Top Artists – The Average White Band

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.

(more…)

Average White Band – Cut The Cake

More Average White Band

  • Incredible sound throughout for this Atlantic pressing with each side earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades
  • Check out the title track and School Boy Crush for some funky fun with great sound
  • We’ve always been big fans of their AWB album, but it was only recently that we discovered how good Cut The Cake can sound on the right pressing
  • All Music Guide calls it “one of their finest, most engaging albums” and when it sounds this good, we sure aren’t going to argue!
  • Check out the title track and School Boy Crush for some funky fun with great sound!

(more…)

Average White Band – We Played a Killer Copy in 2007

More of the Music of the Average White Band

More Soul, Blues and R&B Albums with Hot Stampers

FREAKISHLY GOOD SOUND ON BOTH SIDES! We’ve been playing this record for years, but we’ve sure never heard it sound like this! The bass — so crucial to this music — is ABSOLUTE PERFECTION.

Keepin’ It To Myself sounds OUT OF THIS WORLD!

We didn’t have enough clean copies around to do a full shootout for a very good reason — we’ve NEVER heard this record sound this amazing before. The typical copy tends to be smeary with sour horns and not very much energy.

So imagine our surprise when we dropped the needle on side one of this copy and heard RICH, FULL-BODIED MASTER TAPE SOUND. After auditioning a few tracks, we dropped the needle on the flipside and heard more of the same!

It bears repeating: we’ve never heard this album sound this good.

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.

Pick Up The Pieces has a bit of radio EQ going on — it’s slightly midrangy at times — but all of the other big hits sound SUPERB.

Without doing a larger shootout we can’t guarantee this is the best sounding copy in the world, but it’s certainly hard to imagine this music sounding much better than this — smooth, sweet, airy, open, spacious and ALIVE. We rate both sides at least A++ — the best sounding songs have Master Tape Sound.