Two audiophile hall of shame titles, and another two Sundazed records reviewed and found seriously wanting.
We got hold of a minty original pressing of the first Love album back around 2007, so in preparation for the commentary I pulled one of the Sundazed pressings off the shelf, (Forever Changes, the only one we ever bothered to sell), cracked it open and threw it on the turntable.
Gag, what a piece of crap. When I had auditioned them all those years ago (2002), it was — I’m not kidding — the best of the bunch.
The sound to me back then was nothing special, but not bad. Knowing how rare the originals were, we gave it a lukewarm review and put it in the catalog, the single Sundazed Love album that (just barely) made the cut.
Now I wish I hadn’t, because no one should have to suffer through sound that bad. Here’s what I wrote for the shootout:
You’d never know it from those dull Sundazed reissues, but the right pressings of Love albums are full of Tubey Magic! With Bruce Botnick at the controls you can expect a meaty bottom end and BIG rock sound, and this recording really delivers on both counts.
With Sundazed mastering engineers running the show, you can expect none of the above.
No Tubey Magic, no meaty bottom end, no big rock sound.
After the shootout, I took the two copies we had in stock right down to my local record store and traded them in.
I didn’t want them in my house, let alone on my site.
I’m glad that title didn’t sell very well because now I feel I owe a personal apology to anyone who might have bought one from me, thinking they were getting a half-way decent record.
They were getting no such thing. They were getting a piece of garbage.
A textbook case of live and learn.
We were still selling Heavy Vinyl when these badly remastered records came out in 2001, but a six years later we had had enough of the sonically-challenged titles being foisted on the public.
It was right then and there that we decided to focus all our energies on finding good vintage vinyl for our audiophile customers.
In 2007 we took the question we had asked rhetorically above and turned it into a full-blown commentary.
Looking back, 2007 turned out to be a milestone year for us here as Better Records.
If you are stuck in a Heavy Vinyl rut, we can help you get out of it. We did precisely that for these folks, and we can do it for you.
The best way out of your predicament is to hear how mediocre these modern records sound compared to the vintage Hot Stamper pressings we offer (or that you can find for yourself).
Once you hear the difference, your days of buying newly remastered releases will most likely be over.
Even if our curated pressings are too pricey, you can avail yourself of the methods we use to find killer records on your own.
Further Reading