Labels We Love – Sire

Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense

More of the Music of Talking Heads

 

  • A vintage Sire pressing with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Every five years, like clockwork, we do a shootout for this superb title — our last was in 2021
  • Both of these sides are big, bold and dynamic, with the kind of energy that you rarely find outside of the live event
  • “. . . ‘A bona fide classic,’ opined Neil Jeffries in a five-star review of the reissue for Empire, ‘a perfectly measured snapshot of a widely loved and respected band playing at the height of their powers … No other band could do this. No other music movie soundtrack sounds this good.'” -Wikipedia

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Talking Heads / Remain In Light

More of the Music of Talking Heads

  • Here is a vintage Sire pressing with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Everything we were hoping for from this music is here and more — richness, sweetness, great energy, big time presence, weight down low, punchy drum sound and so on
  • Both of these sides are also open and transparent with lots of space around the different parts
  • The sonics have extraordinarily high-resolution, which lets you hear all the detail and texture of the crazy synths
  • 5 stars: “Even without a single, Remain in Light was a hit, indicating that Talking Heads were connecting with an audience ready to follow their musical evolution, and the album was so inventive and influential, it was no wonder.”

It takes an exceptional pressing to get all the elements correct — the funky bottom end; the processed, multi-tracked vocals; the Brian Eno production weirdness and so on.

This is a brilliant album but a typically problematic record. Most copies get some things right but fail in other areas. There are smeary copies that can’t deliver the punchy bottom you need, grainy copies that make the vocals painful to listen to, and plenty of copies that are just too dark or flat sounding for anyone to enjoy. Note that the first track on both sides will sound the worst. The sound gets better, though, as you get further into the album.

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K.D. Lang – Ingenue

More of the Music of K.D. Lang

  • An original copy of Lang’s audiophile favorite from 1992 with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides
  • The sound of this rare import is rich, full-bodied, lively, and warm, with solid bass and breathy, clear vocals
  • Includes Lang favorites “Miss Chatelaine” and “Constant Craving” – both are guaranteed to sound better than you have ever heard them
  • 4 stars: “… the craft of the album is impressive indeed, and few artists have reinvented themselves with as much poise and panache as lang did on Ingénue.”
  • If you’re a fan of Ms Lang, her classic album from 1992 surely belongs in your collection.

By 1992 records like this were only released on import vinyl and typically went out of print soon after they started their descent down the pop charts. I used to sell them back in the day and supplies were extremely limited and unpredictable. And once they were gone they were virtually never reissued. All of those factors conspire to make the cost of acquiring the mintiest pressings from overseas fairly high, and of course the main reason you have never seen the album on our site before.

Be that as it may, we have this copy available and it is not only very good sounding but the music is every bit as good as I remember it. (more…)

Talking Heads – Little Creatures

More of the Music of the Talking Heads

  • Little Creatures is back on the site for only the second time in eighteen months, here with solid grades on both sides of this original Sire pressing – this one has the Big Beat sound we love, and fairly quiet vinyl too
  • I ask you, what record from 1985 sounds better than Little Creatures?
  • These sides are rockin’ on tracks like “Stay Up Late,” “Road To Nowhere,” “And She Was,” “Creatures of Love” and more
  • Surprisingly big, punchy and open sound for this 1985 pop classic – a Top 100 album and longtime Better Records favorite
  • We used to think that this album was the best sounding one the band had produced, but recently we came across some phenomenally good sounding pressings of their debut, and they now hold the Talking Heads’ crown for best sound
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Ear Candy …a pop album, and an accomplished one, by a band that knew what it was doing.”

We’re huge fans of Little Creatures, and when you hear a copy like this you’ll know exactly why. Not many records from this era sound as amazingly rich as this one, not in our experience anyway.

On the better copies, the sound is punchy, smooth & so ANALOG, with an especially beefy bottom end, the kind a good Big Beat Pop Album record needs. For a good reference think Get The Knack or Parallel Lines.

Tight, punchy, surprisingly deep note-like bass absolutely makes or breaks the sound on Little Creatures. Without the proper bass foundation this funky beat-crazy Talking Heads album can’t BEGIN to do what it’s trying to do: get your feet tappin’ and your body rockin’ to the music.

The better pressings are surprisingly dynamic, with a sweet, often silky top end. The drums are very well recorded throughout — you can really hear the room around that big kit. You will also find that the higher-rez pressings give David Byrne’s vocals the presence and breathy texture they need. The overall sound will be open, spacious, and sweet — even three-dimensional.

The Last Great Talking Heads Album

This is the Last Great Talking Heads album. The first four and this one give you all the Talking Heads music you’ll ever need. Each of them is brilliant in its own way. One of the ways this one is especially brilliant from our admittedly skewed point of view is that it’s the best sounding record the Talking Heads ever made.

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The Pretenders / Self-Titled

More of the Music of Women Who Rock

  • Killer sound throughout this early UK pressing of the band’s debut LP, with both sides earning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • Here are the full-bodied mids, punchy lows, and clear, open, extended highs that let this Pretenders Classic come to life, and beat the pants off the dubby domestic pressing, and anything else you care to put up against it
  • One of engineer Bill Price’s better efforts behind the boards, and Chris Thomas’s production is state of the art
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these Classic Rock records – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 5 stars: “Few rock & roll records rock as hard or with as much originality as the Pretenders’ eponymous debut album. A sleek, stylish fusion of Stonesy rock & roll, new wave pop, and pure punk aggression, Pretenders is teeming with sharp hooks and a viciously cool attitude.”

Price and Thomas

Bill Price engineered and Chris Thomas produced. You may remember them from the Sex Pistols’ debut and The Clash’s London Calling, two amazingly well-recorded albums. Wish we could find them; as I said, dealing with English record sellers is more often than not unpleasant and expensive, in equal measure.

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I Ask You: What Album from 1985 Has Better Sound than Little Creatures?

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Talking Heads Available Now

We’re huge fans of Little Creatures here at Better Records. When you hear one of our Hot Stamper copies you’ll know exactly what we love about it.

Not many records from this era sound as amazingly rich as this one, not in our experience anyway. (As I write this there are four Hot Stamper pressings from 1985 on the site, and one of them is Brothers in Arms, hardly anyone’s idea of audiophile quality sound I venture to say.)

[I was being much too harsh to Brothers in Arms above. The best pressings have superb — albeit modern — sound.]

The recording is simply outstanding — punchy, smooth & so ANALOG, with an especially beefy bottom end, the kind a good Big Beat Pop Album record needs. (For a reference think Get The Knack or Parallel Lines.)

The best copies boast the kind of tight, punchy, surprisingly deep note-like bass that absolutely makes or breaks the sound on Little Creatures. Without the proper bass foundation this funky beat-crazy Talking Heads album can’t BEGIN to do what it’s trying to do: get your feet tappin’ and your body rockin’ to the music.

Top Sound from 1985 – Yes, It IS, or WAS, Possible

The best pressings are amazingly dynamic, with a sweet, often silky top end. The drums are very well recorded throughout — you can really hear the room around that big kit.

On the best copies such as this one David Byrne’s vocals have the presence and breathy texture they need. The overall sound is open, spacious, and sweet, even three-dimensional.

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Talking Heads / Speaking in Tongues

More Talking Heads

  • Both sides of this vintage Sire pressing were giving us the big and bold sound we were looking for, earning solid Double Plus (A++ ) grades
  • “Burning Down the House” – our favorite track on the album and one of the band’s best – is really rockin’ right out of the gate!
  • The sound opens up nicely, allowing you to hear into the music and appreciate the more subtle details, details that more often than not get lost on other pressings
  • 4 stars: “… their most popular album yet…” – it also was #54 on Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 best albums of the 1980s”

We recently finished a shootout for Speaking In Tongues, the band’s 1983 release, the last great Talking Heads album, and were pleased as punch to hear a copy or two deliver the kind of magic that we’ve been getting on Little Creatures.

Most copies of Speaking In Tongues are too flat, dry and veiled to get worked up about, but this one will show you that excellent sound for this album is indeed possible, albeit awfully difficult to find.

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Talking Heads – Fear of Music

More Talking Heads

More Brian Eno

  • You’ll find excellent Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this vintage Sire pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • I’d be hard-pressed to name another group from the era who put out more groundbreaking yet accessible records than the Talking Heads
  • Producer Brian Eno wasn’t shy about adding multiple layers of effects and processing; the texture of Eno’s synthesizers gives the music depth and character
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…the music is becoming denser and more driving… with lyrics that match the music’s power… its better songs are as good as any Talking Heads ever did”
  • If you’re as big a Talking Heads fan as we are, this is a classic from 1979 that belongs in your collection.

As huge fans of this band, it was a major thrill for us to complete a shootout for this album recently. We found that the best copies had wonderful transparency, meaty bass, Art Rockin’ energy and a refreshing overall freedom from distortion.

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Talking Heads – True Stories

More Talking Heads

  • With two solid Double Plus (A++) sides or close to them, this copy is guaranteed to handily beat any True Stories you’ve heard – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Here’s the Midrange Magic (particularly on side one) that’s surely missing from whatever 180g reissue has been made from the tapes (or, to be clear, a modern digital master copied from who-knows-what-tapes)
  • “…True Stories is not without its charms… ‘Dream Operator’ is one of the most affecting tunes Talking Heads ever recorded; the closing-credits theme ‘City of Dreams’ is similarly touching.”

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Talking Heads – Talking Heads: 77

More of the Music of The Talking Heads

  • A vintage pressing of Talking Heads’ debut album (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in years) with excellent Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom
  • Big and open with lots of layered depth to the soundfield, and sonics that positively jump out of the speakers
  • The sound here is so analog — warm, rich and smooth with the kind of fullness and life that are hard to come by for this music
  • The sound of the best pressings is raw, real and exceptionally unprocessed
  • 5 stars: “Talking Heads threw you off balance, but grabbed your attention with a sound that seemed alternately threatening and goofy. The music was undeniably catchy, even at its most ominous, especially on ‘Psycho Killer,’ Byrne’s supreme statement of demented purpose. And that made Talking Heads: 77 a landmark album

If I were to compile a list of my favorite rock and pop albums from 1977, this album would definitely be on it

We’re huge Talking Heads fans at Better Records, but we’d never tried to shoot out this album before 2011 because the copies we had played to that point were no great shakes. And that trend of mediocity only continued in the ensuing decade since, alas.

We’d forgotten how amazing this album can sound on the best pressings. I’d even say that it’s a sonic step up from Fear Of Music and Remain In Light, probably tying with More Songs About Buildings and Food and Little Creatures for top Talking Heads honors.

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