Hot Stamper Pressings of Rock and Pop Albums Available Now
UPDATE 2026
This review was written in 2010 or so. As embarrassing as it may be in some audiophile’s eyes, I think I actually owned the very pressing we reviewed. If it sounded better than whatever random domestic copy I had managed to find, not knowing anything about pressings variations back in those days (1980), I would keep the Half-Speed in my collection since it was clearly superior.
I did that with many of the records I owned long after I should have known better, including a favorite of mine, Powerful People. When my stereo finally got good enough to show me what MoFi had actually done to the sound, I was mortified, and rightly so. But all through the 80s and 90s I cannot deny that I played that Mobile Fidelity pressing plenty and loved every minute of it.
Back to Guilty
You may find this hard to believe, but I am actually a big fan of Bab’s Guilty album. It’s definitely the only Streisand record I would have in my collection, if I still had a record collection.
And if I still had a record collection, lots of Radio-Friendly Pop albums like these would be in it because I love many of the album that belong to that genre, from Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66, to Bread, to Loggins and Messina and Hall and Oates. We even have some for sale on the site as Hot Stamper pressings.
AMG loves it too, which is good to see:
The biggest selling album of Barbra Streisand’s career is also one of her least characteristic. The album was written and produced by Barry Gibb in association with his brothers and the producers of the Bee Gees, and in essence it sounds like a post-Saturday Night Fever Bee Gees album with vocals by Streisand.
Gibb adapted his usual style somewhat, especially in slowing the tempos and leaving more room for the vocal, but his melodic style and the backup vocals, even when they are not sung by the Bee Gees, are typical of them. Still, the record was more hybrid than compromise, and the chart-topping single “Woman in Love” has a sinuous feel that is both right for Streisand and new for her.
Other hits were the title song and “What Kind of Fool,” both duets with Gibb. (The song “Guilty” won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal by Duo or Group.)
Although we liked it just fine, especially the track What Kind of Fool, my favorite of all her songs, this title unfortunately did not get much love from our customers.
Years ago it was tagged on the blog as a never again album, which simply means we no longer planned on doing shootouts for it. (It’s possible we could do it again, expecially if we were to get hold of an amazing sounding pressing, but at this point that does not seem to be in the cards as we have stopped buying them altogether.)
Just don’t waste your money on this Half-Speed cash grab. The original domestic pressings, when you find a good one, are worlds better, and you can be sure they won’t cost you much.
This title is yet another audiophile hall of shame pressing. It’s better suited to the stone age stereos of decades past.
The two CBS Half Speeds of the album that we played had very different sound. Imagine that! Our story:
We had two copies of the CBS Half-Speed in stock, and having just done a big shootout for the album, we decided to play them to see how they stood up against The Real Thing, the real thing in this case being a pretty common pressing: a plain old Columbia original.
One copy was dead as a doornail, so smooth, opaque and lifeless it would have put you to sleep.
The other literally sounded like a CD, and not a very good one at that.
Grungy, gritty, hard and cold, it was everything we analog lovers hate about digital.
We grade both copies F for Failing. If you want a good sounding one steer clear of the CBS Half Speed
Side One
Guilty
Woman in Love
Run Wild
Promises
The Love Inside
Side Two
What Kind of Fool
Life Story
Never Give Up
Make It Like a Memory