- Stunning sound throughout with both sides of this original Atlantic Green and Blue label stereo LP earning superb Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades – just shy of our Shootout Winner
- We guarantee there is dramatically more richness, fullness, vocal presence, and performance energy on this copy than others you’ve heard, and that’s especially true for whatever godawful Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently being foisted on an unsuspecting record buying public
- “… the Wicked Pickett sounds a lot more convincing on this album’s romantic numbers than anyone would have had a right to expect from one of the baddest cats of Southern soul… it’s a good set of tunes, performed with Pickett’s usual high level of passion and skill, and if you’re any kind of fan you’ll revel in it.”
These Nearly White Hot Stamper pressings have top quality sound that’s often surprisingly close to our White Hots, but they sell at substantial discounts to our Shootout Winners, making them a relative bargain in the world of Hot Stampers (“relative” being relative considering the prices we charge). We feel you get what you pay for here at Better Records, and if ever you don’t agree, please feel free to return the record for a full refund, no questions asked.
This vintage Atlantic Green and Blue label pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for — this sound.
If you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it — not often, and certainly not always — but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds.
What amazing sides such as these have to offer is not hard to hear:
- The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
- The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1968
- Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
- Natural tonality in the midrange — with all the instruments having the correct timbre
- Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space
No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.
What We Listen For on I’m In Love
- Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
- Then: presence and immediacy. The vocals aren’t “back there” somewhere, lost in the mix. They’re front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would put them.
- The Big Sound comes next — wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
- Then transient information — fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.
- Tight punchy bass — which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.
- Next: transparency — the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.
- Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.
TRACK LISTING
Side One
Jealous Love
Stagger Lee
That Kind Of Love
I’m In Love
Hello Sunshine
Side Two
Don’t Cry No More
We’ve Got To Have Love
Bring It On Home To Me
She’s Looking Good
I’ve Come A Long Way
AMG Review
Surely no one was expecting a “quiet storm” album from Wilson Pickett in 1968, and that sure isn’t what they got with I’m in Love, but the Wicked Pickett sounds a lot more convincing on this album’s romantic numbers than anyone would have had a right to expect from one of the baddest cats of Southern soul.
Of course, there aren’t all that many romantic ballads here, but Pickett’s rough-and-ready soul shouting manages to sound just as convincing on “Bring It On Home to Me” and “That Kind of Love” as he does on the pained “Jealous Love” and a properly intense rip through “Stagger Lee.” Pickett makes the most of the songwriting contributions from frequent collaborators Bobby Womack and Don Covay, while Tommy Cogbill and his crew of Muscle Shoals session heavyweights offer music which keeps up with Pickett for guts, soul, and drive — no small statement, considering Pickett’s richly deserved reputation as one of the strongest and most consistent artists of the period.
Like most R&B albums of the period, I’m in Love sounds more like a set of tunes than a unified album, but it’s a good set of tunes, performed with Pickett’s usual high level of passion and skill, and if you’re any kind of fan you’ll revel in it.