More Sixties Pop Recordings
- An original Stereo 360 pressing (the first copy to hit the site in years) with an INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side two
- Here are just a few of of the things we had to say about this amazing Triple Plus side one in our notes: “big and tubey vox & bass”…”great size and energy”…”jumping out [of the speakers]”…”crazy good”
- The sound is Tubey Magical, lively and dynamic, with exceptional transparency and immediacy
- We’re always blown away at just how much further the better copies are able to take the music – what a difference the right pressing makes
- Until we hear something better — a possibility we would never rule out — this is The Byrds’ best sounding album
- In our experience, no red label reissue is even worth the trouble of cleaning and playing it. Some Byrds records have the potential to sound good on the red label, but this is not one of them
- 5 stars: “Younger Than Yesterday was somewhat overlooked at the time of its release during an intensely competitive era that found the Byrds on a commercial downslide. However, time has shown it to be the most durable of the Byrds’ albums… David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, and especially Chris Hillman come into their own as songwriters on an eclectic but focused set blending folk-rock, psychedelia, and early country-rock.”
Back in 2019 we had this to say about the best sounding copy from the shootout we had just done:
Most Byrds’ records are far from audiophile demo discs. However, what the best originals give you is relatively good sound.
This album will never sound as good as Abbey Road. Keeping that rather obvious point in mind, as I listened to this copy the thought that went through my mind is that this tape had been mastered about as well as it could be.
It’s tonally correct from top to bottom; the frequency extremes are there; and the vocals have a silky, sweet quality to them (when they haven’t been bounced down too many times of course).
Do you know how you can tell when you’re listening to a properly mastered record? It’s very simple. You find yourself getting into the music. Liking songs you never used to like. When music sounds right, it bypasses the intellect and goes straight to the emotional center.
You can analyze these recordings until you’re blue in the face but ultimately it all comes down to this: Do you want to hear the whole album? Do you want to turn it up? If the answer to those two questions is yes, you have a great record. This pressing gets two yeses.
As you can see from the rave at the top of this listing, now the best copy from the shootout we just did in 2024 sounds great! (Yes, it only took us five years to find enough clean 360 label pressings to get another shootout going.)
How did that happen?
Who knows. We just keep working on improving the system using blind faith as our guide.
This vintage 360 Stereo 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 Younger Than Yesterday 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 1967
- 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.
Recommended Tracks
For the best sound on side one, try tracks four, “Renaissance Fair,” and five, “Time Between.” For the best sound on side two, try track three, “My Back Pages.” It’s great to hear this classic Dylan tune sound good for a change.
What We’re Listening For On Younger Than Yesterday
- 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.
Side One
So You Want to Be a Rock ‘N’Roll Star
Have You Seen Her Face
C.T.A. – 102
Renaissance Fair
Time Between
Everybody’s Been Burned
Side Two
Thoughts and Words
Mind Gardens
My Back Pages
The Girl with No Name
Why
AMG 5 Star Rave Review
Younger Than Yesterday was somewhat overlooked at the time of its release during an intensely competitive era that found the Byrds on a commercial downslide. However, time has shown it to be the most durable of the Byrds’ albums, with the exception of Mr. Tambourine Man.
David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, and especially Chris Hillman come into their own as songwriters on an eclectic but focused set blending folk-rock, psychedelia, and early country-rock.
The sardonic “So You Want to Be a Rock & Roll Star” was a terrific single; “My Back Pages,” also a small hit, was the last of their classic Dylan covers; “Thoughts and Words,” the flower-power anthem “Renaissance Fair,” “Have You Seen Her Face,” and the bluegrass-tinged “Time Between” are all among their best songs. The jazzy “Everybody’s Been Burned” may be Crosby’s best composition, although his “Mind Gardens” is one of his most excessive.
Further Reading