This is a RARE Minty looking Grapevine Import LP with GREAT SOUND on both sides. Side one doesn’t have a whole lot wrong with it. It’s rich, sweet and tonally correct from top to bottom. Side two is the real winner here though, with lots of presence and energy.
AMG Review
Irish singer Mary Black is well known for deftly combining her Celtic roots with contemporary folk. On this release, she offers another strong set of songs, as she interprets songs from American folk favorite John Gorka (“Treasure Island”) and connects with Anglo-folk tradition on the lovely “One Way Donkey Ride” (written by Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention fame). The acoustic instrumentation feature a rich blend of guitars, fiddles, saxophones, and accordions that add a timeless feel to most of her songs. The highlight of the album is “Loving Time,” an emotional story of star-crossed lovers told with a bittersweet aching that few artists could deliver so poignantly.
This is an Older Review.
Most of the older reviews you see are for records that did not go through the shootout process, the revolutionary approach to finding better sounding pressings we developed in the early 2000s and have since turned into a fine art.
We found the records you see in these older listings by cleaning and playing a pressing or two of the album, which we then described and priced based on how good the sound and surfaces were. (For out Hot Stamper listings, the Sonic Grades and Vinyl Playgrades are listed separately.)
We were often wrong back in those days, something we have no reason to hide. Audio equipment and record cleaning technologies have come a long way since those darker days, a subject we discuss here.
Currently, 99% (or more!) of the records we sell are cleaned, then auditioned under rigorously controlled conditions, up against a number of other pressings. We award them sonic grades, and then condition check them for surface noise.
As you may imagine, this approach requires a great deal of time, effort and skill, which is why we currently have a highly trained staff of about ten. No individual or business without the aid of such a committed group could possibly dig as deep into the sound of records as we have, and it is unlikely that anyone besides us could ever come along to do the kind of work we do.
The term “Hot Stampers” gets thrown around a lot these days, but to us it means only one thing: a record that has been through the shootout process and found to be of exceptionally high quality.
The result of our labor is the hundreds of titles seen here, every one of which is unique and guaranteed to be the best sounding copy of the album you have ever heard or you get your money back.
Further Reading
Helpful Advice on Cleaning Your Records