Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Ambrosia Available Now
This is smooth, rich ANALOG at its best.
Easy on the ears as we like to say.
One Eighty is clearly the poppier side of Ambrosia, containing as it does two of their highest-charting mainstream hits, Biggest Part of Me (#3) and You’re the Only Woman (#13).
I myself of course prefer the proggy first two albums, which fallinto the broad category of Art Rock, where my favorite albums by Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Roxy Music, Supertramp, 10cc, later-period Beatles, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Traffic and so many others from the last forty-plus years can be found.
These artists’ recordings tend to be big, powerful and exceedingly hard to reproduce, which, probably more than anything else, accounts for my becoming a serious stereo enthusiast right out of my teens.
(My mother had to co-sign the loan I needed to purchase the currently-state-of-the-art ARC SP3A-1 preamp I coveted. I remember it being $600+ at a time, back when I was earning roughly $2 an hour. That had to hurt, but I did it. Bought a D-75 amp after I paid it off too.)
The Music
One Eighty (recorded on 1/80, get it?) kicks off with a real rocker: Ready, which is a great name for an opening track and really gets the album off to a high-energy start. Side two opens with my favorite track on the album, Livin’ On My Own. I actually used to demonstrate my system with it: the bass is huge, way up in the mix and really punchy. Additionally there are powerful multi-tracked vocal harmonies in the chorus that are wall-to-wall, surprisingly dynamic, yet sweet (all things considered; this is a modern recording after all).
One Eighty has an excellent mix of rock and softer pop ballads. The last track, Biggest Part Of Me, no matter how many times you’ve heard it, on the radio or elsewhere, is an exceptionally well-produced (designed?) piece of songcraft that will tug at anyone’s heartstrings, anyone who has a heart that is (if I may quote the title of the best song Burt Bacharach ever wrote). On a big audiophile system it should be both powerful and emotional.
Of course that won’t be the case if you don’t like popular music. I’m glad to say I’m not the kind of snob who looks down his nose at a good soft rock hit. (I’m a snob in other ways of course; who isn’t?) I don’t mind admitting I enjoy the hell out a good Hall & Oates jam, and I positively love Bread.
Ambrosia can and does hold their own with the best of these soft-rockers. And they usually sound better doing it. (Although Bread is hard to beat for recording quality.)
I Love Ambrosia
Ambrosia easily makes the cut as one of the handful of bands to produce an immensely enjoyable and meaningful body of work throughout the ’70s, music that holds up to this day. Their debut is still my All Time Favorite Album and has been for close to thirty years. The music on this album, so multi-faceted and multi-layered, will surely reward the listener who takes the time to dive deep into its sound. Repeated plays are the order of the day. The more you listen the more you will discover in these exceedingly dense mixes.
And the better your stereo gets the more you can appreciate the care and effort that went into the production of their recordings. The first two albums just cannot be beat — if you have the right pressings (the ones with the Hottest Stampers of course). I would rate this one a step down from the first album and closer to the second, although in a very different way. Even after all these years, the best pressings still have the power to take you on a remarkable audio journey. (Big speakers will be a big help in this regard.)
Side One
Ready
Shape I’m In
Kamikaze
You’re the Only Woman
Rock N’ a Hard Place
Side Two
Livin’ on My Own
Cryin’ in the Rain
No Big Deal
Biggest Part of Me
Further Reading