Columbia/Epic

Columbia and Epic are labels we love.

Billy Joel – Glass Houses

More Billy Joel

  • This vintage pressing boasts an INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to an excellent Double Plus (A++) side one – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The sound is just right for this album full of rockers – big, rich and punchy with actual space and dynamics
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more space, richness, vocal presence, and performance energy 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
  • Some of the man’s biggest hits are here: “You May Be Right,” “Don’t Ask Me Why” and “It’s Still Rock & Roll To Me”
  • Marks and problems 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 1/2 stars: “Instead of turning out to be a fiery rebuttal to his detractors, the album is a remarkable catalog of contemporary pop styles … That’s not a detriment; that’s the album’s strength.”
  • If you’re a Billy Joel fan, this title from 1980 is surely one of his most significant releases

(more…)

Ramsey Lewis – For Some Titles We Go 17 Years Between Shootouts

More Ramsey Lewis

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Piano

  • Sun Goddess is back and sounds better than ever on this vintage Columbia pressing with incredible Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades from start to finish – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • The sound is huge, spacious, lively, transparent and punchy – this is jazz fusion that really rocks
  • The last time we reviewed this album was all the way back in 2005!
  • “Sun Goddess is also something of a stealth Earth, Wind & Fire album, as it features most of the key players from that band, and bears echoes of EW&F’s jazzier, more atmospheric side”
  • 4 stars: “Pianist Ramsey Lewis first came to fame as the purveyor of swinging soul-jazz in the mid-’60s [but] Sun Goddess…is miles away from the finger-snapping supper club sounds of “The In Crowd.” Lewis had transformed himself into a jazz fusion funkateer, riffing on electric piano and synthesizer amid arrangements that meld jazz with funk, R&B, and yes, even touches of progressive rock.”

Ramsey Lewis meets Earth Wind and Fire.

This is a bright recording and it’s supposed to sound that way, just like EWF’s recordings. The music is full of energy and lots of fun. This isn’t real jazz; it’s pop jazz. It’s produced by Maurice White and it even has Phillip Bailey on vocals.

You can’t get much more Earth, Wind and Firey than that.

(more…)

The Best of Earth Wind & Fire – A Real Treat for Us Audiophiles

More of the Music of Earth, Wind and Fire

More Recordings by George Massenburg

  • Both of these sides boast unrivaled sound and pop soul energy that is BIGGER and RICHER than anything you’ve ever heard
  • Tubey Magical, rich, smooth, sweet – everything that we listen for in a great record is on display for everyone to hear (everyone with audiophile equipment that is)
  • With a big speaker system turned up good and loud, the first track is simply mind-boggling
  • 5 stars: “The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 still ranks as a strong encapsulation of EWF the funk innovators. The singles gathered here constitute some of the richest, most sophisticated music the funk movement ever produced…”
  • This is a personal favorite of yours truly, and a Must Own album from 1978, which, in hindsight, turned out to be a surprisingly good year for music

The first track on the album is “Got To Get You Into My Life” and it sounds incredible on this copy.

What a song. And it’s not on any other EWF album. Three points to make here:

  1. It’s from the real master tape;
  2. It happens to have Demo Disc quality sound, which means:
  3. You need this record in your collection.

Since this is a “best of,” every song is a hit and every one of them will have you singin’ yourself hoarse. If you like pop-soul music at all, you have to like these guys. And these songs. Every one is a gem of popcraft, with arrangements as tight as the sequined white suits the band members wore.

Finding The Good Ones

The Shootout Winning pressings sound amazing, with big-as-life Demo Disc quality sound. Lucky for us, EWF was always an audiophile-oriented band. They produced some of the best 70s multi-track recordings around.

With a big speaker system turned up good and loud the first track is simply mind-boggling. It’s some of the best sound we have heard around here in weeks, and we play a lot of good sounding records!

As you can imagine, most copies of this album leave a lot to be desired. Most were, to one degree or another, dull, smeary, opaque, gritty or shrill.

Our Hot Stampers, on the other hand, depending on how hot they are, will give you the sound you’re looking for. If you’re a fan of big horns, with jump-out-of-the-speakers sound, this is the album for you. Some of the best R&B-pop brass ever recorded can be found here — full-bodied, powerful, fast, dynamic and tonally correct.

(more…)

Billy Joel – 52nd Street

More of the Music of Billy Joel

  • This vintage pressing boasts an INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to an excellent Double Plus (A++) side one – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more space, richness, vocal presence, and performance energy 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
  • Some of the man’s biggest hits are here: “You May Be Right,” “Don’t Ask Me Why” and “It’s Still Rock & Roll To Me”
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Instead of turning out to be a fiery rebuttal to his detractors, the album is a remarkable catalog of contemporary pop styles … That’s not a detriment; that’s the album’s strength.”
  • If I were to compile a list of Must Own rock albums from 1978, this album would have to be on it, and it is!
  • This is our pick for Billy Joel’s best sounding album. Roughly 150 other listings for the best recording by an artist or group can be found here on the blog.

When you hear this pressing you’ll understand why.

We heard some amazing sound coming from the grooves of 52nd Street, but let’s give credit where credit is due — the recording and mastering engineers involved with this album. Jim Boyer and Ted Jensen can both take great pride in the SUPERB work they have done here. (more…)

Electric Light Orchestra – Out Of The Blue

More Electric Light Orchestra

More of our favorite Art Rock Records

  • These early Jet pressings of ELO’s seventh studio album boast solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER from start to finish
  • Side three was sonically very close to our Shootout Winner – you will be shocked at how big and powerful the sound is
  • All four sides are notably smoother and richer than most of what we played, with much less of the grit and congestion that plagues the average copy
  • “Out of the Blue was of a piece with its predecessor, A New World Record, as the most lavishly produced album in the group’s history… [It] was massively popular and did become the centerpiece of a huge worldwide tour for the group which earned them status as a major live attraction for a time.”
  • If you’re an ELO fan, this classic double album from 1977 is surely a Must Own
  • If you are new to the music of ELO and want to learn more about our pick for their best album, click here

SR Over 2

The record is actually mastered by none other than Mr. MoFi himself, Stan Ricker, at Half-Speed if you can imagine that.

Yes, the bass isn’t as tight as it would have been using real time mastering, and there is the kind of “fake richness” to the low end that you hear on many audiophile records (and practically nowhere else), but Jeff Lynne likes some artificiality in the sound of his albums, so whatever Stan Ricker brought to the table it seems Mr. Lynne was fine with it, otherwise we assume he would have had it mastered by somebody else.

Does the album need the deeper, more articulate bass it would have if someone else had mastered it using a real-time cutter? It doesn’t seem so to us. Note-like bass with its fundamental frequencies intact is always a nice thing to have on a recording, but can anyone say this music would be noticeably better for it with better bass? Again, Mr. Lynne must not have found the bass wanting enough to have the album recut by some other mastering house. Could it be a matter of trade-offs? No matter which side you are on, it’s all just speculation. You always have the option of listening to the album on CD and seeing if the bass is better there. That would be the only practical test that I can imagine having any value. And to do that test you have to play the CD, something nobody really wants to do, right?

(more…)

Dave Brubeck – Time Out

More of the Music of Dave Brubeck

  • This Six-Eye Stereo pressing boasts out of this world Demo Disc sound
  • Time Out captures the ambience and huge space of Columbia’s studio like practically no other record has (with a little reverb thrown in for good measure)
  • A knockout pressing of Brubeck’s astonishingly well recorded Jazz Classic, this is a record that belongs in every audiophile’s collection
  • Early stereo LPs in clean condition like this one are getting awfully tough to find nowadays…
  • “Buoyed by a hit single in Desmond’s ubiquitous Take Five, Time Out became an unexpectedly huge success, and still ranks as one of the most popular jazz albums ever. That’s a testament to Brubeck and Desmond’s abilities as composers, because Time Out is full of challenges both subtle and overt — it’s just that they’re not jarring.”
  • If you’re a fan of Brubeck and company, this 1959 album belongs in your collection, along with quite a few others from the classic jazz era

(more…)

Billy Joel – Streetlife Serenade

More Billy Joel

  • A killer copy of Joel’s third studio album, here with a Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a seriously good Double Plus (A++) side two
  • The sound is transparent and the piano is clear and weighty, showcasing Joel’s somewhat underrated talent at the keys
  • Features some of Billy’s big hits, including “The Entertainer” as well as “Los Angelenos”
  • This is one of the toughest classic Billy Joel albums to find with good sound and quiet vinyl, but this one is doing practically everything we could hope to expect (minor condition issue noted below notwithstanding)

(more…)

Stevie Ray Vaughan – Texas Flood

More Stevie Ray Vaughan

More Electric Blues

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) grades from first note to last, you’ll have a hard time finding a copy that sounds remotely as good as this vintage Epic pressing
  • Both of these sides here are remarkably big, full and natural sounding with an abundance of energy and presence
  • 5 stars: “It’s hard to overestimate the impact Stevie Ray Vaughan’s debut, Texas Flood, had upon its release in 1983… Vaughan became a genuine star and, in doing so, sparked a revitalization of the blues…”

This copy gets Stevie’s room-filling guitar to sound about as rich and powerful as a recording of it can. When playing this record, first make sure the volume is up good and high. Now close your eyes and picture yourself in a blues club, with the volume ten times louder than your stereo will play. Electric blues played at loud levels in a small club would sound pretty much like this album does, a bit messy but also real.

If you’re one of those audiophiles who insists on proper soundstaging with layered depth and pinpoint imaging, forget it. That’s not in the cards. The producers and engineers were going for the “live in the studio” sound with this one (and most of his other albums it seems), which means it’s a jumble image-wise.

But that’s the way you would hear it performed live, so where’s the harm?

(more…)

Meat Loaf – Bat Out Of Hell

More Rock and Pop

More Rock Classics

  • With a STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a superb Double Plus (A++) side two, this Bat Out Of Hell rocks like nothing you’ve heard
  • And of course this original pressing is guaranteed to beat the pants off any modern reissue of any weight, at any speed, cut by any mastering engineer and released on any label, or your money back
  • This album sold in the millions but where are they now? They’re sure not sitting in the record bins here in L.A. – we have a devil of a time finding clean copies locally
  • 4 1/2 stars: “There is no other album like Bat Out of Hell…. This is Grand Guignol pop — epic, gothic, operatic, and silly, and it’s appealing because of all of this. Jim Steinman was a composer without peer, simply because nobody else wanted to make mini-epics like this. And there never could have been a singer more suited for his compositions than Meat Loaf, a singer partial to bombast, albeit shaded bombast.”

(more…)

Miles Davis – In Person: Saturday Night At The Blackhawk, Volume II

More of the Music of Miles Davis

  • This superb 6-Eye Stereo pressing boasts relaxed, full bodied, three-dimensional Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish
  • Both of these sides are huge, spacious, lively, transparent and above all real – you won’t believe how good the live sonics captured on this album is (until you play it anyway)
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Davis himself has never played with more intensity and muscularity on record than he does here. Miles fans will need both [sets] to fully appreciate how special this engagement with this particular band was.”

(more…)