Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:
A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE
In 1975, after reading a rave review for Siren, their fifth album in Rolling Stone, I took the plunge, bought a copy at my local Tower Records and instantly fell in love with it. I was 21 at the time and that album completely knocked me out. I had never heard anything like it. I knew nothing about the band or their style of music, now known as Art Rock, but it quickly became my favorite genre, and still is.
Naturally I proceeded to work my way through their earlier catalog, which was quite an adventure. It takes scores of plays to understand where the band is coming from on the early albums and what it is they’re trying to accomplish. I spent years trying to get into For Your Pleasure (the lesser of the two albums with Eno in the band), but eventually I wrapped my head around it and learned to enjoy what it has to offer.
The first three albums are by far the band’s best sounding.
Now I listen to each of the first five releases on a regular basis, as well as Avalon, Viva! Roxy Music, a few later albums and many of the Ferry solo releases. It’s probably true that I play Roxy Music and Roxy Music-adjacent albums more than those of any other band. That might have something to do with the fact that even after more than fifty years, this band’s music never seems to get old.
Robert is correct when he points out that Roxy’s early work does not seem to find much favor with the record buying public these days, not even with audiophiles who, one would think, would be attracted to the phenomenal recording quality of the early albums.
As a lifelong fan I have put Better Records’ substantial resources to work in order to find, clean and play as many Roxy Music albums as we can find willing buyers for. There turn out to be fewer buyers than I would have liked, to be sure, but enough to keep their albums on the site and potentially create some new fans, which should be a lot easier now that we know which are the best sounding pressings for all their albums.
Two of their first five albums happen to sound their best on the original UK Island pressings. In the 70s I doubt I had ever even seen an original UK Island Sunray pressing. At some point in the early-80s I finally chanced upon a Pink Label Tea for the Tillerman. Paid $3.99 for it as a matter of fact, and was proud of the fact that I snagged one for so cheap that I left the sticker on it. It may in fact still be on the shelves as a ref. Where Do the Children Play had a minute-long scratch which would have made it hard to sell, but I didn’t care, the sound of that album was a game-changer.
One quick note: if you adhere to record collecting conventional wisdom while pursuing the original British pressings of their first five albums, you will at best bat .400. There are five, and you will get two right. In short, you have a greater chance of being wrong than being right.
With albums as important as these, we were never going to stop until we figured out which were the best sounding pressings for all of their records, which I take pride in saying we managed to do by 2015 or thereabouts, a mere forty years after I bought my first Roxy Music album, Siren. These things take time!
Discovering the amazingly dynamic and huge sound to be found on the best pressings of the first album, as well the original and powerful music it contained, was every bit as big a revelation as playing Siren in 1975 and discovering the ideas behind the Art Rock movement. I can’t credit Roxy’s albums with helping me make progress in audio.
I never tuned and tweaked my system using their recordings; there were plenty of others I could use. But I did want my stereo to do a better job of reproducing the size and energy of their recordings, and I did spend a great deal of time pursuing scores of pressings in order to discover the ones that had more potential for better sound.
Roxy’s albums changed my life and they just might change yours. Please try one or two of the albums not named Avalon.
If you don’t like them, send them back for a full refund. I don’t remember anyone ever returning an album of theirs because they were dissatisfied with the music, but I can’t say it hasn’t happened.
And I would never let such a thing bother me. Their music isn’t for everyone. Music is extremely personal. Nobody understands why I like this album so much — released in 1975, a bit of a coincidence there — and at this point I have more or less given up trying to make the case.
From Our Current Review
Spacious, dynamic, present, with huge meaty bass and tons of energy, the sound is every bit as good as the music. (At least on this copy it is. That’s precisely what Hot Stampers are all about.)
Strictly in terms of recording quality, For Your Pleasure is on the same plane as the other best sounding record the band ever made, their self-titled debut.
Siren, Avalon and Country Life are all musically sublime, but the first album and this one are the only two with the kind of dynamic, energetic, powerful sound that Roxy’s other records simply cannot show us (with the exception of Country Life, was is powerful but a bit too aggressive).
The super-tubey keyboards that anchor practically every song on the first two albums are only found there. If you want to know what Tubey Magic sounds like in 1972-73, play one of our better Hot Stamper Roxy albums.
Roxy and their engineers and producers manage to capture a keyboard sound on their first two albums that few bands in the history of the world can lay claim to. I love the band’s later albums, but none of them sound like these two. The closest one can get is Stranded, their third, but it’s still a bit of a step down.
Robert’s Approach
Robert has methodically and carefully — one might even say scientifically — approached the various problems he’s encountered in this hobby by doing the following:
- Improving his equipment,
- Teaching himself how to do a better job of dialing in his turntable setup.
- Learning how to do controlled shootouts for his favorite albums, and, most importantly of all:
- Carefully testing every aspect of audio and records empirically, using his ears — and nothing else — to guide him.
- Sometimes Robert has an interesting take on some aspect of records or audio which we have found consistently worth reading and can surely recommend highly.