*Discoveries, Rock, Pop, Soul

Records we’ve “discovered” with exceptional sound.

Dionne Warwick / Very Dionne

More Pop and Jazz Vocal Recordings

More Recordings Engineered by Phil Ramone

  • You’ll find solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it throughout this vintage Scepter pressing (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in years)
  • This side one is superb – the bass is tight and punchy, the strings have lots of texture, and the background vocals are clean and clear, and side two is not far behind in all those areas
  • The midrange is full of that old analog Tubey Magic (particularly on side one), courtesy of Larry Levine and Phil Ramone, the kind that has completely disappeared from the modern record (even the modern reissue of a vintage record)
  • Note that the first track on side one simply does not sound good for some reason – we’re not sure what happened there but a screwup in the studio is our guess
  • “The album’s wide variety of styles summed up much of what made Warwick’s back catalog so universally appealing. In addition to a handful of new Burt Bacharach and Hal David sides, the platter boasts tasteful reworkings of pop music staples. One unmitigated zenith is ‘I Got Love’ from the Ossie Davis Broadway production Purlie. Once again, Warwick — under [Marty] Paich’s direction — equals if not surpasses Melba Moore’s stage presentation.”

Folks, don’t expect to see records like this coming to the site too often. We can’t find them anymore in this kind of clean condition, so if you like the lovely Ms Warwick, consider taking this one home and giving her (the record, not Dionne) a spin on your table.

Notice how the limiter on Dionne’s microphone is working overtime. She is practically shouting into it but it never seems to get much louder. Still the energy and the passion come through clearly. That’s the sign of a well-recorded vocal track.

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Ray Charles / All Time Great Country and Western Hits – Better Sound than the Originals? Can It Really Be True?

More Ray Charles

More Soul, Blues and R&B

  • These vintage ABC pressings boast superb Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it on all FOUR sides
  • If you could only have one Ray Charles album, it would have to be this one – you’ll have a hard time doing better than this very copy
  • What was especially shocking about this shootout is that in some ways the better sounding copies of the reissue not just the equal of, but actually best their original album counterparts
  • 22 classic songs on two LPs, including huge hits like “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “You Don’t Know Me,” “Oh Lonesome Me,” “Bye Bye Love,” and much more – no wonder AMG gave both discs 5 stars
  • This is some big, bold, absolutely glorious Tubey Magical analog (particularly on sides one, two and four) – the tape to disc transfer is hard to fault, making a mockery of the audiophile remasters to come
  • There are some bad marks (as is sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs) on “You Win Again” and “Some Day,” but once you hear just how excellent sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and just be swept away by the music

The music is wonderful. Just listen to that swingin’ horn section behind Ray on Hey, Good Lookin’. They are hot! And Bye Bye Love just plain ROCKS.

Both these LPs have the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern pressings cannot BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing any sign of coming back. (more…)

War / Why Can’t We Be Friends? – Amazing Demo Disc Sound

More War

This Well Recorded Album Should Be More Popular with Audiophiles

  • A vintage copy (only the second to hit the site in over two and a half years) that was doing just about everything right, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom
  • The best song this band ever recorded, “Don’t Let No One Get You Down,” is on side one we guarantee you’ve never heard it sound better
  • WCWBF is one of our favorite albums here at Better Records and clearly the band’s masterpiece – the bass and dynamics on the better pressings make this a Demo Disc on a big system
  • 4 stars [but we give it 5]: “Cut from the same cloth as the band’s 1973 Deliver the Word LP, War’s 1975 Why Can’t We Be Friends? is a masterpiece in its scope and breadth. [It] remains one of War’s truly outstanding efforts, and has become an integral part of the funk genre’s landscape. It also remains the nightcap of their finest hour.”
  • This is a Must Own title from 1975, a great year for popular music of all kinds
  • 1975 was an exceptionally good year for music — here are some other excellent pressings of well-recorded albums available now

Engineered by the brilliant Chris Huston, this recording displays all his trademark gifts. His mixes feature lots of bass; huge, room-filling choruses that get loud without straining or becoming congested; and rhythmic energy that few pop recordings could lay claim to in 1975.

“Low Rider” sounds awesome on this one. This is the kind of record you can take to any stereo store or audiophile friend’s house and bring their stereos to their knees. Audiophile systems are rarely designed to play this kind of music at the levels it demands, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be. Records like this are the challenge we audiophiles need to make our stereos even better. When the music is this good, it’s worth the effort.

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10cc / Sheet Music – Their Brilliant Second Album

More 10cc

More Art Rock

  • Boasting two solid Double Plus (A++) sides, we guarantee you’ve never 10cc’s pop masterpiece sound remotely as good as it does on this original UK import copy
  • Rich, full-bodied, with sound that just jumps out of the speakers, this is a truly amazing Demo Disc on the order of Crime of the Century or Dark Side of the Moon
  • If you don’t know 10cc’s music well, this is probably the best place to start – you just might find yourself as big a fan as we are here at Better Records
  • Bassist Graham Gouldman calls it “the definitive 10cc album” and he’s probably right about that (although we love The Original Soundtrack that came out a year later)
  • “Three hit singles spun off the record, and most of the other tracks could have followed suit; it says much for Sheet Music’s staying power that, no matter how many times the album is reissued, it has never lost its power to delight, excite, and set alight a lousy day.”
  • 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. Sheet Music is a good example of a record many audiophiles may not know well but might benefit from getting to know better

Sheet Music is, in our opinion, the most consistently well-written and produced 10cc album, with every track performed with heart and recorded with exquisite attention to detail. Each song flows into the next and there is simply not a dull moment to be found. Sheet Music is arguably the best record they ever made, although I’m such a fan, I think they’re all great. (The first five albums anyway.)

Eric Stewart, Studio Wizard

Those of you who have gotten a kick out of our Deceptive Bends or The Original Soundtrack albums are obviously going to find a lot to like here. If you are not familiar with this recording, you will find few rock records as dynamic, immediate, punchy and as full of ambience and openness as this. Eric Stewart was and is a studio wizard and he worked his magic big time on this album.

This is the kind of recording where the sound really JUMPS out of the speakers. It reminds me of Crime Of The Century that way. It’s also one of the most DYNAMIC popular recordings I know of. If this album doesn’t wake up your system, it’s time to scrap it and get a new one.

One of the many elements that combine to push this album well beyond the bounds of most popular recordings is the thought and care that went into the soundstaging. Listen to the stereo separation on any track — the sound of each instrument has been carefully considered within the context of the arrangement and placed in a specific location within the sound field for a reason, usually for MAXIMUM EFFECT.

That’s why we LOVE 10cc. Their recordings from this era are an audiophile dream come true. Compare that to some of the stereo mixes for the Beatles albums, where an instrument or vocal seems to panned to one channel or another not because it SHOULD be, but because it COULD be. With 10cc those hard-left, hard-right effects make the songs JUMP. They call attention to themselves precisely because the band is having a blast in the studio, showing off all the tricks they have up their sleeves. They want you to get as big a kick out of hearing them as they did conjuring them up.

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Donovan – In Concert

More Donovan

More Hippie Folk Rock

  • In Concert is back on the site for only the second time in over three years, here with seriously good Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this original copy – with VERY quiet vinyl for this album, too
  • A shockingly well recorded live set, so real and natural, with some of Donovan’s best songs played with real feeling
  • This early Epic stereo pressing is the only way to hear the midrange magic that’s missing from modern records, but rarely can that sound be found on vinyl as quiet as this
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The only album that comes close to having the flow of this concert was the studio recording of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks … One of the great live albums of the 60s.”

Rich, smooth, sweet, full of ambience, dead-on correct tonality — everything that we listen for in a great record is here. You could certainly demonstrate your stereo with a record this good, even one that’s not nearly this good, because this one is superb.

But what you would really be demonstrating is music that the listener probably hasn’t heard, and that’s the best excuse to show off your stereo.

Midrange presence and immediacy are key to the sound. Get the volume just right and Donovan himself will be standing between your speakers and putting on the performance of a lifetime.

Donovan’s no longer a recording — he’s a living, breathing person. We call that “the breath of life,” and this record has it in spades. His voice is so rich, sweet, and free of artificiality you cannot help but find yourself lost in the music, because there’s no “sound” to distract you.

The Music

There are a lot of Donovan records out there, but not a lot of them that sound like this! On top of that you get a great set of songs, including “Mellow Yellow,” “Isle Of Islay,” “Celeste,” and “First There Is A Mountain” (the song that became the main riff of the Allman Brothers’ famous Mountain Jam). Get in touch with your inner flower child and spin this Hot Stamper pressing overflowing with trippy hippie magic.

We discovered a while back just what an excellent recording this is and now we know how magical the better copies can sound. Only the very better pressings were able to convey the kind of natural, immediate sound that is the hallmark of the recording.

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Captain Beefheart – Clear Spot

More Rock and Pop

More and Pop Rock Masterpieces

  • Clear Spot returns to the site with outstanding Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides of this vintage import pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Big, rich, energetic, with plenty of analog Tubey Magic, this is clearly the right sound for this music
  • An exceedingly difficult album to find in with sonics this good and vinyl this quiet, which is the main reason it’s been years since we’ve been able to offer it
  • Produced by Ted Templeman, Clear Spot is one of Beefheart’s most accessible albums and, IMHO, his best – this is his masterpiece
  • 4 stars: “The sound is great throughout, and the feeling is of the coolest bar-band in town, not to mention one that could eat all the patrons for breakfast if it felt like it.”
  • This is our pick for the Captain’s best sounding album. Roughly 150 other listings for the best recording by an artist or group can be found here on the blog
  • This is a Must Own album from 1972, one that deserves a place in any audiophile’s collection

Two outstanding sides for this masterpiece of bent rock. It’s not easy to find great sound for this album — that’s why you seldom see it up on our site. There are a whole lot of problematic pressings out there, but when you find one that really gets it right the sound is nothing short of SUPERB.

Ted Is The Man

The producer, Ted Templeman (Doobie Brothers, James Taylor), brought his mainstream talents to bear on this music, and when the Captain’s free-form tendencies smashed into Templeman’s conservatism the result was this musical supernova — out there, but not too far out there. (Play Trout Mask Replica sometime if you miss that feeling from your old hippie days of being on acid. With that music drugs are entirely superfluous.) I don’t know how many audiophiles like Captain Beefheart, but if you’re ever going to try, this is the place to start.

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Marty Robbins – Hawaii’s Calling Me

More Marty Robbins

More Vintage Columbia Pressings 

  • An original copy of Marty’s 1963 release boasting rich, sweet Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it throughout – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The kind of Tubey Magical, tonally correct, spacious sound on this black text stereo 360 label pressing is nothing less than an audiophile thrill (particularly on side one)
  • The only other Robbins record that can hold a candle to this one is Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs
  • “Robbins performs beautifully, creating a breezy mood that marks one of pop music’s better attempts at the genre.”
  • More records with exceptionally Tubey Magical sound
  • More reviews of our most Tubey Magical demo discs

The Analog sound of this pressing makes a mockery of even the most advanced digital playback systems, including the ones that haven’t been invented yet.

I’d love to play this for Neil Young so he can see what he’s up against. Good Luck, Neil, you’re going to need it.

We’ve been through dozens of Columbia albums from the 60s since we discovered how good the Marty Robbins titles on Columbia can sound. Most of the popular vocal and country albums we play have an overall distorted sound, are swimming in reverb, and come with hard, edgy, smeary vocals to boot.

To find an album with freakishly good sound such as this involves a healthy dose of pure luck. You will need to dig through an awfully big pile of vinyl to uncover a gem of this beauty. (more…)

801 – 801 Live

More Brian Eno

More Live Recordings of Interest

  • 801 Live rocks as hard as ever on this original UK Island copy boasting outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • We shot out a number of other imports and this one had the presence, bass, and dynamics that were missing from most of what we played, not to mention that live rock and roll energy that old records have and new records don’t
  • Recorded at Queen Elisabeth Hall in September 1976 – one of only three gigs the group (a side project of Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera) did over a two-month period
  • 4 1/2 stars: “This album marks probably one of the last times that Eno rocked out in such an un-self-consciously fun fashion, but that’s not the only reason to buy it: 801 Live is a cohesive document of an unlikely crew who had fun and took chances. Listeners will never know what else they might have done if their schedules had been less crowded, but this album’s a good reminder.”
  • If you’re an Eno fan, or perhaps more a fan of mid-70s Art Rock, this title from 1976 is surely a Must Own.

801 Live has some of the biggest, boldest sound we have ever heard. It may not be seen as an audiophile album but it should be, if you have the system to play it. The sound is glorious — wall to wall, floor to ceiling, and as rich and dynamic as it gets.

It’s clearly a big speaker demo disc. Play this one as loud as you can. The louder you play it, the better it sounds.

It’s also transparent, with a large, deep soundfield that really allows you to hear into the music and the space of the venue in which it was recorded.

The real kicker is the amount of energy and musical drive that these two sides have going for them.

This is what the master tape is really capable of — mind bogglingly good sound.

Top of the List

801 Live ranks near the top of the list of my All Time Favorite Albums — a desert island disc if ever there was one.

I stumbled across it decades ago and have loved it ever since. (It started when a college buddy played me the wildly original “Tomorrow Never Knows” from the album and asked me to name the tune. Eno’s take is so different from The Beatles version that I confess it took me an embarrassingly long while to catch on.)

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Donny Hathaway – Donny Hathaway Live

More Donny Hathaway

More Soul, Blues, and R&B

  • Amazing sound for this classic live album, with both sides earning KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Hathaway and his band are on fire here playing for an enthusiastic small club audience – this is the best album the man ever made and a true Must Own
  • It takes us years to run across enough clean copies of this album to do a shootout, so don’t expect to see another one in audiophile playing condition on the site for a while
  • The relatively high price reflects the amount of work it takes us to find clean copies with the right stampers, as well as the frustration we feel when the records that come our way are just too noisy and groove damaged to be enjoyable
  • For those on a budget, buy the plain old Atlantic CD – it’s excellent
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Donny Hathaway’s 1972 Live album is one of the most glorious of his career… Live solidified Hathaway’s importance at the forefront of soul music.”
  • If you’re a Donny Hathaway fan, this is a Must Own Classic from 1972 that belongs in your collection.

This is an absolutely outstanding recording. The better copies capture the feeling of a live club like few recordings you’ve ever heard. The enthusiasm of the crowd, the honest, emotive performances, the superb musicianship — it’s all there on a Shootout Winning Hot Stamper copy like this.

I’ve been playing this record regularly since I first heard it back in the mid-90s. It never gets old. If I could take only one soul album to my desert island, it would be this one, no doubt about it.

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Santana – Inner Secrets

More Santana

More of Our Hardest Rockin’ Records

  • A big, bold, exciting and hard-rocking pressing with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish -exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Power and energy are what make this album a true Demo Disc in the world of rock, and this copy has both
  • A sleeper in the Santana canon that boasts some of the best sound the band ever put to vinyl
  • As a matter of fact, the notes for this copy mentioned that it was one of the best sounding rock records we have ever played – and who plays more amazing sounding rock records than we do?
  • Top tracks here include three of their biggest barnburners: “Dealer” (Traffic), “Stormy” and “Well…All Right” (Blind Faith)

I know exactly the kind of sound I like on this album. When the background vocals come in, on the Tubey Magical copies they are wall to wall and sweet as honey, with no trace of grain or edge. Big as life too. The guitars have plenty of bite, but no matter how loud they get, they never seem to strain. The louder they get the more I like it. That’s the ticket as far as I’m concerned.

Turn It Up

Like Abraxas, when you play a Hot Stamper copy good and loud, you find yourself marvelling at the musicianship of the group — because the Hot Stamper pressings, communicating all the energy and clarity the recording has to offer, let you hear what a great band they were.

If you’ve got the the big room, big speakers, and the kind of power it takes to drive them, you can have a live rock and roll concert in your very own house.

When Santana lets loose with some of those legendary monster power chords — which incidentally do get good and loud in the mix, unlike most rock records which suffer from compression and “safe” mixes — I like to say that there is no stereo system on the planet that can play loud enough for me. (Horns maybe, but I don’t like the sound of horns, so there you go.) Here are some other records that have especially dynamic guitar solos.

What makes it possible to play this record so loud and still enjoy it? Simple. When the sound is smooth and sweet, completely free of aggressive mids and highs, records get better as they get louder. (This, of course, assumes low distortion and all the rest, but the main factor is correct tonality from top to bottom, and this record has it.)

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