Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of James Taylor Available Now
Musically this is one of Taylor’s best. Every track is good and many are wonderful. (More on that here.)
There are five or six James Taylor records that are Desert Island Discs for me. I know they probably wouldn’t let me take six of the same artists’ records to my island, but I would hope they would make an exception for James Taylor’s LPs, because they really do set a standard that few other popular performers can meet.
JT is an album we think we know well, one that checks off a number of boxes for us here at Better Records:
- It’s a personal favorite
- It’s a Masterpiece of rock and pop
- It’s one of James Taylor’s best sounding albums
- It’s a Demo Disc for big speakers that play at loud levels
- It’s part of the core collection of well recorded rock & pop albums
The average copy of this record is dreadful. All the recuts that were done by Columbia that I’ve ever played are garbage. There are at least 6 different stampers for both sides one and two that are cut by The Mastering Lab, and it’s very unusual to find two good sides, let alone two AMAZING sides like this one has.
Want to find your own top quality copy?
Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that tend to win our shootouts.
As of 2024, this album sounds best to us this way:
Of course it does!
Further Reading
- More helpful advice on doing your own shootouts
- Our playback system (and why you shouldn’t care)
- Do I already have some Hot Stamper pressings in my collection?
