If only their recordings were better. Most of their early albums sound like they are playing on an AM radio.
Thanks god The Beatles were so well recorded (although I have to say With the Beatles and A Hard Day’s Night are consistently thinner and brighter than they should be, and thinner and brighter than the albums that follow and Please Please Me before them).
This is a rare, original Hollies Parlophone Black & Yellow label LP in stereo.
The album has very good sound on surprisingly quiet vinyl.
“An admirable effort that may stand as the group’s most accomplished album of the ’60s.” — AMG
“The Hollies were very much a pop group and didn’t let their somewhat more sober and introspective compositions stand in the way of their glittering harmonies and jangling guitars. Occasional brass, banjo, bells, and vibrating piano embellish their basic rock instrumentation on this pleasant, if hardly earthshaking, work. The circus-like “Stop! Stop! Stop!,” with its manic banjo, was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic; the good-natured “Pay You Back with Interest” was a Top 30 hit in America; and the jazzy “Tell Me to My Face” was one of their best ’60s album tracks.” — AMG
This is an Older Review.
Most of the older reviews you see are for records that did not go through the shootout process, the revolutionary approach to finding better sounding pressings we developed in the early 2000s and have since turned into a fine art.
We found the records you see in these older listings by cleaning and playing a pressing or two of the album, which we then described and priced based on how good the sound and surfaces were. (For out Hot Stamper listings, the Sonic Grades and Vinyl Playgrades are listed separately.)
We were often wrong back in those days, something we have no reason to hide. Audio equipment and record cleaning technologies have come a long way since those darker days, a subject we discuss here.
Currently, 99% (or more!) of the records we sell are cleaned, then auditioned under rigorously controlled conditions, up against a number of other pressings. We award them sonic grades, and then condition check them for surface noise.
As you may imagine, this approach requires a great deal of time, effort and skill, which is why we currently have a highly trained staff of about ten. No individual or business without the aid of such a committed group could possibly dig as deep into the sound of records as we have, and it is unlikely that anyone besides us could ever come along to do the kind of work we do.
The term “Hot Stampers” gets thrown around a lot these days, but to us it means only one thing: a record that has been through the shootout process and found to be of exceptionally high quality.
The result of our labor is the hundreds of titles seen here, every one of which is unique and guaranteed to be the best sounding copy of the album you have ever heard or you get your money back.
Further Reading
Super rare original Yellow and Black Parlophone Label Hollies LP in very good condition.
Typical Hollies sound: a bit too much upper midrange. But that’s the way they wanted you to hear it. I doubt if you can find a better sounding version of this album than this copy.
EXCELLENT SOUND for both sides of this classic Hollies album. We collected these for a long time in hopes of finding a copy that could really deliver, and this one certainly fits the bill! Most people are probably most interested in the title track — and I’m pleased to report it sounds wonderful here — but this album is actually quite solid with a number of good songs. The immediacy and bottom end weight on both sides surprised us and really helped the music come to life.
Many copies we played were too dry and grainy to enjoy. This one is richer and smoother, with only a touch of the grit that we heard on copy after copy. The presence is superb and there’s tons of energy. The overall sound is clean, clear and open with good separation between the instruments. Allan Clarke’s vocals sound natural and full, without the pinched quality we heard on many pressings. We gave both sides A++ grades, it will be very tough to find a copy that performs any better from start to finish. (more…)
