- This import pressing will blow the doors off any other Luck Of The Draw you’ve heard with superb sound from start to finish
- Amazingly open and transparent, with tons of energy and real immediacy to Bonnie’s wonderfully breathy vocals
- This copy had more ANALOG qualities than most others in our recent shootout, which tended to have that digital / sterile sound that ruins so many albums from the era
- 4 1/2 stars: “…Luck of the Draw is an unqualified success, filled with strong songs — including the hits ‘Something to Talk About’ and ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me,’ plus the Delbert McClinton duet ‘Good Man, Good Woman’ — appealing productions, and just enough dirt to make old-school fans feel at home.”
Capitol
Linda Ronstadt / The Stone Poneys
More Linda Ronstadt
More Folk Rock
- With two seriously good Double Plus (A++) sides, this was one of the better copies we played in our shootout for these later pressings – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
- Much more folk than pop, for the most part the sound here is tubey, rich and sweet
- Re-released when HLAW hit big, this album features three great tracks with Linda singing solo
- “It doesn’t have “Different Drum,” but the first Stone Poneys album is their folkiest and best, dominated by close harmonies and strong original material by the group’s guitarists, Bob Kimmel and Ken Edwards.”
- The originals from 1967 have never impressed us much. Click on the links below for more records that sound best to us on the right reissue pressing
- Here are some currently available Hot Stamper pressings that we think sound their best on the right reissue (the ones we sell, obviously; there are plenty of reissues that don’t have good sound, but the ones we offer handily beat the originals we’ve — and no doubt you’ve — heard)
- Here are all the titles we’ve reviewed to date that have the potential to sound their best on the right reissue
On this album the sound varies a fair amount from track to track.
The best tracks are rich, tubey and clear; the worst thin, bright and hard. Some What to Listen For advice follows.
If you are interested in digging deeper, our Listening in Depth commentaries have extensive track by track breakdowns for some of the better-known albums we’ve done multiple shootouts for.
The first track on side one rarely stayed clean when loud, but here for the most part it does. It’s a good test for whether or not you have a copy with high quality, low distortion mastering. Listen for the least amount of smear and congestion and the most resolution.
The second track is richer and tubier – it proves that side one is mastered correctly.
On side two the first track is rough, the second track better, the third richer, sweeter and smoother still. (more…)
The Band / Northern Lights – Southern Cross
More of The Band
More Roots Rock
- These sides are bigger, more natural, more warm and more solid than those of any other copy you’ve heard or your money back
- This is The Band’s undiscovered gem, containing the most powerful tearjerker they ever wrote: “It Makes No Difference”
- 4 stars: “…the Band’s finest since their self-titled sophomore effort … “Acadian Driftwood” stands out as one of Robertson’s finest compositions, the equal to anything else the Band ever recorded.”
- 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,” but with less of an accent on morbidity and more on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. This album by The Band is a good example of a record many audiophiles may not know well but should.
Thankfully both sides here are rich and full-bodied. This pressing is not nearly as dry and flat as the vast majority of pressings we run across. Both sides have a nicely extended top end to go along with the weighty bottom. The guitars and keyboards are Tubey Magical as well, a quality we we focused on, and one that we believe is essential if the album is to sound its best. (more…)
Dean Martin – This Time I’m Swingin’
- STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides of this vintage Capitol Stereo pressing
- Classic Capitol big, full-bodied, Tubey Magical sound — Deano’s vocals are present and natural in the best tradition of rat-mate Frank Sinatra in the early ’60s
- With Nelson Riddle arranging, you can be sure the album has plenty of swing all right — and the brass sounds amazing here
- If you want to find your own copies and do your own shootout, be prepared for a lot of ebay heartache – the beat-up, thrift-store, trashy LPs that we regularly get sent are truly shocking
- 4 1/2 stars: “…an easy swinging collection…”
If you’re a fan of the Capitol Sinatra sound you’ll love this record. It’s an exceptionally difficult title to find in anything but trashed condition. I’ve been a fan of this record for many years but this is the first copy we’ve been able to find that’s clean enough to go up on the site with White Hot Stamper grades. (more…)
Junior Mance – Get Ready, Set, Jump!!!
More Big Band Jazz
- Wonderfully big, rich and LIVELY, with boatloads of Tubey Magic and three-dimensional space
- This vintage stereo pressing boasts exceptionally natural piano sound and the live-in-the-studio energy of a swingin’ group of veteran horn players
- 4 stars: “Mance is joined by some of the cream of the West Coast studio and jazz players for a session that features Mance doing his blues thing on piano while the band swings at various tempi… resembling somewhat the style of the Count Basie Orchestra.”
- If you’re a fan of Big Band Jazz, this album from 1964 probably belongs in your collection.
Rabin / The Magic Bow – Another TAS List Oversight?
Hot Stamper Pressings Featuring the Violin
This original Capitol record with Michael Rabin is ONE OF THE VERY BEST VIOLIN RECORDINGS we have ever played here at Better Records. The sound is OUT OF THIS WORLD! The immediacy of the violin tone is unbelievable — Rabin is in the room with you throughout the entirety of the record in a way that few recordings in our experience could hope to equal.
What more can we say, other than the music is every bit as good as the sound. If you love the Classical Romantic period, and who doesn’t?, these selections will have you in a world of sound and music rarely matched by anything but the best in live performance.
Another TAS List Oversight
This is another record that is not on the TAS List, but would certainly take top honors in a head to head shootout with any of the violin works to be found there.
The Steve Miller Band – Brave New World
More Steve Miller Band
More Psych Rock
- This outstanding pressing boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound from top to bottom – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
- We guarantee you have never heard Space Cowboy and Brave New World sound remotely as good as they do here
- Engineered by the one and only Glyn Johns – until we heard this specific pressing we had no idea the album could sound as good as this one does
- 4 1/2 stars: “Brave New World was more fully realized, and rocked harder, than the Steve Miller Band’s first two albums.”
Bob Seger / Night Moves – His 1976 Masterpiece
More Bob Seger
Hot Stamper Rock Masterpieces Available Now
- A KILLER vintage pressing with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound throughout for Bob Seger’s breakthrough album (the 8th time’s the charm)
- A big step up over every other copy we heard – richer, fuller, more dynamic, more lively and just plain more fun
- Knock the album if you like, but there’s no denying it’s one of Seger’s best and certainly a ’70s classic – every song’s a hit, and deservedly so
- 5 stars: “One of the universally acknowledged high points of late-’70s rock & roll. And, because of his passion and craft, it remains a thoroughly terrific record years later.”
- If you’re a Seger fan, or perhaps a fan of mid-’70s Classic Rock, this title from 1976 is surely a Must Own.
- The complete list of titles from 1976 that we’ve reviewed to date can be found here
Vintage covers for this album are hard to find in clean shape. Most of them will have at least some amount of ringwear, seam wear and edge wear. We guarantee that the cover we supply with this Hot Stamper is at least VG, and it will probably be VG+. If you are picky about your covers please let us know in advance so that we can be sure we have a nice cover for you.
It’s not easy to find killer pressings of this album — it took us plenty of fruitless shootouts before we figured anything out. Most copies out there are thin and dry, which is no way to hear these classic ’70s tracks. We brought in copy after copy that made us think, “I swear this sounds better on the radio!”
Finally, after pulling together a ton of copies from different eras, we started to realize that there were indeed vinyl pressings of Night Moves that sounded right… but they are few and far between, the exception and not the rule so to speak. This copy is one of the better ones we played in our most recent shootout, no question about it.
Knock this album if you like, but there’s no denying it’s one of Seger’s best and certainly a ’70s classic. It may not have the audiophile appeal of Tea For The Tillerman, but it’s a blast when it sounds this good.
Peggy Lee – Pass Me By
More Peggy Lee
If you’re a fan of vintage female vocals – the kind with no trace of digital reverb – you may get quite a kick out of this one. And unless I miss my guess you’ll be the first and only person on your block to own it. That’s not a bad thing considering the average person’s taste in music and sound these days.
The early label for our shootout winner can be seen below.
Copies with rich lower mids and nice extension up top (to keep the big band arrangements by Shorty Rogers and Dave Grusin from becoming shrill) did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren’t veiled or smeary of course. So many things can go wrong on a record! We know, we heard them all. (more…)
Nat “King” Cole – To Whom It May Concern
More Nat “King” Cole
More Pop and Jazz Vocal Albums
- An outstanding copy of Nat “King” Cole’s wonderful 1959 release with Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish
- The presence and immediacy of Nat’s vocals here are ’50s Capitol Recording Magic at its best – you won’t believe how good this early stereo pressing sounds
- With some of the biggest, clearest, richest and most natural vocal reproduction, this copy is guaranteed to take Nat’s performance to another level
- Marks in the vinyl are the nature of the beast with these early pressings – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
- “For this album, Cole had the idea of putting together a set of newly written songs in the classic style, with typically sympathetic arrangements by Nelson Riddle…”
Set the volume right and Nat is right between your speakers, putting on the performance of a lifetime. The selection of material and the contributions of all involved (Nelson Riddle among them) are hard to fault.