Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Phil Collins Available Now
We described our most recent shootout-winning pressing this way:
An early UK copy of Phil Collins’s killer solo debut with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to a nearly as good side one.
The recording of this album is still analog and the quality is excellent, thanks to hugely talented engineer and producer Hugh Padgham (Peter Gabriel, Genesis, The Police, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, etc.).
Song after song, Collins’s songwriting and musicianship shine with this breakout record, the first and clearly the best of all his solo albums. The sound on the better copies is vibrant, with superb extension on the top, punchy bass, and excellent texture on the drums and percussion, as well as spacious strings and vocals.
Side two was killer in every way, and the way we know that is we played a bunch of copies and nothing could beat it. This side two took top honors for having exactly the sound we described above.
For Those About to Rock
Of special interest to those of you who would like to do your own shootouts for the album are some of the specific notes we took:
The third track is “much less pinched,” with the most warmth and the least hardness.
Those are the areas that set this killer side two apart — it wasn’t as pinched and hard as most copies, and it had more warmth. Listen for those three things on the third track of the second side and you might just find it’s a lot easier to pick a winner.
Side one was doing great in many areas. Track three (again) was punchy, rich and relaxed, with no hardness.
It had most, but not all of the weight.
Same story as side two. Listen for all those qualities, especially hardness and how much weight you can hear on the first side. You will need big speakers to do this shootout, and don’t be afraid to turn them up.
This is exactly why we do shootouts. If you really want to be able to recognize subtle (and not so subtle!) differences between pressings, you must learn to do them too. And make sure to take notes about what you are hearing, good and bad.
You know what’s unusual about these notes?
They’re the kind of notes we’ve never written for any Heavy Vinyl reissue, even for the one that won our shootout not long ago.
They are the kind of notes that make it clear to us what a sham the modern Heavy Vinyl pressing tends to be, even those that are done right.
No modern record we’ve ever played has ever had anything even approaching this kind of big as life sound, and we doubt one ever will.
Records like this vintage vinyl pressing are thrilling in a way that very, very few records ever are.
Many of the most thrilling records we’ve ever played came from the same decade this record came from: the 70s.
(Other phenomenally good Must Own rock and pop titles from 1970 can be found here.)
Once you hear sound like this, you are not likely to forget it.
It sets a standard that the modern remastered pressing simply cannot meet.
Further Reading