More Grand Funk Railroad
- You’ll find Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides of this KILLER Grand Funk pressing
- Closer to Home is supposed to be a hard rockin’ Power Trio record, and on the better pressings such as this one that’s exactly what the hell it is!
- A tough record to find in audiophile playing condition these days – it took us years to get this shootout going
- 4 stars: “… the record that really broke them through to the level of metal masters such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath … instead of the excess force of other bands, such as MC5, Grand Funk Railroad are able to retain the often-elusive melodic element to their heavy compositions.”
Our best Hot Stamper pressings are BIGGER and BOLDER sounding than we ever expected.
You get more ambience, natural tape hiss, loads of energy, and more. Most copies were too murky, smeary and opaque to be taken seriously but this one was dramatically cleaner and clearer, without sacrificing the richness and warmth of vintage 1970 analog in the least.
This vintage Capitol 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 the Best Sides of Closer To Home 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 1970
- 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’re Listening For on Closer To Home
- 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.
A Power Trio Masterpiece
We consider this Grand Funk album their Masterpiece.
It’s an absolute Must Own for fans of the band.
TRACK LISTING
Side One
Sin’s a Good Man’s Brother
Aimless Lady
Nothing Is the Same
Mean Mistreater
Get It Together
Side Two
I Don’t Have to Sing the Blues
Hooked on Love
I’m Your Captain
AMG 4 Star Rave Review
This is the trio’s fourth album and the record that really broke them through to a more commercially successful level of metal masters such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Rather than rushing headlong back into their typical hard, heavy, and overamplified approach, Grand Funk Railroad began expanding their production values. Most evident is the inclusion of strings on the album’s title track, the acoustic opening on the disc’s leadoff cut, “Sins a Good Man’s Brother,” as well as the comparatively mellow “Mean Mistreater.” But the boys had far from gone soft. The majority of Closer to Home is filled with the same straight-ahead rock & roll that had composed their previous efforts.
The driving tempo of Mel Schacher’s viscous lead basslines on “Aimless Lady” and “Nothing Is the Same” adds a depth when contrasted to the soul-stirring and somewhat anthem-like “Get It Together.” The laid-back and slinky “I Don’t Have to Sing the Blues” also continues the trend of over-the-top decibel-shredding; however, instead of the excess force of other bands, such as MC5, Grand Funk Railroad are able to retain the often-elusive melodic element to their heavy compositions.