Month: April 2021

The Hollies – Live Hits

More Hollies

This is a Minty and wonderful British import Red Label Polydor LP from 1976. The sound is quite good — a bit of hardness creeps in to the loud sections from time to time, but the music is so enjoyable it’s easy to look past that. The Hollies wrote and performed so many great songs in the sixties that I grew up with, playing this record was a real joy. Allan Clarke has such an incredible pop voice, and his bandmates harmonize with him beautifully, it reminds me of how good the radio used to be when I was growing up. They sure don’t sing ’em like this anymore!

Graham Nash is missing, and his high harmony vocal would be a nice addition, but you can’t have everything. What you can have is a  beautifully sung pop album full of great songs.

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.)

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J.J. Johnson – J.J.!

Living Stereo Titles Available Now

200+ Reviews of Living Stereo Records

  • J.J. Johnson makes his Hot Stamper debut with this SUPERB copy of J.J.! – Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish
  • The sound is big, lively, open and clear with Tubey Magical richness that only the best of the best vintage pressings can show you
  • Features a lineup of top-notch talent, including Clark Terry, Oliver Nelson, Hank Jones, as well as quite a few others – plenty of reeds, a French Horn, a tuba and more are here
  • 4 stars: “J.J.! is considered to be J.J. Johnson’s first big-band album, at least as a leader… The music is solidly played,… modern forward-looking mainstream jazz that features Johnson in excellent form.”

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Julie London – Your Number Please

More Julie London

More Pop and Jazz Vocal Albums

  • Your Number Please finally arrives on the site with a Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two paired with an outstanding Double Plus (A++) side one
  • So hugely spacious and three-dimensional, yet with a tonally correct and natural sounding Julie, this is the way to hear it
  • “One in a long series of Julie London records, this set features the sultry but subtle singer on a dozen standards, each of which she dedicates to a different male singer.”

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Aretha Franklin – Soft and Beautiful

More Aretha Franklin

  • Aretha’s wonderful 1969 release finally makes its Hot Stamper debut with outstanding soundfrom start to finish
  • This 360 Stereo pressing offers lively and tonally correct sound, with Franklin’s soulful vocals well reproduced and especially Tubey Magical, as would be expected from a Columbia recording from 1964 
  • Clean pressings of this title are hard to come by – this one is about as quiet as any we played in our shootout
  • Mark Bego, in Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul, called it “the most consistently paced album of her later Columbia years.”

This vintage 360 Stereo LP has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern pressings barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing any sign of coming back.

Having done this for so long, we understand and appreciate that rich, full, solid, Tubey Magical sound is key to the presentation of this primarily vocal music. We rate these qualities higher than others we might be listening for (e.g., bass definition, soundstage, depth, etc.). The music is not so much about the details in the recording, but rather in trying to recreate a solid, palpable, real Aretha Franklin singing live in your listening room. The best copies have an uncanny way of doing just that.

If you exclusively play modern repressings of older recordings (this one is now 50 years old), 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 less than one out of 100 new records do, if our experience with the hundreds we’ve played can serve as a guide.

What the Best Sides of Soft and Beautiful 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 1969
  • 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 space of the studio

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 above.

Copies with rich lower mids and nice extension up top did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren’t veiled or smeary of course. So many things can go wrong on a record! We know, we’ve heard them all.

Top end extension is critical to the sound of the best copies. Lots of old records (and new ones) have no real top end; consequently, the studio or stage will be missing much of its natural air and space, and instruments will lack their full complement of harmonic information.

Tube smear is common to most vintage pressings and this is no exception. The copies that tend to do the best in a shootout will have the least (or none), yet are full-bodied, tubey and rich.

What We’re Listening For on Soft and Beautiful

  • Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
  • 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 for the guitars and drums, not the smear and thickness common to most LPs.
  • Tight, note-like bass with clear fingering — which ties in with good transient information, as well as 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 players.
  • Then: presence and immediacy. The vocals aren’t “back there” somewhere, way behind the speakers. They’re front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would have put them.
  • Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.

Vinyl Condition

Mint Minus Minus is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)

Those of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of later pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don’t have the vintage analog magic that is a key part of the appeal of these wonderful recordings.

If you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that’s certainly your prerogative, but we can’t imagine losing what’s good about this music — the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight — just to hear it with less background noise.

TRACK LISTING

Side One

Only The Lonely
I Wish I Didn’t Love You So
When The World Was Young (Ah, The Apple Trees)
Shangri-La
A Mother’s Love

Side Two

My Coloring Book
Jim
Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)
But Beautiful
People (From “Funny Girl”)

Tchaikovsky / Romeo & Juliet / Munch

The Music of Tchaikovsky Available Now

Album Reviews of the Music of Tchaikovsky

This is a very old review which we ourselves may no longer agree with.

If you see this record in the bins for cheap, give it a try, but don’t pay a lot on our say-so.

This Minty RCA Plum Label Victrola has that BIG BIG BOSTON SYMPHONY SOUND!

It”s big as life — spacious, dynamic, and tonally correct, with the lovely textures of the Boston strings fully intact. This is actually a better recording than the more famous Munch re-recording (which is the one that Classic reissued). 

The Francesca da Rimini on side two is only so-so.

This is an older classical/orchestral review

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Tchaikovsky / Symphony No. 5 / Monteux

The Music of Tchaikovsky Available Now

Album Reviews of the Music of Tchaikovsky

Near Demo Quality. This is one of those mid-hall RCA recordings, and if you like that orchestral perspective, a very natural one to my mind, this record is for you. The string tone is superb.

What holds this record back is a lack of orchestral weight. But the strings on this copy are very sweet and the vinyl is exceptionally quiet.

It’s a lovely sounding copy, and dynamic as hell. Monteux’s performance is beyond reproach.

This is an Older Classical/Orchestral 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 started developing in the early 2000s and have since turned into a veritable science.

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.)

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Emmylou Harris – Elite Hotel

More Emmylou Harris

More Country and Country Rock

  • This outstanding pressing boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it from top to bottom
  • The best sides are doing most everything right — they’re cleaner, clearer, with better bass, more energy, better midrange presence, and the list goes on
  • 4 1/2 stars: “While Emmylou Harris spent much of her career carrying on the legacy of Gram Parsons, Elite Hotel ranks among her most overt tributes to his genius, thanks to its covers of the Flying Burrito Brothers’ ‘Sin City’ and ‘Wheels,’ along with ‘Ooh Las Vegas’ from the Grievous Angel album.”

It is TOUGH to find great sound for this album, but this copy really nailed it. Emmylou’s voice, obviously the key element, is just wonderful here. Most copies we play have their fair share of problems, but when you get one like this the sonic issues fade into the background, letting you focus on one thing — the MUSIC.

The biggest problems with the typical copy of this album are grit, grain, and break-up on the voices. Every single copy we played had these unfortunate qualities to at least some degree, but the few Hot Stampers we managed to find did enough things right to let the music work well for us. The third track on side one is a good example of this — on just about any copy out there, Emmylou’s voice is going to break-up a bit when she gets loud. We’re used to this when dealing with especially dynamic vocalists such as Emmylou, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell and Aretha Franklin. When these ladies start really beltin’ it out, it’s hard to get it on a record cleanly, particularly in the inner grooves.

This copy was cut much cleaner than many of them we played — less grit, less grain, and not too much break-up. As mentioned above, the third track on side one and the inner grooves are always going to be a little rough, but other than that the vocals sound lovely — breathy, sweet and present. The overall sound is clean and clear with good transparency and lots of energy.

The music here is wonderful, one of Emmylou’s finest. She knocks out a wonderful cover of the Beatles’ Here There And Everywhere on side two, and there are also great versions of songs from Gram Parsons, The Flying Burrito Brothers and the great Hank Williams. If you’re a fan of this music, it should be a real treat to hear a copy like this one! (more…)

Today’s Cool Record Find from 1966 – Luiz Bonfa’s Softly…

More Recordings with Exceptionally Tubey Magical Guitar Reproduction

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  • This original Epic pressing has superb Shootout Winning sound, earning a Triple Plus (A+++) grade on side two and close to it on side one
  • If you’re looking to demonstrate just how good 1966 All Tube Analog sound can be, this copy is just the record that can do it
  • The soundstage, depth and height of this spacious recording are as huge and three-dimensional as any you’ve heard
  • “One of the better early bossa albums by Bonfa, and one that doesn’t have the sleepy quality that you find on some of his other records. Luiz’ guitar is backed by a nice little combo, and the tracks have a lively rhythm, with occasional vocals, and some nice flute solos from time to time.”

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This is a simply wonderful Brazilian jazz guitar record, as well as what appears to be a mostly undiscovered gem. As an exceptional recording of excellent Brazilian guitar music from 1966, it is being offered to you by the music loving audiophiles at Better Records, folks who like to think they know a good sounding record when they hear one. (more…)

Boz Scaggs / Self-Titled and Remixed

More of the Music of Boz Scaggs

If you like your music dry and clean, try the remixed version, the CD, or perhaps there is a heavy vinyl version out there (at one-tenth the price).

That’s not our sound here at Better Records.

The best recordings from the era do not have that sound, so when we find that kind of analog richness, sweetness and naturalness on a pressing such as this, we know the record is right.

The nearly 13-minute long version of Loan Me A Dime on side two is out of this world and the best reason to play the album. Another good reason: Duane “Skydog” Allman on guitar!

Remix? Not at Better Records

According to Wikipedia:

The Atlantic album eventually went out of print and in 1977, it was completely remixed and reissued on Atlantic 19166. This remix brought out Duane Allman’s guitar in a more up-front way, which changed the original mix, drowning backing voices and keyboards. This remix is the version that’s currently available on CD.

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You Know What’s Shocking About This Dionne Warwick Record?

Another Record We’ve Discovered with (Potentially) Excellent Sound…

and One We Will Probably Never Do Again

Some records are just too consistently noisy to offer to our audiophile customers no matter how good they sound.

We have a section for records that tend to be noisy, and it can be found here.

What’s shocking about a record like this is the fact that the instruments you hear behind and to the side of Dionne Warwick are REAL instruments, and for the most part they are not really being processed much, they are simply being recorded. How many times do you hear a pop album with sound like that? Rarely in our case, and we play them by the hundreds.

Just played a Linda Ronstadt album that she did with Nelson Riddle — you know the one —  and I can tell you one thing, the sound of that album and this one are on opposite sides of the recording spectrum in terms of naturalness. On a scale of one to a hundred, Linda scores about a two, and Dionne scores 90, maybe more. It’s a JOY to hear a record with this kind of sound.

Play this one for your audiophile friends who own and respect the recordings of Dianna Krall, Patricia Barber and the like. Be sure to squeeze in the phrase “Boy, they don’t make ’em like they used to…” whenever there is a pause in the music or conversation.

You might also want to ask them if they think the invention of digital reverb was such a good idea after all.

If they’re good analog buddies, ones that you want to keep being your buddies, you might not want to say anything at all. Just keep quiet and let their own ears shame them. This is the kind of record that can do it. (more…)