Art Rock

Ambrosia – Self-Titled

More of the Music of Ambrosia

  • This copy was delivering the goods for Ambrosia’s ambitious Masterpiece with very good Hot Stamper grades throughout
  • 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 – it’s as simple as that
  • A permanent member of our Top 100 and, on big speakers at loud levels, the best copies are Rock Demo Discs of the highest order
  • “Its songs skillfully blend strong melodic hooks and smooth vocal harmonies with music of an almost symphonic density.”
  • Ambrosia is an album that helped us dramatically improve our playback quality

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Jethro Tull – Thick As A Brick

More of the Music of Jethro Tull

  • An early Reprise pressing that was doing just about everything right, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • One of the few copies we’ve found lately with audiophile sound and surfaces – most of the copies we find are just too noisy for the first few minutes, but this one’s intro held up nicely
  • A Top 100 title and the best sounding album Jethro Tull ever recorded – allow us to make the case
  • A stunning Demo Disc to rule them all – sure to be the best you’ve ever heard this band sound, assuming you have the kind of system it takes and a room big enough to hold it
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these Classic Rock records – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 4 1/2 stars: “A masterpiece in the annals of progressive rock – a dazzling tour de force, at once playful, profound, and challenging, without overwhelming the listener.”
  • “Whether or not Thick As A Brick is an isolated experiment, it is nice to know that someone in rock has ambitions beyond the four or five minute conventional track, and has the intelligence to carry out his intentions, in all their intricacy, with considerable grace.”
  • TAAB is also one of those albums that helped us dramatically improve our playback quality

The kind of tonal accuracy you hear on the better copies of this album practically disappeared from records over forty years ago, which explains why so many of the LPs we offer as Hot Stampers were produced in the 70s and before. That’s when many of the highest fidelity recordings were made. In truth this very record is a superlative example of the sound the best producers, engineers, and studios were able to capture on analog tape during that very decade.

Which is a long way of saying that the better copies of Thick As A Brick have pretty much everything that we love about vinyl records here at Better Records.

Furthermore, I can guarantee you there is no CD on the planet that will ever be able to do this recording justice. Our Hot Stamper pressings — even the lowest-graded ones — have a kind of Analog Magic that just can’t be captured on one of them there silvery discs.

The Best Sounding Jethro Tull Album Ever Recorded

  • The better copies are shockingly dynamic. At about the three-minute mark the band joins in the fun and really starts rocking. Set your volume for as loud as your system can play that section. The rest of the music, including the very quietest parts, will then play correctly for all of side one. For side two the same volume setting should be fine.
  • The recording can have exceptionally solid, deep punchy bass (just check out Barrie “Barriemore” Barlow’s drumming, especially his kick and floor toms. The guy is on fire).
  • The midrange is usually transparent and the top end sweet and extended on the better pressings.
  • The recording was made in 1972, so there’s still plenty of Tubey Magic to be heard on the acoustic guitars and flutes.
  • Tubey Magical acoustic guitar reproduction is superb on the better copies of this recording. Simply phenomenal amounts of Tubey Magic can be heard on every strum, along with richness, body and harmonic coherency that have all but disappeared from modern recordings (and especially from modern remasterings).
  • The better copies can be as huge, wide and tall as any rock record you’ve ever heard, with sound that comes jumping out of your speakers right into your listening room.
  • Unlike practically any album recorded during the 80s or later, the overall tonal balance, as well as the timbre of virtually every instrument in the soundfield, is correct.

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Kraftwerk – Autobahn

More Art Rock

  • Stunning sound on this fun, TAS-approved album, with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from start to finish
  • The right early import pressings (a happy discovery from a few years back) have richness, transparency, space and presence not found anywhere else, I tell you!
  • Forget the dubby domestic pressings – they’re disappointing in the extreme
  • These imports are tough to find with the right stampers, the right sound and audiophile quality playing surfaces, which explains why it’s been over a year since our last big shootout
  • 5 stars: “The 22-minute title track became an international hit single and remains the peak of the band’s achievements – it encapsulates the band and why they are important within one track – but the rest of the album provides soundscapes equally as intriguing.”

This vintage British Vertigo pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for — this sound. (more…)

Brian Eno / Before And After Science – The Last of the Must Own Eno Records (We Regret to Say)

More Arty Rock Records

  • This vintage Island pressing boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound from the first note to last
  • Even with so many quiet passages, this copy held up very well all the way to the end
  • Here you will find that rare combination of silky highs and deep low end, with huge amounts of space in the middle, three qualities among many that make this album an especially magical listening experience
  • I know whereof I speak – I must have played this album at least two hundred times in the 48 years that have passed since I first bought my copy
  • If you’re a fan of Art Rock or Prog Rock or just like something a little different, this is an album that belongs in your collection
  • Marks 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
  • 5 stars: “Despite the album’s pop format, the sound is unique and strays far from the mainstream. The music on Before and After Science at times resembles Another Green World (“No One Receiving”) and Here Come the Warm Jets (“King’s Lead Hat”) and ranks alongside both as the most essential Eno material.”

Side one, the rock side, strongly relies on its deep punchy bass to make its material come to life and rock (or should we say art rock?). Eno’s vocals are clear and present with virtually no strain. Phil Collins’ drumming is energetic and transparent and perfectly complemented by Percy Jones’ simultaneously acrobatic and hard-driving bass work. (more…)

News of the World Was a Major Discovery We Made in 2007

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Queen Available Now

We discovered a killer copy of News of the World in 2007. Our Hot Stamper review can be seen below.

It was a clearly a breakthrough for us, the kind of record that, out of the blue, revealed to us sound of such high quality that it dramatically changed our appreciation of the recording itself.

We found ourselves asking “Who knew?” Perhaps a better question would have been “How high is up?”

This was Demo Disc quality sound by any measure, especially on big speakers at loud levels.

2007 was the year we made many important breakthroughs. In fact, we made more breakthroughs in that year than in any other in the history of the company, including this singularly important break with the past.

News of the World is one of those records that helped me make real progress in audio.

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The Moody Blues – On The Threshold Of A Dream

More of the Music of The Moody Blues

  • Here is a vintage UK pressing with incredible Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound from start to finish – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • You will not believe how punchy, lively, dynamic, and exciting some of these tracks sound here – this is one of their best albums for both music and sound
  • We shot out a number of other British imports (the only copies that sound any good to us) and this one had better midrange presence, bass, and dynamics than practically any other copy we played
  • 4 1/2 stars: “… [I]n 1969 this was envelope-ripping, genre-busting music, scaling established boundaries into unknown territory, not only ‘outside the box’ but outside of any musical box that had been conceived at that moment…”

Both sides give you silky highs, surprising clarity, amazing openness and transparency, real weight to the bottom end, lots of air in the flutes, wonderful texture to the strings, and so much more. The acoustic guitars sound impressive, with the proper balance between pluck and body. The vocals are shockingly clean and clear throughout.

Copies like this bring all the psychedelic Moody Blues magic to life in your living room. The richness, sweetness, and warmth on this one give you exactly the sound you want for this wild music. You get lovely Tubey Magic and clarity. The sound is cleaner, clearer, richer, sweeter, and more present that you could have imagined.

It has been my experience that, as good as the British originals of the Moody Blues records are — and I think they are the best sounding pressings of their music that can be found — their one consistent shortcoming is an overly smooth top end. We managed to find a handful of copies that break with that tradition, and the results are wonderful.

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Roxy Music – Stranded

More of the Music of Roxy Music

  • Both sides of this original UK Island pressing (the only way we offer it, the Polydor pressings are a shadow of the real thing) were doing practically everything right, earning STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from top to bottom
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this incredible copy in our notes: “silky and spacious”…”really big and rich”…”vox jumping out of the speakers”…”big, weighty bass”…”fully extended from top to bottom”
  • Rich, smooth and oh-so-analog, the Tubey Magic on their early albums is off the scale, especially here
  • Hands down one of the two best-sounding Roxy albums ever
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Without Brian Eno, Roxy Music immediately became less experimental, yet they remained adventurous, as Stranded illustrates…emphasiz[ing] both [Bryan] Ferry’s tortured glamour and Roxy’s increasingly impressive grasp of sonic detail.”

Stranded is one of the better recordings by the band, coming in second for sonics only to the first album, which is really saying something considering that the first album is a Better Records Top 100 title. The Tubey Magic on the early albums has to be heard to be believed!

These British pressings give you the richest, fullest, biggest sound with the least amount of sibilance on the vocals, grain or grunge. It’s the rich, full-bodied analog sound we adore here at Better Records, although it’s worth noting that the sound on some tracks is noticeably better than on others.

We thank Chris Thomas for his production and John Punter for his engineering work at AIR Studio. This album and the first one are without question the two best sounding Roxy albums, and that’s true for any incarnation of the band.

Both belong in any serious rock and pop collection, and if you are a fan of Art Rock, every Roxy album should be on your shelf, along with your Bowie, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Eno, Peter Gabriel, 10cc and so many others (most of which are personal favorites of mine, albums I have played hundreds of times over the last 50 years and plan to play hundreds of times in the years ahead).

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Roxy Music – Avalon

More of the Music of Roxy Music

  • An Avalon like you’ve never heard, with superb Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this vintage UK pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Copies that are exceptionally transparent, with three-dimensional depth and a wide soundstage, present this music the way it was meant to be heard
  • Credit Rhett Davies with creating the sonic space to allow the singers, instruments and subtle studio effects to be balanced and integrated from front to back, side to side and top to bottom
  • The sound may be a bit too heavily processed for some, but we find that on the best copies that sound really works for this music, some of the best ever produced by the band
  • 5 stars: “Ferry was never this romantic or seductive, either with Roxy or as a solo artist, and Avalon shimmers with elegance in both its music and its lyrics.”
  • These are the stampers that always win our shootouts, and when you hear them you will know why – the sound is big, rich and clear like no other
  • We’ve discovered a number of titles in which one stamper always wins, and here are some others

Records like Avalon get people (often known as audiophiles) to spend wads and wads of money in pursuit of expensive analog equipment good enough to bring this wonderful music to life in their very own listening rooms.

The album rewards a stereo with many of the qualities that audiophiles prize most highly when selecting equipment — spaciousness, transparency, clarity, detail, depth, soundstaging, speed, high frequency extension and the like.

The mix is as dense as any we know. Only the best copies have the ability to show you everything that’s on the tape. Credit must go to the amazingly talented Rhett Davies for creating the space to put so many instruments and sounds in.

We would add to that list presence and energy, along with warmth, fullness, and lack of smear on the transients. Whomp and rock and roll power do not seem to play much part in separating the best from the rest, although it’s nice when the bottom end is big and solid.

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Peter Gabriel – Self-Titled No. 2 (Scratch)

More of the Music of Peter Gabriel

  • With KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish, this original UK Charisma pressing is doing practically everything right
  • This has long been a favorite album of mine, a Desert Island Disc if you will, with some of the most powerfully produced, intelligently written and passionately performed songs in the entire PG canon
  • We shot out a number of other imports and the midrange presence, bass, and dynamics on this outstanding copy placed it head and shoulders above most other pressings we played
  • Marks 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 on AllMusic: “‘On the Air’ and ‘D.I.Y.’ are stunning slices of modern rock circa 1978, bubbling with synths, insistent rhythms, and polished processed guitars, all enclosed in a streamlined production that nevertheless sounds as large as a stadium.”
  • If I were to compile a list of my top twenty rock and pop albums of 1978, this album would most likely be one of the most played titles on that list, one that I still listen to regularly to this day

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David Bowie – Low

More of the Music of David Bowie

  • Boasting killer Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades on both sides, this vintage pressing of Bowie’s rock Masterpiece is practically as good a copy as we have ever heard, right up there with our Shootout Winner – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Huge amounts of studio space can be heard on this copy, along with the Tubey Magical richness only the better UK pressings can offer
  • We shot out a number of other imports and this one had better midrange presence, bass, and dynamics than practically any other copy we played
  • 5 stars: “Though a handful of the vocal pieces on Low are accessible – ‘Sound and Vision’ has a shimmering guitar hook, and ‘Be My Wife’ subverts soul structure in a surprisingly catchy fashion – the record is defiantly experimental and dense with detail, providing a new direction for the avant-garde in rock & roll.”
  • If you’re a fan of the man, this is a Top Title from 1977 that belongs in your collection

As I’ve mentioned on the site numerous times, I spent a good portion of the 70s playing art rock records like Taking Tiger Mountain, Siren, Crime Of The Century, Deceptive Bends and scores of others. I remember being blown away when Low came out, and with this shootout we had a blast hearing just how good a killer Hot Stamper UK pressing can sound on the much more highly-evolved stereo system (equipment, room, set-up, tweaks, electricity, etc.) we have today.

It’s difficult to find a pressing that gets both sides of this album right, perhaps in part because the two sides are so different. Side one of this album features the more traditional (not really the right word, but it will have to do) Bowie rockers like “Sound and Vision” and “Be My Wife,” while side two sounds more like the instrumental synth music of Kraftwerk and Eno.

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