Top Artists – Richard Thompson (also Linda Thompson)

Shoot Out The Lights – Bigger, Taller, Wider, Deeper

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Richard Thompson Available Now

One of the qualities we don’t talk about nearly enough on the site is the SIZE of a record’s presentation. Some copies of the album don’t extend all the way to the outside edges of the speakers, and don’t seem to take up all the space from the floor to the ceiling. Other copies do, creating a huge soundfield from which the instruments and voices positively jump out of the speakers. 

When you hear a copy that can do that, needless to say (at least to anyone who’s actually bought some of our best Hot Stamper pressings) it’s an entirely different listening experience.

With constant improvements to the system, Shoot Out the Lights is now so powerful a recording that we had no choice but to add it to our Top 100 list in 2014, but we would go even further than that and say that it would belong on a list of the Top Ten Best Sounding Rock Records of All Time.

The guitars are HUGE — they positively leap out of the speakers on the title cut, freeing themselves from a studio that seems already to be the size of a house.

Not long ago we played an amazing copy of The Sky Is Crying, one of the biggest — and by that we mean tallest, widest and deepest — sounding records we have ever heard. This album is every bit as big. It’s nothing less than astounding.

We live for that sound here at Better Records. If you do too, you might want to check out the albums in this group we consider to be Demo Discs for size and space.

There is the kind of solid, powerful kick to the drums on every track that only the best of the best rock records ever display, the Back in Blacks and Zep IIs, with deep punchy bass augmenting the drums, just as it does on the Hot Stamper pressings of those two titles.

It’s no exaggeration to say that this record should put to shame 99% of all the rock records you have ever heard.

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We Don’t Offer Domestic Pressings of Pour Down Like Silver for One Very Simple Reason

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Richard Thompson Available Now

In spite of the fact that the domestic pressings of this Richard and Linda Thompson classic from 1974 were mastered by the likes of Kendun and Sterling — two of the greatest mastering houses of all time, — they have never impressed us with their sound quality.

The biggest problems with this record would be obvious to even the casual listener: gritty, spitty vocals; lack of richness; bright tonality; lack of bass; no real space or transparency, etc.

The domestic Island pressings did not do nearly as well in our shootout as the best Island imports, no surprise there as the early UK records were mastered by one of our favorite engineers.

Avoid the Carthage pressings mastered by Sterling. They came in last in our shootout.

The domestic breakdown follows:

Black Island Domestic #1

  • Tubey but hot and spitty.

Black Island Domestic #2

  • Flat, dry and hot (glary or bright)

Carthage Domestic recut from 1983, Sterling on both sides

  • So sandy and lean! They really wanted to add some top end (!)

Defending the Indefensible

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Richard & Linda Thompson / Sunnyvista

More of the Music of Richard Thompson

  • Boasting two solid Double Plus (A++) sides, this original UK Chrysalis pressing (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in years) is doing just about everything right
  • None of the domestic copies we played were more than passable, and even worse, most of the Brit originals we played were almost as smeary, veiled and opaque
  • Both of these sides are simply bigger, more present, more energetic and just plain more fun than most others in our recent shootout
  • If you’re a fan, this is the only way we know of to hear this album sound the way it should
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…the wittiest and most joyous album Richard & Linda made together.”

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Richard Thompson / Action Packed: The Best of the Capitol Years

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Richard Thompson Available Now

UPDATE 2025

Note that this review was written in 2001 when the record came out and we were still selling sealed new releases based on the audition of a single copy. (I had the play copy of this record in my personal collection for years and never got around to playing it, one of the downsides of having to play records all day to make money, resulting in little time to play the recordings of favorite artists that lack a customer base.

We have no idea what Action Packed would sound like these days on the much more revealing system we use now. I do know that the CD is very good. It’s probably the best way to approach the music initially. If you become a fan, consider the vinyl.

We would love to do a shootout for this title, but at a hundred bucks or more a pop it’s hard to imagine that a decision to devote the resources to such a project would be wise on our part.

We already do plenty of shootouts for records that are hard to sell, of titles that should be more popular with audiophiles but for some reason just aren’t.

Our Review from 2001

Another top outing on TWO clear vinyl LP’s from the master of modern electric folk music. It doesn’t get any better than this.

The sound is excellent and the music is some of the best Richard Thompson has ever made. If I had to choose one later Richard Thompson album, this would probably be it.

Almost every one of these pressings is very slightly dished, but this should not have any effect on the sound, which is excellent.

Thompson’s lovely duet with his son on Persuasion is worth the price of the album.

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Richard and Linda Thompson – Hokey Pokey

More of the Music of Richard Thompson

  • Superb sound for this classic Richard and Linda Thompson album, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Clearly one of the better copies from our most recent shootout, with much more body, punchier bass and more detail than most others we played
  • Everything you want in the sound of a good British Folk Rock album is here in abundance on this original UK Island pressing – enjoy!
  • Marks 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: “The Thompsons, from the opening Irish fiddle derivation of a Chuck Berry riff, through Linda’s exquisite performance of ‘A Heart Needs a Home,’ to their cover of Mike Waterson’s ‘Mole in a Hole’ which closes the record, once again create a timeless amalgam of folk and rock…”

This is one of Richard and Linda Thompson’s better releases, their second in fact, following the luminous I Want to See the Bright Lights Shine from a year earlier. Rich and full-bodied, with big bass and gobs of studio ambience, this pressing presents the music the way it was meant to be heard (more…)

Richard and Linda Thompson – First Light

More of the Music of Richard Thompson

  • The Hot Stamper debut of First Light, here with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides of this vintage UK pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • There’s real Tubey Magic on this album, along with breathy vocals and in-your-listening-room midrange presence
  • You get clean, clear, full-bodied, lively and musical analog sound from first note to last

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Richard Thompson – Henry the Human Fly

More Richard Thompson

  • This original UK Pink Rim Island pressing of Thompson’s solo debut (one of only a handful of copies to ever hit the site) boasts two very good Hot Stamper sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • It’s richer, fuller and with more presence than the average copy, 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: “Cuts such as ‘The Poor Ditching Boy,’ ‘The New St. George,’ and ‘The Old Changing Way’ have the timelessness of the best traditional material Fairport [Convention] had been mining in the past, while ‘Roll Over Vaughn Williams,’ with its swirling electric guitar, and the accordion and electric guitar interplay of the folk-rocker ‘The Angels Took My Racehorse Away’ are prime examples of Thompson’s vision of fusing the old and the new.”

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Fairport Convention – Unhalfbricking

More British Folk Rock

  • This early British Island pressing of the band’s very well-recorded third album is doing just about everything right, with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • A copy like this is a rare audiophile treat – here is the rich, warm, clear, natural and lively sound you want for Fairport Convention
  • This is a superb collection of songs, including two previously unreleased Bob Dylan tracks, as well as Sandy Denny’s first foray into songwriting, with the achingly powerful “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?”
  • 5 stars: “Unhalfbricking was a transitional album for the young Fairport Convention, in which the group shed its closest ties to its American folk-rock influences and started to edge toward a more traditional British folk-slanted sound.”

Forget the dubby domestic LPs on A&M and whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days — the early UK vinyl is the only way to fly on Unhalfbricking.

The ‘haunting, ethereal’ vocals of the lovely Sandy Denny are sublime here. Some of you may recognize her voice from a ditty called “Battle of Evermore,” found on a grayish 70s rock album that no one even bothered to give a name. Wonder whatever became of that group? No doubt by now their story is lost to the sands of time. I have to say I thought the music was pretty good though.

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Shoot Out The Lights – Loud Versus Live Versus The Heavy Vinyl Reissue

thompshoot_1503_1_1282591967Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Richard Thompson Available Now

Here’s a thought: if 180 gram records are supposed to be an improvement over the original pressings, why is it that they NEVER sound big and bold like our best Hot Stamper pressings?

And I do mean never; I’ve played hundreds of them over the years and have yet to hear this kind of sound on any of them. At this point I would have to conclude that it is simply not possible.

If you have big speakers, a large listening room and like to play your records loud, there is no modern reissue that will ever give you the thrill that a vintage pressing like this can. (Of course, to fully appreciate the effect it obviously helps if you have a White Hot Stamper copy to play.)

Heavy Vinyl

Years ago, about the time that I was becoming disenchanted with Heavy Vinyl in general and Four Men With Beards in particular, that label released a modern reissue of the album. I could never work up the energy to bother to play it. The chances of it sounding like one of our Hot Stamper pressings are slim to none and much closer to none.

UPDATE 2024

I have now played the remastered Shoot Out the Lights and it’s very good!  It might be at best a low level Hot Stamper, maybe 1.5+, but for Heavy Vinyl that is indeed exceptional.

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Richard & Linda Thompson / Pour Down Like Silver

More of the Music of Richard Thompson

  • An original UK Island pressing with a STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side two
  • There’s real Tubey Magic on this album, along with breathy vocals and in-your-listening-room midrange presence
  • Exceptionally present, real and resolving, this pressing is guaranteed to murder any remastering undertaken by anyone – past, present and future
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…those brave enough to look past its dark surface will find a startlingly beautiful album; it’s not an easy album to listen to, but it greatly rewards the effort.”

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