirty and even forty years ago.
I’m always a tad skeptical when a friend recommends I buy modern day “funk” music, usually because fans of this genre rarely listen to anything else, and their suggestions often qualify more as hippie jam band crap rather than, say, something sweet off of McNeal and Niles “Thrust” album. You’ll have to excuse me, per the usual, I’m veering off track in an effort to provide a modicum of context to this release, which I’ve listened to no less than five times since yesterday when I got it in the mail. It’s just hard for me to believe that “Keep Reachin’ Up” isn’t a reissue of a lost gem that some geeky DJ didn’t recently uncover in the closet of a Philadelphia radio station that was abandoned back in the hot summer of ‘74. The music is just that good, never overextending a particular movement on any of the cuts before shifting tempo and chord changes with well-practiced flourish, prompting nicely contained solos or the sweet singing of lead lady, Nicole Willis, to round out the sound.
The opening “Feeling Free,” with tasteful strings supplied by The Pekka Kuusisto String Orchestra, that also add delightful gravitas to “My Four Leaf Clover,” “No One’s Gonna Love You,” and the hidden bonus track reprise, do an awesome job of restraint. Like Phil Spector or Jack Nitzsche’s best arrangements, the strings embellish the core sonority, never overwhelming the basic structure of the band. Even without strings, the requisite closing instrumental, “Soul Investigator’s Theme,” at under two minutes, doesn’t come close to wearing out its welcome. When was the last time you heard a decent flute solo that didn’t distract from a convincing love song? I can’t remember, either. Check out “If This Ain’t Love (Don’t Know What Is) to hear how it should be done. The title track, “Keep Reachin’ Up,” with its bouncing bass and hooks a-plenty, is sure to easily arouse the feet of the most ardent wallflowers.

Nicole Willis – Vocal
Jimi Tenor – Flute, Tenor Saxophone, Backing Vocals, Horn Arrangements
Lasse Tolvanen - Tenor Saxophone, Horn Arrangements
Jay Kortehisto – Trombone, Soloist
Erno Haukkala – Trombone, Horn Arrangements
Eero Savela – Trumpet, Horn Arrangements
Antti Lauronen – Baritone Saxophone, Horn Arrangements
Sami Kantelinen - Bass Guitar
Didier Selin – Tamborine, Bass Guitar, Guitar
Pete Toikkanen - Guitar, Bass Guitar
Pekka Kuusisto – Violin
Antti Määttänen - Hammond Organ, Piano
Jukka Sarapää - Drums