More Harry Nilsson
Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Harry Nilsson
- Outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound brings Harry Nilsson’s indisputable masterpiece of Bent Rock to life on this vintage copy (only the second to hit the site in over three years)
- Both sides are remarkably good sounding, thanks to the brilliant engineering skills of Phill (That’s Two L’s) Brown
- A Better Records favorite (we give it Five Stars) that really comes to life on a superb pressing such as this one
- 4 1/2 stars: “…it’s a near-perfect summary of everything Nilsson could do; he could be craftier and stranger, but never did he achieve the perfect balance as he did here.”
- If I were to compile a list of my favorite rock and pop albums from 1971, this album would definitely be on it
Big production pop like this is hard to pull off. Harry did an amazing job, but the recording is not perfect judging by the dozen or so copies we played during our most recent shootout, and the scores w’ve suffered through before. Let’s face it: “Jump Into The Fire” will never be smooth and sweet; neither will “Down” on side one. But other tracks on this album have Demo Disc sound.
Nilsson Schmilsson is an album we think we know well. It checks off a number of important boxes for us here at Better Records:
- It’s a personal favorite
- It’s our pick for Nilsson’s best sounding album
- It’s a Demo Disc for big speakers that play at loud levels
- It’s a masterpiece of rock and pop, as well as his magnum opus
- It’s part of the core collection of well recorded rock & pop albums
One of His Best
Son of Schmilsson and the album simply titled Harry are two other superb Nilsson records that both come highly recommended. Harry is my favorite of them all, perhaps because it was so different from anything that I’d ever heard up to that point (I was 15 at the time). A Little Touch… is also a personal favorite, with the great American songbook done in Nilsson’s inimitable style.
By the way, if you get a chance to see the documentary “Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?),” you should definitely check it out. Most of us here have seen it by now and it’s a ton of fun.