Top Artists – Loggins and Messina

Loggins and Messina – The Best of Friends

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  • Boasting excellent Double Plus (A++) Master Tape sound or BETTER throughout, this vintage Columbia pressing rocks with all the energy that L&M’s super-tight band is capable of – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Spaciousness, richness and freedom from grit and grain are key to the better pressings, and here you will find all three
  • These sides are bigger, more natural, warmer and more solid than those of any other copy you’ve heard or your money back
  • So many of the band’s best songs on one LP make this a Must-Own

The best news we have to report concerning this compilation is that it does not sound at all like a compilation, and by that we mean that the better copies don’t sound “dubby,” flat, small or compressed. The better copies, in fact, rock, with all the energy that the band is capable of producing, which, in the case of Loggins and Messina, is a great deal.

You may have noticed that we do very few Greatest Hits albums here at Better Records, for the simple reason that most greatest hits albums don’t sound very good. This is one of the few exceptions to that rule that we’ve come across in our record playing travels over the years.

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Loggins and Messina – On Stage

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More Country and Country Rock

  • Tubey Magical, lively and clear, with three-dimensionality that will fill your listening room from wall to wall
  • A pressing this good puts you front and center at these live performances, recorded on two dates, at the famous Orpheum Theatre in Boston and the incomparable Carnegie Hall
  • 4 stars: “After a gorgeous yet subdued introduction by Loggins as a solo performer on a handful of numbers, Messina and the band take the stage and loft the proceedings into a bracing mix of folk- and country-rock.”
  • If you’re a fan of the band, this 1974 release surely belongs in your collection

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Loggins & Messina – Sittin’ In

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  • An outstanding copy of L&M’s debut Masterpiece with Double Plus (A++) grades from first note to last
  • The sound is big, lively, open and clear with Tubey Magical richness that only the best vintage pressings can show you
  • One of our favorite albums, and with every improvement in the system this one just keeps getting better and better
  • Every track on side one is brilliant, from “Nobody But You,” to “Danny’s Song,” to “Vahevala,” to the ending of the ‘Trilogy’ with “Peace of Mind”
  • 4 1/2 stars: “With their infectious blend of country, folk, rock and Caribbean music, L&M started out at the top of their game”
  • If you’re a fan of this remarkable duo, and what audiophile wouldn’t be?, this title from 1971 is clearly one of their best
  • The complete list of titles from 1971 that we’ve reviewed to date can be found here.

We love this album and have been playing it regularly since it came out in 1971. That’s a long time, and the good news is it just keeps getting better and better, like all the best records in your collection should. (more…)

These Choruses Really Get Up and Going

Hot Stamper Pressings with Big, Clear and Lively Choruses Available Now

At about the two minute mark the big chorus in Watching the River Run is also a great test for weight, resolution, dynamic energy, and freedom from strain in the loudest parts. When the whole band is really belting it out, the shortcomings of any copy will be exposed, assuming you are playing the album at loud levels on big dynamic speakers.

It was a key test every pressing had to pass. That’s what makes it a good test disc.

When the music gets loud you want it to get better, with more size, energy and, especially, emotional power, just they way it would be heard in concert.

Any strain or congestion in the choruses we hear in our shootout causes the pressing in question to be downgraded substantially.

Hot Stampers are all about the life of the music, and when this music gets lively, it needs to be clear and clean.

This is of course one of the biggest issues we have with Heavy Vinyl — it never gets up and it never gets going the way vintage records can. “Boring” is the adjective we most commonly use to critique the few we hear, and who wants to listen to boring records?

EQ Issues

Practically all copies have a midrange equalization problem, with a lack of lower mids and boosted upper mids, which often thins out the vocals and leads to hardness and honkiness.

The better copies manage to keep the EQ anomalies within bounds while giving us full-bodied pianos; rich, lively vocals, full of presence and brimming with enthusiasm; harmonically-rich guitars, and a three-dimensional soundstage that reveals the space around them all.

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Loggins and Messina – So Fine

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More Country and Country Rock

  • This shootout winning White Hot Stamper side two will show you just how good this album can sound
  • Side two has space and energy like no other, with plenty of weight down low (an L&M trademark)
  • Side one is richly Tubey Magical, with the kind of breathy vocals that are critical to the better copies
  • The last of the good Loggins and Messina albums and well worth a listen

The reading here of A Lover’s Question is one of my favorite tracks on any L&M album. The music on side two might be somewhat better than side one, so start your listening on that side to get the most from this collection of favorite early rock and roll tracks.

Side Two

This copy is so big, clean, clear and rich it makes the mix work like magic. Here everything is laid out perfectly. No other copy could do what this copy was doing, which is basically showing you just how good the master tape must be.

Side One

Rich vocals, an extended top end, with good clarity and presence, this side was getting the heart of the music right.

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Loggins & Messina – Full Sail

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  • Excellent Double Plus sound or better on both sides
  • Our first shootout for the album – it’s been a long time coming
  • Both sides are clean, clear, lively and present with deep punchy bass
  • “[Messina] achieves a musical flow that’s exhilarating …”

Practically all copies have a midrange equalization problem, with a lack of lower mids and boosted upper mids, which often thins out the vocals and leads to hardness and honkiness.

The better copies manage to keep the EQ anomalies within bounds while giving us full-bodied pianos; rich, lively vocals, full of presence and brimming with enthusiasm; harmonically-rich guitars, and a three-dimensional soundstage that reveals the space around them all. (more…)

What to Listen For on Sittin’ In

More of the Music of Loggins and Messina

Practically any copy you find will have a bit of a boost in the bottom end. The kick drum really kicks on this album, more than it should in fact.

The elements that make up a good sounding Loggins and Messina album can be found, in varying degrees, on all the Hot Stamper pressings we offer. Permit us to break them down for you. (We’ve borrowed heavily from ourselves here so if this material looks familiar don’t be surprised, we’ve used it before.)

Top End Extension

Absolutely critical to this record. Most copies of this album have no extreme highs, which causes the percussion and guitar harmonics to be blunted and dull. Without extreme highs the percussion can’t extend up and away from the other elements in the mix. Consequently these elements end up fighting for space in the midrange and getting lost in the dense mixes that Jim Messina favors (and we audiophiles love).

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