More of the Music of Ambrosia
- Boasting KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides, this copy of Ambrosia’s 4th studio album (only the second to hit the site in years) is doing practically everything right
- Here are a few of the things we had to say about this stunning copy in our notes: “jumping out [of the speakers]”…”great size and energy”…”breathy vox”…”really weighty”…”very full and present”…”big kick [drum] and bass”
- The sound is lively, punchy, and powerful – with all due respect, it should murder whatever copies you may have
- Analog at its Tubey Magical finest – you’ll never play a CD (or any other digitally sourced material) that sounds as good as this record as long as you live
- “The ballads are the album’s redeeming feature. They are all lovingly crafted and boast strong, often complex melodies that keep them from getting too sappy or sentimental… The album’s finale, “Biggest Part of Me,” is the best… It combines rich Beach Boys-styled harmonies with a heartfelt lyric to create a rich slice of blue-eyed soul that gave the group a number two hit single…”
- As is sometimes the case, there is one and only one set of stampers that consistently wins our shootouts for One Eighty. Click on this link to see other titles with a single set of stamper numbers that always come out on top
This is smooth, rich analog at its best. Easy on the ears as we like to say.
This is clearly the poppier side of Ambrosia, containing two of their highest-charting mainstream hits, “Biggest Part of Me” (#3) and “You’re the Only Woman” (#13). I, myself, of course prefer the proggy first two albums, falling as they do into the broad category of Art Rock where my favorite albums by Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Roxy Music, Supertramp, 10cc, later-period Beatles, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Traffic and so many others from the last forty-plus years can be found.
The Music
One Eighty (recorded on 1/80, get it?) kicks off with a real rocker: “Ready,” which is a great name for an opening track and really gets the album off to a high-energy start. Side two opens with my favorite track on the album, “Livin’ On My Own.” I actually used to demonstrate my system with it: the bass is huge, way up in the mix and really punchy. Additionally there are powerful multi-tracked vocal harmonies in the chorus that are wall-to-wall, surprisingly dynamic, yet sweet (all things considered; this is a modern recording after all).
One Eighty has an excellent mix of rock and softer pop ballads. The last track, “Biggest Part Of Me,” no matter how many times you’ve heard it, on the radio or elsewhere, is an exceptionally well-produced (designed?) piece of songcraft that will tug at anyone’s heartstrings, anyone who has a heart that is (if I may quote the title of the best song Burt Bacharach ever wrote). On a big audiophile system it should be both powerful and emotional.
Of course that won’t be the case if you don’t like popular music. I’m glad to say I’m not the kind of snob who looks down his nose at a good soft rock hit. (I’m a snob in other ways of course; who isn’t?) I don’t mind admitting I enjoy the hell out a good Hall & Oates jam, and I positively love Bread. Ambrosia can and does hold their own with the best of these soft-rockers. And they usually sound better doing it.
What The Best Sides Of One Eighty 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 even as late as 1980
- 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 One Eighty
- Energy for starters. The best copies really come to life, most copies do not. Play any two pressings side by side and the energy levels should clearly be different, assuming you have a dynamic system and can play the album at good loud levels.
- 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.
- Edgy vocals. With so much multi-tracking, most copies have them to one degree or another. The better copies get rid of the edge while keeping the all-important breathiness and presence.
- 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.
Shooting Out the Tough Ones
Ambrosia albums always make for tough shootouts. Like Yes, a comparably radio-friendly Pop Prog band, their everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to recording make it difficult to translate their complex sounds to disc, vinyl or otherwise. Everything has to be tuned up and on the money before we can even hope to get the record sounding right. (Careful VTA adjustment could not be more critical in this respect.)
If we’re not hearing the sound we want, we keep messing with the adjustments until we do. There is no getting around sweating the details when sitting down to test a complex recording such as this. If you can’t stand the tweaking tedium, get out of the kitchen (or listening room as the case may be). Obsessing over every aspect of record reproduction is what we do for a living. Ambrosia’s recordings require us to be at the top of our game, both in terms of reproducing their albums as well as evaluating the merits of individual pressings.
When you love it, it’s not work, it’s fun. Tedious, occasionally exasperating fun.
We Love Ambrosia
Ambrosia easily makes the cut as one of the handful of bands to produce an immensely enjoyable and meaningful body of work throughout the 70s, music that holds up to this day. Their debut is still my All Time Favorite Album and has been for decades. The music on this album, so multi-faceted and multi-layered, will surely reward the listener who takes the time to dive deep into its sound. Repeated plays are the order of the day. The more you listen the more you will discover in these exceedingly dense mixes.
And the better your stereo gets the more you can appreciate the care and effort that went into the production of their recordings. The first two albums just cannot be beat — if you have the right pressings (the ones with the Hottest Stampers, of course). I would rate this one a step down from the first album and closer to the second, although in a very different way. Even after all these years, the best pressings still have the power to take you on a remarkable audio journey. (Big speakers will be a big help in this regard.)
Side One
Ready
Shape I’m In
Kamikaze
You’re the Only Woman
Rock N’ a Hard Place
Side Two
Livin’ on My Own
Cryin’ in the Rain
No Big Deal
Biggest Part of Me
AMG Review
The ballads are the album’s redeeming feature. They are all lovingly crafted and boast strong, often complex melodies that keep them from getting too sappy or sentimental: “You’re the Only Woman” is a keyboard-rich song that highlights Christopher North’s soulful Hammond organ playing, and “Livin’ on My Own” layers harmonies reminiscent of the Doobie Brothers over a jazzy tune driven by an intricate bassline.
The album’s finale, “Biggest Part of Me,” is the best of these ballads. It combines rich Beach Boys-styled harmonies with a heartfelt lyric to create a rich slice of blue-eyed soul that gave the group a number two hit single…