3s/ 1s. While solo piano and RCA vinyl are not a match made in heaven, this LP nevertheless has many fine qualities and is worth owning.
Extremely rare and enjoyable. Not the best Living Stereo sound, probably would earn a grade of B or so.
This album — like Surf’s Up, which was released just after it — can really sound wonderful on a good pressing. If you love Pet Sounds, you’ll find plenty of the Beach Boys’ signature harmonies here, all recorded with real richness and warmth. (more…)
INCREDIBLY POWERFUL AND DYNAMIC DEMO QUALITY SOUND THROUGHOUT! If you’re looking for a jazz-fusion guitar album that will wake your system up (and show off its best qualities to boot), this is the hot ticket right here. We had been slowly compiling various pressings for a big shootout for ages, and we finally let it rip recently. This was one of the most impressive pressings, earning an A++ on side one and an A+++ on side two. If you’re a fan of ’70s Miles Davis or the Birds Of Fire album, you probably already know that you need this in your collection! (more…)
Poco’s second album is an unusual blend of country-rock, with some long, jazzy instrumental breaks that center around Rusty Young’s pedal steel, which doesn’t sound like any pedal steel guitar you’ve ever heard. It’s played with a wah-wah pedal and, if that wasn’t enough, the resulting sound is sent through a Leslie organ speaker.
We know it sounds crazy, but it really works. There is nothing else like it on record, nothing that we’ve ever heard anyway.
Country Prog Rock
Most of side two is taken up by a single track, Nobody’s Fool / El Tonto de Nadie, Regresa. It’s a suite in which the band stretches out instrumentally in a somewhat proggy way, although one could make the case that Bluegrass music is all about “stretching out instrumentally.” (more…)
White Hot Stamper sound on side two, which means this copy has the power to show you just how well-recorded the album really is, and how much energy and drive there is to both the sound and the music.
No other side of any copy earned the full Three Plus White Hot grade, so this is a very special side indeed. [Now that we are much better at our jobs — see the advice at the end of this review — this happens only a few times a year.]
Side Two
A+++, the best side of any side we played. So clear, transparent and high-rez, yet rich and tonally correct from top to bottom, this is the kind of sound we call Hard To Fault (HTF).
Side One
A+ to A++, a bit fat and smeary, but since that’s pretty much the sound of most tube equipment, it’s still very musical and enjoyable (as is most tube equipment). The details aren’t there, but the thrust of the music comes through just fine.
We didn’t run into any awful CTI originals the way we do with the typical rock record from the ’70s, but it’s the rare copy that has a real top end, or much in the way of transparency, or freedom from smear. This copy has all three, without any sacrifice in richness or Tubey Magic.
