Debut Albums

Whitney Houston – Self-Titled

More of the Music of Whitney Houston

  • Stunning sound for Whitney’s debut LP, with both sides earning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • This album has the kind of smooth, rich, tonally correct analog sound we thought they had forgotten how to record by 1985 – but here it is, thank goodness
  • Consistently strong material: “You Give Good Love,” “Saving All My Love for You,” “How Will I Know,” “All At Once,” and “Greatest Love Of All” (the last of seven (!) singles released from the album)
  • 5 stars: “…introduced the world to ‘The Voice,’ an octave-spanning, gravity-defying melismatic marvel.”

The copies that do well in our shootouts have qualities common to many of the other male and female Hot Stamper vocal pressings we offer. The better copies are big, rich, clear and transparent, with breathy, immediate vocals.

Hardness, thinness, shrillness and the like — the kind of sound you would expect from a 1985 recording — will be very costly for any copy we play. I’m sure that sound can be found on the CD, and for a lot less money.

Energy and enthusiasm are key as well. You want to get the feeling that Whitney is really putting her all into these songs, and the better copies let you do that.

Space and depth are nice to have; otherwise you might as well be listening to the radio.

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America – Self-Titled

More of the Music of America

  • One of our favorite Hippie Folk Rock albums – the instruments and voices are so well recorded they will seem to be floating right in front of you
  • The Tubey Magical acoustic guitars on this record are a true test of stereo reproduction – thanks Ken Scott
  • Marks and problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 4 stars: “America’s debut album is a folk-pop classic, a stellar collection of memorable songs that would prove influential on such acts as the Eagles and Dan Fogelberg…”
  • If I had to compile a list of my favorite rock and pop albums from 1971, this album would definitely be on it

This is clearly America’s best album. You’ll find the kind of immediacy, richness and harmonic texture that not many records (and even fewer CDs) are capable of reproducing. The version we are offering here has the song “A Horse With No Name.” Some copies without that song can sound very good as well, but with grades this good, this copy is going to be very hard to beat.

Interestingly, “A Horse With No Name” never sounds quite as good as the rest of the album. It was recorded in 1971, after the album had already been released, and subsequently added to newer pressings starting in 1972. Unlike the rest of the album, it was not engineered by Ken Scott at Trident, but by a different engineer at Morgan Studios. The engineer of that song took a different approach to that which Scott had taken, and we leave it to you to decide how well it worked out.

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Spirit’s Psych Rock Masterpiece (The First of Two)

More Psychedelic Rock

  • Wall to wall, with layered studio depth like you will not believe, the kind of space you hear on an engineering classic like Dark Side of the Moon
  • 4 1/2 stars on Allmusic, but in our estimation it deserves five – it’s simply one of the All Time Greats from the era
  • We’ve recently compiled a list of records we think every audiophile should get to know better, along the lines of “the 1001 records you need to hear before you die,” with an accent on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. Spirit’s First Album is a good example of a record many audiophiles may not know well but would be well advised to get to know better.
  • If I were to make a list of my favorite Rock and Pop albums from 1968, this album would definitely be on it, close to the top I should think.

Need a refresher course in Tubey Magic after playing too many modern recordings or remasterings? These Ode pressings are overflowing with it. Rich, smooth, sweet, full of ambience, dead-on correct tonality — everything that we listen for in a great record is here.

No recordings will ever be made that sound like this again, and no CD will ever capture what is in the grooves of this record. There is of course a CD of this album, quite a few I would guess, but those of us with a good turntable could care less. (more…)

Led Zeppelin / Self-Titled

More Led Zeppelin

  • A truly excellent import of Zep’s amazing debut with outstanding sound from first note to last
  • Arguably the biggest, clearest and most Tubey Magical Zeppelin album ever recorded, thanks to the engineering genius of Glyn Johns (and production genius of Jimmy Page, who paid for the whole thing out of his own pocket)
  • Just look at the track list – the lucky owner of this LP will be hearing those songs come to life like never before
  • The band’s first album is a permanent member of our Top 100 and a Big Speaker Demo Disc like you will not believe
  • 5 stars: “Taking the heavy, distorted electric blues of Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and Cream to an extreme… But the key to the group’s attack was subtlety: it wasn’t just an onslaught of guitar noise, it was shaded and textured, filled with alternating dynamics and tempos.”

For the real Led Zep magic, you just can’t do much better than their debut — and here’s a copy that really shows you why. From the opening chords of “Good Times Bad Times” to the wild ending of “How Many More Times” (“times” start the album and end it, too, it seems) this copy will have you rockin’ out!

Both sides have the BIG ZEP SOUND. Right from the start we noticed how clean the cymbals sounded and how well-defined the bass was, after hearing way too many copies with smeared cymbals and blubbery bass.

When you have a tight, punchy copy like this one, “Good Times Bad Times” does what it is supposed to do — it really rock! With this much life, it’s lightyears ahead of the typically dull, dead, boring copy. The drum sound is perfection.

Drop the needle on “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” to hear how amazing Robert Plant’s voice sounds. It’s breathy and full-bodied with in-the-room presence. The overall sound is warm, rich, sweet, and very analog, with tons of energy. “Dazed and Confused” sounds just right — you’re gonna flip out over all the ambience!

“Communication Breakdown” sounds superb — the sound of Jimmy Page’s guitar during the solo is shockingly good.

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The Police – Outlandos d’Amour

More of The Police

  • This copy was giving us the sound we were looking for on the band’s debut album, with both sides earning very good Hot Stamper grades – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Few audiophiles (I’m guessing) know how well recorded this album is – you need just the right UK pressing to show you what’s really on the tape
  • “Roxanne,” “So Lonely,” “Can’t Stand Losing You” all sound quite good on these two sides
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Although Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland were all superb instrumentalists with jazz backgrounds, it was much easier to get a record contract in late-70s England if you were a punk/new wave artist, so the band decided to mask their instrumental prowess with a set of strong, adrenaline-charged rock, albeit with a reggae tinge.”

What’s amazing about this copy? There are sweet highs and ambience that we didn’t think were possible — and it rocks! Whatever it’s doing, it sure doesn’t take a pair of golden ears to hear it.

Not only does the high end exist, but it sounds sweet and doesn’t rip your ears out of your earsockets (trust me, I’m a doctor). This is vitally important in songs like “Roxanne,” where Andy Summers’ reggae influenced guitar can sound squawky and brittle if there is too much compression.

Sting’s vocals are detailed, present, and you can really hear his background vocals separate themselves away from the lead, obvious on this copy in a denser track like “So Lonely.”

There’s a ton of punchy bass which actually equates to a ton of life and energy on this album. If Stewart Copeland’s kick drum isn’t punching you in the chest, then you’re missing out on some of the fun. We even heard ambience around the cymbals, and that is information most copies of the album simply cannot resolve.

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Phoebe Snow – Self-Titled

More Singer-Songwriter Albums

  • Snow’s self-titled debut appears on the site for the first time ever, here with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound throughout this vintage Shelter pressing
  • It’s richer, smoother yet still very clear and highly resolving in precisely the way so few copies are
  • The sonics are rich, warm and natural, with wonderful transparency, ambience and an abundance of Tubey Magic
  • This is a title I have been pursuing since the 90s, with nothing to show for it until now
  • Pressing after pressing let us down for decades, but we finally made the breakthrough we needed, and now we have copies of the album that sound the way you’ve been waiting to hear them
  • 4 1/2 stars: “If anyone has bridged the gap between Joni Mitchell and Aretha Franklin, it’s Snow, who is as confident on the soul-influenced “Good Times” as she is on the introspective jazz offering “Harpo’s Blues.”

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Eric Carmen – Self-Titled

More Rock and Pop

  • Boasting two superb Double Plus (A++) sides, we guarantee you’ve never heard Carmen’s 1975 solo debut sound remotely as good as it does on this early Arista pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Surprisingly rich and smooth, with excellent bass and the kind of breathy immediacy to the vocals that only vintage vinyl can offer
  • You get lovely extension up top, good weight down low, as well as exceptional transparency in the midrange, all qualities that were much less evident on the average copy we played
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs – those on “My Girl” are especially bad – but if you can tough those out, this copy is going to blow your mind

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The Tubes – Self-Titled

More of The Tubes

  • The Tubes’ self-titled debut returns to the site after an eighteen month hiatus, here with with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish
  • This copy is simply bigger, richer, fuller, and livelier than practically all others we played
  • Their music is definitely not for everyone – I saw them live many years ago and they did put on one helluva show, but you have to be a fan of eccentric pop or none of it will make any sense
  • This is the band’s best sounding album as far as we know. Roughly 100 other listings for the best sounding album by an artist or group can be found here
  • In our opinion, the first album is the only Tubes record anyone needs. Click on the link to see more titles we like to call one and done
  • “Produced by Al Kooper, this debut by the notorious San Francisco group is best known for the blazing anthem ‘White Punks on Dope.’ Although the Tubes’ raison d’être was their shock-rock stage dynamic, Bill Spooner, Fee Waybill, and company could, on occasion, deliver some offbeat pop splendor.”

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Terence Trent D’Arby – Introducing the Hardline According To…

More Soul, Blues, and R&B

  • D’Arby’s debut LP (one of only a handful of copies to ever hit the site), here with very good Hot Stamper sound from first note to last – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • We guarantee there is more space, richness, presence, and performance energy on this copy than others you’ve heard or you get your money back 
  • 4 stars: “Although the production is quite modern, d’Arby shows his roots in the work of older artists, borrowing a page or two from Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, while James Brown appears to have had the strongest influence on d’Arby’s stage presence.”

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Brewer & Shipley / Down In L.A.

More Brewer and Shipley

  • Brewer & Shipley’s debut LP is back on the site for only the second time in years, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them throughout this vintage A&M pressing
  • Fairly quiet vinyl too – we can hardly believe that we found one that plays like a normal rock and pop record after finding one stitchy, ticky, groove-damaged pressing after another for the last ten years
  • Side one has the smooth sweet analog sound we were listening for – it’s rich and tubey, with clarity and freedom from smear that make it the best of both worlds, and side two is not far behind in all those areas
  • “Of all the many folkys to make a transition to electric folk-rock in the 1960s, Brewer & Shipley retained more of the wholesome qualities of early-60s folk revival harmonizing than almost anyone.”

Brewer and Shipley’s first and only release for A&M has long been a Desert Island Disc in my world. I consider it one of the top debuts of all time, although it’s doubtful many will agree with me about that since I have yet to meet anyone who has ever even heard of this album, let alone felt as passionate as I do about it.

To me this is a classic of Hippie Folk Rock, along the lines of The Grateful Dead circa American Beauty, surely a touchstone for the genre. It’s overflowing with carefully-crafted (B and S apparently were obsessive perfectionists in the studio) inspired material and beautifully harmonized voices backed by (mostly) acoustic guitars. The Beatles pulled it off masterfully on Help and Rubber Soul.

All three are built on the same folk pop sensibilities. Tarkio, album number three, is clearly the duo’s masterpiece, but this record comes next in my book, followed by Weeds, their second album and first for Kama Sutra. After Tarkio it’s all downhill.

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