Singer / Songwriter

Paul Simon – Still Crazy After All These Years

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  • With two INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides, this vintage pressing is certainly as good a copy as we have ever heard
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “rich and 3D vox”…”excellent space and detail”…”dynamic chorus”…”deep, note-like bass”
  • A tough album to find with the kind of big, spacious, Tubey Magical sound this pressing offers
  • Clean, clear and open are nice qualities to have, but the richer, smoother, more natural sounding copies are the only ones ever good enough to be called Hot Stampers
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…he was never more in tune with his audience: Still Crazy topped the charts, spawned four Top 40 hits, and won Grammys for Song of the Year and Best Vocal Performance.”
  • If you’re a Paul Simon fan, this has to be considered a Must Own Title of his from 1975.
  • The complete list of titles from 1975 that we’ve reviewed to date can be found here.

The overall sound here is big and rich. You get texture to the instruments (check the strings in the title track) but a smooth quality to the vocals instead of the grit and strain you hear on most copies. There’s good extension up top and weight down low.

Four Critical Test Tracks

What separates the mediocre-to-bad-sounding average copy from a Hot Stamper on side one is how well mastered and pressed (yes, pressed, because we shouldn’t overlook what bad vinyl can do to the sound) two songs are: Still Crazy After All These Years and 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.

If you get those two tracks right — breathy vocals, sounding smooth and sweet, with the sibilance under control, supported by good solid bass — the whole side is going to be good, maybe even amazingly good.

On side two listen to Have a Good Time and You’re Kind. On the better Hot Stamper copies, both will sound wonderful.

You can find this album in any store any day of the week, but let me tell you — most copies out there are godawful. I couldn’t stand to sit through another grainy, dry pressing of this album with a gun to my head — it doesn’t matter how good the music is.

On the best copies, however, it’s a whole different story.

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Carly Simon – Anticipation

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  • This early pressing (only the second copy to hit the site in nearly three years) boasts INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this incredible copy in our notes: “tubey bass and vox”…”huge when it kicks in” (side one)…”zero veil” (side one)…”huge and rich and 3D”…”big toms and chorus”
  • Produced by Mr. Paul Samwell-Smith and engineered by Mike Bobak, the same team that worked their magic on this classic, Anticipation blends Carly’s lilting vocals with lush, harmonically detailed acoustic guitars and big punchy drums
  • Brimming with favorites such as Anticipation, Legend In Your Own Time and I’ve Got To Have You, this is clearly one of her most consistent albums
  • “Carly Simon’s second album found her extending the gutsy persona she had established on her debut album… a frankly passionate person whose vulnerability was a source of strength, not weakness, a valuable feminist trait and one Simon would pursue in her later work.”

The acoustic guitars sound particularly good on this copy, with just the right balance of pluck and body. The vocals are breathy and full-bodied with extraordinary immediacy. The tonality from top to bottom is right on the money. I don’t think you could find a much better sounding copy of this album no matter how hard you tried. We went through plenty to find this one, I can tell you that.

The Big Sound We Love

Drop the needle on “Legend In Your Mind” for some of the best sound and music on here. The overall sound is open and transparent, with real depth to the soundfield and lots of separation between the instruments.

The one word that comes to mind is BIG — this record gives you the big sound that Carly was no doubt going for.

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Bob Dylan – Infidels

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  • With STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades from start to finish, this vintage copy could not be beat
  • Big and rich, with correct tonality from top to bottom, strong bass and plenty of space, this copy sounded just right to us
  • 4 stars: “… its writing is closer to Dylan’s peak of the mid-70s, and some of the songs here… are minor classics, capturing him reviving his sense of social consciousness and his gift for poetic, elegant love songs.”

This is one of the better sounding Dylan records from the 80s. It’s not exactly Blood on the Tracks, the only Dylan album we think is qualified to be on our top 100 rock and pop list, but it sounds good for a record from this era.
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Carole King – Tapestry

More of the Music Carole King

  • With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from start to finish, this early Ode pressing is practically as good a copy as we have ever heard
  • Big, full-bodied and Tubey Magical, yet still clean, clear and open – finally, the dark veil obscuring the sound of most copies has been lifted
  • This album is clearly Carole’s masterpiece – it’s loaded with great songs, and they all sound solid and correct here, two qualities which are critically important to the sound of the album
  • A great sounding pressing of Tapestry with quiet vinyl and no marks that play is a rare animal indeed — this one has the sound, the surfaces are another story
  • 5 stars: “…an intensely emotional record, the songs confessional and direct; in its time it connected with listeners like few records before it, and it remains an illuminating experience decades later. A remarkably expressive and intimate record, it’s a work of consummate craftsmanship.”

Audiophile sound is not easy to find on Tapestry. As we’ve been saying for twenty years, most copies are either dull and murky or edgy and thin, and on half the ones that do sound good, the vinyl is noisy.

On a copy like this, though, the sound gets out of the way and lets you focus on the MUSIC — and make no mistake, the music on this album is as good as it gets from Carole King.

We went nuts for this album during our big shootout. Since most of the time we’re playing testosterone-fueled, raging classic rock, it was a nice change of pace for us — and certainly easier on our poor eardrums. Our man JT makes an appearance playing acoustic guitar on a number of tracks, most notably You’ve Got A Friend, and his pals Russ Kunkel and Danny Korstchmar turn up too, with Kootch handling most of the electric guitar duties.

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James Taylor – Sweet Baby James

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Reviews and Commentaries for Sweet Baby James

  • An early Green Label pressing with outstanding sound for this inarguable JT masterpiece, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them on both sides
  • All that lovely echo is a dead giveaway that this pressing has resolution far beyond that of the others you may have heard (and of course the Rhino Heavy Vinyl), particularly on side two
  • Top 100 and 5 stars: “Sweet Baby James launched not only Taylor’s career as a pop superstar but also the entire singer/songwriter movement of the early 70s that included Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Jackson Browne, Cat Stevens, and others…”
  • If you’re a James Taylor fan, and what audiophile wouldn’t be?, this title is clearly one of the best of 1970 and a true Must Own for the singer-songwriter-loving audiophile

Vocal reproduction is key to the better sounding copies of Sweet Baby James, as it is on so many singer-songwriter albums from the era.

To find a copy where Taylor’s vocals are front and center — which is exactly where they should be — but still rich, sweet, tonally correct and Tubey Magical is no mean feat. Only the better copies manage to pull it off.

Out of the dozen or more Green Label early pressings we play every year, relatively few have the full complement of Midrange Magic we know the best copies can have. As a rule of thumb, the hotter the stamper, the better the vocal reproduction on that copy.

Hot Stamper sound is rarely about the details of a given recording. In the case of this album, more than anything else a Hot Stamper must succeed at recreating a solid, palpable, real James Taylor singing live in your listening room. The better copies have an uncanny way of doing just that.

If you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it — not often, and certainly not always — but less than one out of 100 new records do, if our experience with the hundreds we’ve played over the years can serve as a guide.

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Joni Mitchell – Night Ride Home on Domestic Vinyl

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  • This original copy of Joni’s hard-to-find 1991 release boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it from start to finish
  • Side one is rich, full, and Tubey Magical for days, with remarkable immediacy to the wonderful breathy, clear vocals, and side two is not far behind in all those areas
  • Analog at its Tubey Magical finest – you’ll never play a CD (or any other digitally sourced material) that sounds as good as this record as long as you live
  • “Cutting back on the guest musicians of her previous effort and paring down to a basic small group of musicians helps add immediacy to Night Ride Home. Very involved and a rather tough listen, but well worth the attention….”
  • If you have some time, check out our overview of Joni Mitchell’s albums

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John Prine – Diamonds in the Rough

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  • An early Atlantic pressing of Prine’s sophomore release (one of only a handful to ever hit the site) with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides
  • The overall sound here is rich and full-bodied, with solid and present vocals, as well as exceptional clarity all around
  • Forget that critical listening stuff and just notice that these Hot Stamper copies are simply more relaxed, musical and involving than anything you’ve heard – guaranteed or your money back
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…Diamonds in the Rough demonstrated that Prine had an enduring talent that wasn’t exhausted by one great album.”

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Gordon Lightfoot – Dox Quixote

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  • This vintage Reprise pressing boasts 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 – it’s as simple as that
  • “Lightfoot pays tribute to the many and varied places that make up his [Canadian] homeland. All in all, there’s not a bad cut here. It’s well worth your time.”

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Carly Simon – Self-Titled

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  • This early Elektra pressing was doing pretty much everything right, with both sides earning outstanding Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER
  • Can you believe that the producer and engineer of Carly’s debut is none other than Eddie Kramer?!
  • “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be” is the killer track here and it’s close to the BEST we’ve heard on this Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) side one – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • This copy really brought this Big Production to life and allowed so many elements to work in harmony.
  • It’s a good example of what a truly Hot Stamper is supposed to do – let the music work as music

The richness and the sweetness of the midrange on the better copies are exactly what you’d be looking for on this heavily-produced pop album, and this copy gives you that sound like no other copy you’ve ever heard.

Credit must go to Eddie Kramer, legendary producer and engineer for the likes of Hendrix and Zeppelin. He knows how to get good sound all right, although Female Singer Songwriter albums in his catalog are fairly light on the ground. (Richard Perry became the go-to guy for those productions as the ’70s wore on.) This may, in fact, be the only one Eddie ever did. But he knows Big Production Rock, and that’s what most of this album is about.

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Jim Croce – Life and Times

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More Singer-Songwriter Albums

  • Boasting two excellent Double Plus (A++) sides, this vintage pressing of Croce’s 4th studio album is doing just about everything right – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more space, richness and vocal presence on this copy than others you’ve heard, and that’s especially true if you made the mistake of buying whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently on the market
  • “Released at the height of the singer-songwriter era, Life And Times put Jim Croce up there with the best of them. Containing the upbeat top forty songs such as ‘One Less Set Of Footsteps’ and ‘Bad Bad Leroy Brown’ along with such ballads as ‘These Dreams,’ and ‘Alabama Rain.’ High rollicking fun for anyone who likes enjoyable music.”

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