Masterpieces of Soul

Soul, RnB, Blues, Reggae, etc. Masterpieces

Cruising With Ruben & The Jets – A Desert Island Disc for Yours Truly

More of the Music of Frank Zappa

  • This early Blue Label Verve LP boasts INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from first note to last
  • Both sides here are exceptionally clean, clear and present with a big bottom end, an abundance of energy and lots of space around all of the players
  • The new CD – with its modernized sound and wrong-headed re-recorded rhythm tracks – is a bad joke next to the best early pressings
  • “To the unexperienced, songs like ‘Cheap Thrills,’ ‘Deseri,’ and ‘Jelly Roll Gum Drop’ can sound like an average doo wop song. A closer look reveals unusual chord sequences, Stravinsky quotes, and hilariously moronic lyrics — all that wrapped in four-way harmony vocals and linear piano triplets.

Is the thought bubble on the cover the real story behind the album?

Is this the Mothers of Invention recording under a different name in a last ditch attempt to get their cruddy music on the radio?

Amazing sound for this record of greasy love songs and cretin simplicity to offer to audiophiles and music lovers alike from all corners of the world. We absolutely LOVE this album here at Better Records, or at least that portion of Better Records that remembers it from high school still loves it (which would narrow it down to a subset of just me I guess, but who’s counting?).

Anyway, it’s a classic of twisted doo-wop that belongs in your collection, and a real Desert Island Disc for yours truly. At least we think you should give it a chance anyway; hearing it sound this good might just make a believer out of you too.

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Stevie Wonder – Fulfillingness’ First Finale

More of the Music of Stevie Wonder

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  • An early Tamla pressing of Stevie Wonder’s 1974 Soul Masterpiece with solid Double Plus (A++) sound on both sides – fairly (and unusually) quiet vinyl too
  • This record is rarely pressed on good vinyl and very hard to find without marks that play, so if you’re looking for the quietest copy we can find with exceptionally good sound, this is it!
  • Finding the right balance between Tubey Magical richness and transparency is the trick, and we think this copy strikes that balance about as well as any pressing we’ve heard
  • “Boogie On Reggae Woman” and “You Haven’t Done Nothing” were the big hits but the other tracks on the album are where the real Stevie Wonder magic can be found
  • 4 1/2 stars [but we give it 5]: “The songs and arrangements are the warmest since Talking Book, and Stevie positively caresses his vocals on this set, encompassing the vagaries of love, from dreaming of it (‘Creepin”) to being bashful of it (‘Too Shy to Say’) to knowing when it’s over (‘It Ain’t No Use’).”
  • We’ve 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. Fulfillingness’ First Finale is a good example of a record most audiophiles don’t know well but should.
  • If you’re a Stevie Wonder fan — and what audiophile wouldn’t be? — this title from 1974 is clearly one of his two best in our opinion, right up there with his Masterpiece, Innervisions.

We’re big fans of Stevie here at Better Records, but it’s always a challenge to find good sound for his albums. Tons of great songs here, including the ones everybody knows, Boogie On Reggae Woman and You Haven’t Done Nothing. Both sound WONDERFUL on this pressing.

But…

For the first time in my life, over the course of the last ten years or so I’ve really gotten to know the album well, having found a CD at a local store to play in the car (and now I also have a cassette to play in my Walkman while working out).

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Earth, Wind & Fire – That’s The Way of the World

More of the Music of Earth, Wind and Fire

  • EWF’s smash hit LP, here with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish – remarkably quiet vinyl too
  • Both sides are open, spacious and transparent, with a huge three-dimensional soundfield and an energy level that’s off the charts
  • Includes EWF classics “Shining Star” and, of course, “That’s The Way of The World”
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Earth, Wind & Fire has delivered more than its share of excellent albums, but if a person could own only one EWF release, the logical choice would be That’s the Way of the World, which was the band’s best album as well as its best-selling. There are no dull moments on World, one of the strongest albums of the 70s and EWF’s crowning achievement.”

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Tower of Power – Back To Oakland

More Soul, Blues, and R&B

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Back To Oakland you’ve heard
  • Our Hot Stamper pressings are rich, warm and dynamic, with plenty of analog Tubey Magic
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more richness, presence and energy on this copy than anything else around, and that’s especially true for whatever godawful Heavy Vinyl pressing is currently being foisted on an unsuspecting record buying public
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Back to Oakland had tougher, funkier and better-produced cuts, stronger vocals from Lenny Williams, and included an excellent ballad in ‘Time Will Tell,’ and a rousing tempo in ‘Don’t Change Horses (In the Middle of a Stream).'”

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Flack / Hathaway – Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway

More of the Music of Roberta Flack

  • Boasting two STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides or close to them, we guarantee you’ve never heard Roberta and Donny’s 1972 collaboration sound remotely as good as it does on this vintage copy
  • There’s Tubey Magic, sweetness and spaciousness all over this recording
  • One of our favorite duet albums, Flack and the woefully underrated Soul Man Donny Hathaway are in top form here
  • 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 stars: “A duet classic, and perhaps the most popular album Roberta Flack made. ‘Where Is the Love’ dominated urban contemporary radio for almost the entire year, while ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ was just as influential…”

These soulful duets sound wonderful. The best sides are big, bold, open and transparent with a huge three-dimensional soundfield, strong presence, good rhythmic energy, and wonderfully dynamic leads and choruses. (more…)

Aretha Franklin – Live at Fillmore West

More of the Music of Aretha Franklin

  • A vintage pressing of this classic live album with an INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side two – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Aretha’s cover of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is truly amazing, but really, there’s not a weak track here – her covers of current material take those songs to another level entirely
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The music here sparkles and crackles with the energy of a top-flight rhythm section — Cornell Dupree on guitar, Bernard Purdie on drums, and Jerry Jemmott on bass, with Billy Preston on organ, Curtis on saxophone, and the Memphis Horns… the most dramatic and deeply satisfying of Aretha Franklin’s live recordings, and is a historical document that every soul fan should own…”

Aretha’s cover of Bridge Over Troubled Water has STUNNINGLY GOOD SOUND and check out how good Ray Charles’s voice sounds when he guests on Spirit In The Dark!

Please note that there is some low-level stage buzz behind the music at times. It’s noted in the liner notes, so it’s obviously not a problem with this copy. It’s mildly annoying, but it’s certainly not a dealbreaker. The music and sound are still very enjoyable. One other note — side two seems to be cut a little lower than side one, so give side two a little extra volume for best results.

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Average White Band / Self-Titled

More Soul, Blues and R&B

  • This vintage Atlantic pressing of this classic White Soul album boasts seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Big, rich, and open (particularly on side two) – we guarantee you have never heard this album sound even remotely as good as this copy does
  • “Pick Up The Pieces” is rockin’ like it should, finally, but really, there’s not a weak track on the album
  • 4 1/2 stars: “AWB embraced soul and funk with so much conviction that it was clear this was anything but an ‘average’ white band.”

We’ve been playing this record for years, but until finding a very Hot copy back in 2007 we had no idea what a sonic monster it could be. We didn’t have enough clean copies around to do a full shootout at that time for a very good reason — we’d never heard this record sound particularly good before. The typical copy tends to be smeary, with sour horns and not very much energy.

The overall sound on both of these sides is lively and energetic with superb transparency. The bass is deep, rich, and tight — just what this funky music demands. The brass sounds wonderful — it has just the right amount of bite and you can really hear the air moving through the horns.  It’s smooth, sweet, airy, open, spacious and alive.

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Albert King / Born Under a Bad Sign

More Electric Blues

  • Born Under A Bad Sign returns to the site for the first time in years, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides of this original Stax pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • These are just a few of the the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “big and tubey and 3D”…”jumping out of the speakers”…”very full vox”…”weighty and rich”…”great energy”…”so much room and detail”
  • No other copy came close to this one, and we had a bunch, many of which earned grades of 1.5+ because,  on this record, you really have to know what to look for in the dead wax
  • Incredibly dynamic, rich and full, with lots of texture to the guitars, this copy brought the music to life right in our listening room
  • Accept no substitutes – no reissue of the album can ever give you the energy, size and you-are-there presence that’s on this disc
  • 5 stars: “It was immediately influential at the time and, over the years, it has only grown in stature as one of the very greatest electric blues albums of all time.”

A Must Own Record

We consider this album a Masterpiece. It’s a recording that belongs in any serious soul, blues, and R&B collection.

Others that belong in that category can be found here.

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Whitney Houston – Self-Titled

More of the Music of Whitney Houston

  • Stunning sound for Whitney’s debut LP, with both sides earning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • This album has the kind of smooth, rich, tonally correct analog sound we thought they had forgotten how to record by 1985 – but here it is, thank goodness
  • Consistently strong material: “You Give Good Love,” “Saving All My Love for You,” “How Will I Know,” “All At Once,” and “Greatest Love Of All” (the last of seven (!) singles released from the album)
  • 5 stars: “…introduced the world to ‘The Voice,’ an octave-spanning, gravity-defying melismatic marvel.”

The copies that do well in our shootouts have qualities common to many of the other male and female Hot Stamper vocal pressings we offer. The better copies are big, rich, clear and transparent, with breathy, immediate vocals.

Hardness, thinness, shrillness and the like — the kind of sound you would expect from a 1985 recording — will be very costly for any copy we play. I’m sure that sound can be found on the CD, and for a lot less money.

Energy and enthusiasm are key as well. You want to get the feeling that Whitney is really putting her all into these songs, and the better copies let you do that.

Space and depth are nice to have; otherwise you might as well be listening to the radio.

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Stevie Wonder – Innervisions

More of the Music of Stevie Wonder

  • With STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them throughout, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Innervisions you’ve heard
  • A Stevie Wonder classic as well as a proud member of our Top 100, but you will need a copy like this one to prove that it belongs there
  • Richness, warmth, Tubey Magic, and clarity are important to the sound, and here you will find plenty of all four
  • 5 stars: “Stevie Wonder applied his tremendous songwriting talents to the unsettled social morass that was the early ’70s and produced one of his greatest, most important works, a rich panoply of songs addressing drugs, spirituality, political ethics, and what looked to be the failure of the ’60s dream – all set within a collection of charts as funky and catchy as any he’d written before.”
  • This is our pick for Free’s best sounding album. Roughly 150 other listings for the best recording by an artist or group can be found here on the blog.
  • If any record can be called a Must Own, Stevie Wonder’s masterpiece from 1973 is one, slotting in nicely right at the top of any list of the greatest soul albums of all time, if not THE greatest

Millions of these were made, but a whole lot of them sure weren’t made right.

Years ago we made some progress with regard to the various stampers and pressing plants we liked best, but trying to find clean copies with the right matrix numbers has proved challenging. Even when you do get the copies with good stampers, they often don’t sound all that amazing. I had practically given up on making this shootout happen until about ten years ago, when a friend dropped off a copy that had seriously good sound.

It didn’t turn out to be the ultimate copy — that’s why shootouts are crucially important to the discovery of the best pressings — but it was so enjoyable that we decided to give Innervisions another try, and since that time we’ve gotten better and better at finding, cleaning and playing Stevie Wonder’s Masterpiece, a record that should be played regularly and one that belongs in any right-thinking audiophile’s collection.

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