Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Who Available Now
Here is how we might typically describe one of our Shootout Winning copies:
Who By Numbers returns to the site for only the second time in over three years, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides of this vintage Polydor import pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too.
Glyn Johns‘s magic is on display here, with open mics in a big studio space creating the 3D soundscapes we love.
Features two of their most iconic songs, “Slip Kid” and “Squeezebox,” and both sound incredible on this copy.
To back it all up, here are the notes for that very copy.
We started playing track three on side one, Squeeze Box, and returned to that track when we had two top copies to play against each other in the final round. Which one won? The one with “the most body and tubes.”
Note that side two of this copy was slightly veiled compared to the side two of the best copy we played, the one that would go on to earn 3+.
We don’t like veiled records — records where there is a curtain, no matter how transparent, in front of the musicians. Heavy Vinyl pressings are typically quite veiled and recessed in the midrange compared to their vintage vinyl counterparts, and that sound is simply not going to cut it with us. (Other folks may prefer a different sound it seems.)
Midrange presence is one of the most important qualities of any rock or pop recording we evaluate. You want Roger Daltry to be front and center, neither recessed nor behind a veil.
Here It Comes
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.
Surprisingly, many of the most thrilling records we’ve ever played came from the same decade this record came from: the 60s.
Once you hear sound like this, you are not likely to forget it.
It sets a standard that modern remastered records simply cannot meet.
Side One
Slip Kid
However Much I Booze
Squeeze Box
Dreaming From the Waist
Imagine a Man
Side Two
Success Story
They Are All in Love
Blue Red and Grey
How Many Friends
In a Hand or a Face
