Hot Stamper Pressings of Rock Classics Available Now
The drums on this album are so solid, punchy and present, they put to shame 99% of the rock records on the planet.
As well as having great drums, the overall sound of the best pressings is raw, real and wonderfully unprocessed.
Here you will find none of the glossy artificiality you might hear on many of the rock and pop records we sell.
There’s nothing wrong with that sound, mind you, but this recording captures much more of what the real instruments sound like in the studio.
And, if you’re playing this album good and loud, you’ll feel like you’re in the room with the boys as they kick out the jams. “Ready For Love” sounds great here — shocking clarity, tons of ambience, and silky sweet highs.
This album was one of Ron Nevison‘s early engineering jobs.
The year before (1973) he had been behind the board at Ronnie Lane’s Mobile Studio for Quadrophenia, one of the best sounding Who albums we know of, and a longtime member of our Top 100 (as is this album).
He also knocked it out of the park on Bad Company’s follow-up, 1975’s Straight Shooter.
He worked on the sprawling mess that turned into Physical Graffiti the same year.
Want to find your own killer copy?
Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that tend to win our shootouts.
As of 2025, shootouts for this album should be carried out:
How else can you expect to hear this record at its best?
Based on our experience, Bad Company sounds its best:
What We Do
Our job here at Better Records is simply to find you those very special pressings that actually reproduce all the energy and rock n’ roll firepower that Nevison captured on tape all those years ago. It ain’t easy but we don’t mind doing it — these are clearly some of the Greatest Rock Albums of the ’70s (or any other decade you care to name) and we just never get tired of playing them.
Nevison went on to do many of the biggest selling rock albums of the ’80s, but The ’80s Sound has never held much appeal for us. This explains why you find so few recordings from the era on our site — silk purses, sow’s ears and all that.
Further Reading
Not to quibble, but Physical Graffiti was 1975. It was a good year for Ron Nevison.
Happy to stand corrected, thanks!