Early=Best

This record will sound its best on the right early pressing.

Billy Joel – The Stranger

More of the Music of Billy Joel

  • This vintage pressing of Joel’s 1977 breakthrough album (thanks, Phil!) is doing most right, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them
  • Tonally correct, solid, open, clear, with plenty of hard-rockin’ energy and present vocals (particularly on side two), what’s not to like?
  • “The Stranger,” “Only the Good Die Young,” “Vienna,” “Just The Way You Are,” “Movin’ Out,” “She’s Always A Woman” – some of Joel’s strongest songwriting can be found right here
  • We are especially big fans of the songs “Vienna,” a top track that often flies under the radar in body of work
  • 4 1/2 stars: “None of his ballads have been as sweet or slick as ‘Just the Way You Are’; he never had created a rocker as bouncy or infectious as ‘Only the Good Die Young’; and the glossy production of ‘She’s Always a Woman’ disguises its latent misogynist streak… Joel rarely wrote a set of songs better than those on The Stranger, nor did he often deliver an album as consistently listenable.”

We recently completed a shootout for the album and this was one of the better copies we heard. After playing a stack of mediocre Strangers, we are completely confident in saying that you’ll have a very hard time finding a copy that sounds this good.

The Stranger is chock full of some of Joel’s biggest hits, including Just The Way You Are, Movin’ Out, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, Only The Good Die Young and She’s Always A Woman. AMG raves about this one (4 1/2 stars) and it’s easy to see why — this is the kind of pop music that still sounds fresh 40 years (!) after it was recorded and might just be good for another forty years. (more…)

Gilbert and Sullivan – Overtures / Ward

More Recordings in Living Stereo

  • You’ll find INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides of this vintage Shaded Dog pressing of Gilbert and Sullivan’s music
  • It’s also fairly quiet at Mint Minus Minus, a grade that even our most well-cared-for vintage classical titles have trouble playing at
  • Rich and sweet Living Stereo sound from the first note to the last – who can resist these sublime orchestral arrangements?
  • The Overtures are played to perfection – for music and sound, this one is hard to fault, a Top Title in every way and one that belongs in every right-thinking audiophile’s collection
  • This pressing is clearly a Demo Disc for orchestral size and space

The hall is HUGE: spacious and open as any you will hear, but not at the expense of richness or fullness. The orchestra is solid and full-bodied, yet the woodwinds and flutes soar above the other sections, so breathy and clear.

How did the Decca (recording) and RCA (mastering) engineers succeed so brilliantly where so many others have failed, failed right up to this very day?

Who knows? It’s still a mystery that has yet to be explained, to our satisfaction anyway.

(more…)

Arnold – Guitar Concertos / Bream

More Living Stereo Recordings

  • Amazing sound throughout this original Shaded Dog pressing, with both sides earning INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades
  • It’s also fairly quiet at Mint Minus Minus, a grade that even our most well-cared-for vintage classical titles have trouble playing at
  • These sides are wonderfully full-bodied, rich and present, using state-of-the-art All Tube Living Stereo recording technology that was so advanced in 1961 it thought it could transport a living, breathing Julian Bream directly from his studio into your listening room
  • It turns out that with today’s playback systems and cleaning technologies, the dream of being in the “living presence” of the performers has become a reality
  • Bream’s guitar sounds sweetly natural, not overly detailed and the orchestra is exceptionally well recorded, as we would expect from a good RCA of this period

(more…)

Bruce Springsteen – Tunnel of Love

More of the Music of Bruce Springsteen

  • You’ll find solid Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this original copy – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • On the better pressings like this one, you get something approaching the warmth and unforced clarity of analog we audiophiles crave
  • Some of Bruce’s best material is here: the title track and “One Step Up” are two of our favorites
  • 5 stars: “Bruce Springsteen followed the most popular album of his career, Born in the U.S.A., with [a] low-key, anguished effort, Tunnel of Love.”

As is the case for the Bob Clearmountain mix of Born in the USA, the sound is not exactly vintage analog at its best, but at least on vinyl you get more analog qualities than would otherwise be possible. This is 1987, not 1967 and not even 1977. That said, the copies that earned the better grades were big and rich, with plenty of studio space and nicely present vocals.

Mostly what they do well is that they fill out the sound and take the edge off of it without losing musical information, dynamics or energy. Not many copies managed that feat but this one did. (more…)

Jefferson Starship – Red Octopus

More of the Music of The Jefferson Aircraft

  • An outstanding copy of the band’s sophomore release with solid Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish
  • 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
  • 4 1/2 stars: “… there can be little doubt that it was Balin’s irresistible ballad ‘Miracles,’ the biggest hit single in the Jefferson Whatever catalog, that propelled Red Octopus to the top of the charts, the only Jefferson album to chart that high and the best-selling album in their collective lives.”

(more…)

The Eagles / The Long Run

More of the Music of The Eagles

  • With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides, this copy has a rockin’ “Long Run” like you have never heard
  • The sonics are full, rich and vibrant with impressive punch down low and nice extension up top
  • The best songs prove that the Eagles were still at the height of their powers, at least some of the time…
  • The first two songs on both sides are practically as good as it gets for mainstream rock from this era – they’re playlist staples of Classic Rock stations from coast to coast to this day
  • The last song on side two, “The Sad Cafe,” is also a standout. Others, as they used to say in school, ‘need improvement.’
  • But five Killer Eagles songs is nothing to sneeze at. This is an album that belongs in most rock and pop collections, even if you choose to only listen to the best material on it.
  • “The Long Run is a chilling and altogether brilliant evocation of Hollywood’s nightly Witching Hour, that nocturnal feeding frenzy first detailed by Warren Zevon on his haunting Asylum debut (Warren Zevon, 1976) and the equally powerful Excitable Boy.” – Rolling Stone

The True Test For Side One

Want to know if you have a good side one on your copy? Here’s an easy test. Timothy B. Schmit’s vocal on “I Can’t Tell You Why” rarely sounds right. Most of the time he’s muffled, pretty far back in the soundstage, and the booth he’s in has practically no ambience. On the good copies, he’s not exactly jumping out of the speakers, but he’s clear, focused, and his voice is breathy and full of emotional subtleties that make the song the heartbreaking powerhouse it is.

This is why you need a Hot Stamper. Most copies don’t let you feel the song. Not like this one does. And the rest of the band is cookin’ here as well. From the big, full-bodied bass to the fat, punchy snare, this side is doing pretty much everything we want it to.

(more…)

Billy Joel – An Innocent Man

More of the Music of Billy Joel

  • This copy was doing everything right, with both sides earning KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades
  • Dynamic and open, with driving rhythmic energy – this early pressing brings this great batch of songs to life
  • Jam packed with hits: “An Innocent Man,” “The Longest Time,” “Tell Her About It,” “Uptown Girl,” “Leave a Tender Moment Alone,” and more – seven singles in all
  • “An Innocent Man remained on the U.S. Pop album chart for 111 weeks, becoming Joel’s longest charting studio album behind The Stranger.”
  • 4 stars: “…he’s effortlessly spinning out infectious, memorable melodies in a variety of styles, from the Four Seasons send-up ‘Uptown Girl’ and the soulful ‘Tell Her About It’ to a pair of doo wop tributes, ‘The Longest Time’ and ‘Careless Talk.’ Joel has rarely sounded so carefree either in performance or writing, possibly due to ‘Christie Lee’ Brinkley, a supermodel who became his new love prior to An Innocent Man.”

(more…)

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…)

Jefferson Airplane – Crown of Creation

More of the Music of Jefferson Aircraft

  • Crown of Creation is back on the site after a four and a half year hiatus, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides
  • This may actually be their most well recorded album from the 60s – it’s rich, smooth, sweet, open, natural, and very analog sounding
  • We guarantee there is dramatically more presence and energy on this copy than others you’ve heard, and that’s especially true if you made the mistake of buying some Heavy Vinyl LP
  • “The album captured the group’s rapidly evolving, very heavy live sound within the confines of some fairly traditional song structures, and left ample room for Slick and Marty Balin to express themselves vocally, with Balin turning in one of his most heartfelt and moving performances…”

This is not an easy album to find good sound for, and finding a copy with this kind of richness and transparency is nearly impossible. If you’re a fan, you’ll be hard pressed to do any better than this one.

We played a pile of these recently, and let me tell you — it is tough sledding finding good sounding copies of this one that play quietly. Of course, it didn’t surprise us too much having been through a number of shootouts for Surrealistic Pillow, but it was frustrating just the same.

The sound of the recording itself varies quite a bit from track to track, with songs like Lather sounding amazing but other tracks not so much. These crazy San Francisco hippies were high as a kite and running around with the Grateful Dead, so I’m guessing that getting audiophile quality sound onto vinyl was pretty far down their list of turn-ons. Still, they managed to produce an album with sonic qualities that should appeal to most audiophiles. (more…)

Prince – Around The World In A Day

More of the Music of Prince

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them from top to bottom, we guarantee you’ve never heard Around The World In A Day sound this good
  • This side one is bigger and richer and has more of the rock solid energy that’s missing from the average copy, and side two is not far behind in all those areas
  • Clean and clear and open are nice qualities to have, but rich and full are harder to come by on this record – but here they are! (particularly on this side one)
  • “If Prince had streamlined and rocked up his approach for global domination, now he was creating something more intimate, cerebral, and challenging… a brave and deeply personal project, exploring sounds and ideas that were almost shocking coming from a pop icon at his peak.” – Pitchfork

The best copies sound pretty much the way the best copies of most Classic Rock records sound: tonally correct, rich, clear, sweet, smooth, open, present, lively, big, spacious, Tubey Magical, with breathy vocals and little to no spit, grit, grain or grunge.

That’s the sound of analog, and the best copies of this title have that sound.

(more…)