The Chi-Lites – A Lonely Man

More Chi-Lites

More Soul, Blues and R&B

  • The Chi-Lites make their site debut here with this outstanding pressing of A Lonely Man – solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER throughout – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Bigger and bolder, with more bass, more energy, and more of that “you-are-there-immediacy” of ANALOG that set the best vintage pressings apart from the current crop of (mostly awful) reissues, CDs, and whatever else you care to name
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Behind the talents of Eugene Record, the Chi-Lites presented an impeccable album featuring one gem after another.”

This vintage Brunswick 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 A Lonely Man 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 1972
  • 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 A Lonely Man

  • 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

Oh Girl
Living In The Footsteps Of Another Man
Love Is
Being In Love
A Lonely Man

Side Two

The Man & The Woman (The Boy & The Girl)
Ain’t Too Much Of Nothin’
Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
The Coldest Days Of My Life

AMG 4 1/2 Star Review

Behind the talents of Eugene Record, the Chi-Lites presented an impeccable album featuring one gem after another. Not losing any steam from their previous album, the Chi-Lites plugged another number one song, the universally appealing “Oh Girl,” which also claimed the number one spot on the pop charts. “Coldest Days of My Life” came with a placid arrangement and peaked at number eight, and “Lonely Man” was a humble extension of “Have You Seen Her.” From the testimonial “Living in the Footsteps of Another Man” to the mid-tempo “Being in Love” to the ballad “Love Is,” the Chi-Lites were flawless with this effort. Record is masterful with his articulation of the lyric; he stays in control of his vocals. His penmanship is phenomenal and his production skills are irreproachable. The only socially charged number is a remake of the Marvin Gaye classic “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler),” and it’s done with skillful execution.

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