Rock – All Styles

There are two new “catchall” sections for popular music on the blog.

Rock music of every kind goes into a category called Rock – All Styles.

Popular music that is not Rock music can mostly be found in the section named Pop – All Styles.

This includes Pop, Folk, Folk Rock, Singer-Songwriter, and the like.

Carly Simon – Boys In The Trees

More of the Music of Carly Simon

  • With an INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side one, we guarantee you’ve never heard Boys in the Trees sound this good
  • Both of these sides have the sound we were looking: rich and sweet, with the kind of transparency that lets you hear every breath Carly takes
  • This pressing is just doing its job — showing you what’s really on the master tape — and not too many of the copies we played were able to do that
  • “… what really made the album a winner was that Simon had had a couple of years to write some strong songs in her unflinching, reflective style, and she continued to explore the loves and mores of her age and class movingly.”

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Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy

More of the Music of Led Zeppelin

  • With two outstanding Double Plus (A++) or BETTER sides, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Houses of the Holy you’ve heard
  • Side two was sonically very close to our Shootout Winner – you will be shocked at how big and powerful the sound is
  • For this album, Mint Minus Minus is as QUIET as we can find them
  • Only the pressings mastered by Robert Ludwig have any hope of doing well in our shootouts, and those are the only ones we have ever offered, beginning all the way back in 2006
  • Wall to wall, floor to ceiling Led Zeppelin power – this copy delivers like you will not believe, or your money back
  • A Better Records Top 100 album (along with 4 other Zep titles), 5 stars in AMG and a true Zeppelin Must Own classic
  • The Tubey Magical acoustic guitars here should be a wake up call to everyone that any and all attempts to remaster this album are bound to fail – that sound is gone and it is never coming back
  • 5 stars: “Jimmy Page’s riffs rely on ringing, folky hooks as much as they do on thundering blues-rock, giving the album a lighter, more open atmosphere…”
  • If you’re a fan of the band, this title from 1973 is clearly one of their best, and inarguably one of their best sounding

This copy has the kind of BIG, BOLD ROCK SOUND that takes this music to places you’ve only dreamed it could go. The HUGE drums on this copy are going to blow your mind — and probably your neighbors’ minds as well.

And what would a Zep record be without bass? Not much, yet this is precisely the area where so many copies fail. Not so here. The bottom end is big and meaty with superb definition, allowing the record to ROCK, just the way the band wanted it to.

The vocals too are tonally correct. None of the phony upper-midrange boost that the Classic Records reissue suffers from is evident on this copy.

The louder Robert Plant screams, the better he sounds and the more I like it.

The Classic Records pressing makes me wince, and Jimmy Page’s remaster is not much better.

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Cheap Trick – In Color

More of the Music of Cheap Trick

  • A vintage copy of Cheap Trick’s sophomore release with a KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to an excellent Double Plus (A++) side one
  • Both of these sides are rich and smooth like good analog should be, with plenty of energy and rock and roll drive
  • Spaciousness, richness and freedom from grit and grain are key to the best pressings, and here you will find all three
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…the songs and music on In Color are as splendid as the band’s debut.”

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Journey – Captured

More Live Recordings of Interest

  • Journey’s 2-LP live album debuts on the site with INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound on all FOUR sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Guaranteed to be a huge improvement over anything you’ve heard, these pressings are big, punchy, and full-bodied – Steve Perry’s leads really soar
  • Spaciousness, richness and freedom from grit and grain are key to the best pressings, and here you will find all three
  • “‘Separate Ways’ and ‘Faithfully’ were still a few years away, but the band had plenty of hits by this time and they blast through them all, including a blistering version of ‘Any Way You Want It.’ The band [is] in rare form and vocalist Steve Perry uses Captured as his coming out, while the thousands of diehards sweating in the blistering sun give the album an underlying hum of energy that tops even Perry’s.” 

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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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Judas Priest – Defenders of the Faith

More Judas Priest

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish, we guarantee you’ve never heard Defenders of the Faith sound this good
  • If you want to hear this music explode out of the speakers and come to life the way the band wanted you to hear it, this record will do the trick
  • These sides are bigger and richer and have more of the rock solid energy that’s missing from the average copy
  • 4 stars: “…there’s a remarkably high percentage of hidden gems waiting to be unearthed, making Defenders possibly the most underrated record in Priest’s catalog.”

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Bob Seger – Against The Wind

More Bob Seger

  • Both sides of this original Capitol pressing have killer sound for Bob Seger’s brand of Heartland Rock, earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them
  • About half of the tracks feature the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, and if you have never seen the brilliant documentary done about them, we highly recommend you take the time to do so forthwith
  • “It is Seger’s only number-one album to date, spending six weeks at the top of the Billboard Top LPs chart, knocking Pink Floyd’s The Wall from the top spot.”
  • A very famous mastering engineer cut this record right, and it doesn’t take a pair of golden ears to hear just how right it is
  • 4 stars: “Against the Wind finds Bob Seger turning toward craft. Perhaps he had to, since Against the Wind arrived after three blockbuster albums and never-ending tours… compared with its peers, it’s a strong, varied heartland rock album that finds Seger at a near peak.”
  • If you’re a Bob Seger fan, this title from 1980 is surely a Must Own

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Black Sabbath – Master of Reality

More Black Sabbath

  • Boasting solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them from top to bottom, you’ll have a hard time finding a copy that sounds remotely as good as this original Green Label pressing
  • This side one is big and bold with plenty of bass and driving rock energy, and side two is not far behind in all those areas – this is the right sound for this heavy music
  • It is ridiculously tough to find copies of this album that sound this good (particularly on side two) and play this QUIET, tougher even than it is for Paranoid or the first album
  • 5 stars: “Master of Reality essentially creates multiple metal subgenres all by itself, laying the sonic foundations for doom, stoner, and sludge metal, all in the space of just over half an hour.”

This vintage pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records rarely even 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…)

The Doobie Brothers – Stampede

More of The Doobie Brothers

  • Stampede returns to the site for only the second time in three years, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER from top to bottom
  • These sides are rich and full, with punchy bass and plenty of rockin’-down-the-highway Doobies energy – thanks, Donn Landee, you da man
  • Contains contributions from such guest musicians as Maria Muldaur, Ry Cooder, and Curtis Mayfield
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The Doobie Brothers’ rootsiest album to date, Stampede was virtuoso soulful countrified rock of a gritty nature, crossing over into blues as well as reaching back to a raw, traditional rock & roll sound…”

The average copy of this album is compressed and congested, recessed and veiled, grainy and thin; in other words, it sounds like an old Doobie Brothers album. It takes a copy like this one to show you just how good the Master Tape must be.

And if we hadn’t had plenty of copies to play with, we would never have found this one. (more…)

The Guess Who – American Woman

More Rock Classics

  • With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides, this copy (only the second to hit the site in years) is practically as good as we have ever heard
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this killer copy in our notes: “big and tubey and spacious”…”plucky, deep bass”…”breathy vox”…”big and rich and jumping out of the speakers”…”rich and lively”
  • We have been working on finding this title for twenty years if not more — finally finding some that sounded good to us and played reasonably quietly was a real shock, and that was a whole lotta years ago!
  • Here you will find sound that is big, rich and clear, with plenty of energy, and vinyl that is about on par for any clean copy of American Woman, a title which is exceedingly difficult to find in audiophile playing condition
  • Both the title track and “When Friends Fall Out” sound especially impressive on this domestic original
  • 4 stars: “The Guess Who’s most successful LP, reaching number nine in America (and charting for more than a year), has held up well… the final testament of the original Guess Who.”

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