1971

Yes – The Yes Album

More of the Music of Yes

  • You haven’t begun to hear the weight, energy and space of Yes’s brilliant third album until you’ve played one of our killer Hot Stamper copies
  • On the right system, at the right volume (very loud), this very record is an immersive experience like practically no other (also particularly on side two)
  • A Top 100 Album and the band’s best sounding record if you ask us (although Fragile can sound absolutely amazing too, just not as smooth and rich)
  • “Organist Tony Kaye, guitarist Steve Howe and bass player Chris Squire play as though of one mind, complementing each other’s work as a knowledgeable band should.”
  • This Prog Rock Masterpiece from 1971 is one that we feel belongs in every audiophile’s collection
  • The Yes Album (along with Fragile and Close to the Edge) is also one of those albums that helped us dramatically improve our playback quality

Drop the needle on this bad boy and you will find yourself on a Yes journey the likes of which you have never known. And that’s what I’m in this audiophile game for. The Heavy Vinyl crowd can have their dead-as-a-doornail, wake-me-when-it’s-over pressings that play quietly. I couldn’t sit through one with a gun to my head.

With the amazing Eddie Offord at the board, as well as the best batch of songs ever to appear on a single Yes album, they produced both their sonic and musical masterpiece — good news for audiophiles with Big Speakers who like to play their records loud.

These guys — and by that I mean this particular iteration of the band, the actual players that were involved in the making of this album — came together for the first time and created the sound of Yes on this very album, rather aptly titled when you think about it. (more…)

Harry Nilsson / Nilsson Schmilsson – The Robed Man’s Masterpiece

More of the Music of Harry Nilsson

  • Solid Double Plus (A++) sound brings Harry Nilsson’s indisputable Masterpiece of Bent Rock to life on this vintage copy
  • Both sides are remarkably good sounding, thanks to the brilliant engineering skills of Phill (That’s Two L’s) Brown
  • A Better Records favorite (we give it Five Stars) that really comes to life on a superb pressing such as this one
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…it’s a near-perfect summary of everything Nilsson could do; he could be craftier and stranger, but never did he achieve the perfect balance as he did here.”
  • If I were to compile a list of my favorite rock and pop albums from 1971, this album would definitely be on it

Big production pop like this is hard to pull off. Harry did an amazing job, but the recording is not perfect judging by the dozen or so copies we played during our most recent shootout, and the scores w’ve suffered through before. Let’s face it: “Jump Into The Fire” will never be smooth and sweet; neither will “Down” on side one. But other tracks on this album have Demo Disc sound.

Nilsson Schmilsson is an album we think we know well. It checks off a number of important boxes for us here at Better Records:

One of His Best

Son of Schmilsson and the album simply titled Harry are two other superb Nilsson records that both come highly recommended. Harry is my favorite of them all, perhaps because it was so different from anything that I’d ever heard up to that point (I was 15 at the time). A Little Touch… is also a personal favorite, with the great American songbook done in Nilsson’s inimitable style.

By the way, if you get a chance to see the documentary “Who Is Harry Nilsson (and Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?),” you should definitely check it out. Most of us here have seen it by now and it’s a ton of fun.

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The Who – Who’s Next

More of the Music of The Who

  • Both sides of this vintage UK import were giving us the big and bold sound we were looking for, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • The bigger your speakers and the louder you play them, the better this pressing will sound because that is the one true test of a rock record
  • This British LP is guaranteed to blow your mind with its phenomenal sound — check out the big, bold, rock ’em, sock ’em bottom end energy
  • These days the UK Track pressings seem to be the only ones that sound right to us – which means no British Polydors and no domestic Deccas (which we actually used to like) are very likely to be coming to the site
  • Compare this to any Heavy Vinyl (or other) pressing and you will hear in a heartbeat why we think the Real Thing just cannot be beat
  • 5 stars: “This is invigorating because it has. . . Townshend laying his soul bare in ways that are funny, painful, and utterly life-affirming. That is what the Who was about, not the rock operas, and that’s why Who’s Next is truer than Tommy or the abandoned Lifehouse. Those were art — this, even with its pretensions, is rock & roll.”
  • If you’re a fan of the band, this title from 1971 is a Masterpiece that belongs in every right thinking audiophile’s collection

Recently we sat down for a massive shootout for Who’s Next, a true Glyn Johns Classic and undeniably one of the greatest rock albums of all time.

The sound of this British Track pressing is wonderful from start to finish. There’s no grain to speak of and dramatically less smearing and veiling than most of the copies we played it against. The presence is startling — turn it up good and loud and The Who will be right there thrashing around in your listening room! The bottom end, on both sides, has the kind of weight that’s absolutely essential to this music.

We’re talking BIG ROCK SOUND and quiet vinyl, a rare combination in our experience, our experience of course coming from dozens and dozens of British Tracks and Polydors, German Polydors, Decca originals, MCA reissues, a few imports from other countries (Japan, thin and bright), and last but far from least, The Classic 200 gram pressing. (Here is our overview.)

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Cat Stevens – Teaser & The Firecat

More of the Music of Cat Stevens

  • A Teaser and The Firecat like you’ve never heard, with solid Double Plus (A++) grades throughout this vintage Island Pink Rim pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Here are the sides that will rock your world with their size, richness, clarity and energy, the likes of which you may have never experienced on vinyl
  • A brilliant classic folk rock recording but only the right pressings have the potential for Demo Disc quality sound
  • 5 stars and a Top 10 album – in some ways it’s surely the Best Sounding record Cat Stevens ever made
  • This Folk Rock Masterpiece from 1971 is one that belongs in every audiophile’s collection
  • “Tuesday’s Dead,” “Morning Has Broken,” “Bitterblue,” “Moonshadow” “Peace Train” – and that’s just side two! What side of any album has five songs of such quality?

Before I get further into the sound of this record, let me preface my remarks by saying this is a work of GENIUS. Cat Stevens made two records which belong in the Pantheon of greatest popular recordings of all time. In the world of folky pop, Teaser and the Firecat and Tea for the Tillerman have few peers. There may be other recordings that are as good but there are no other recordings that are better.

When you hear The Wind, Changes IV, or If I Laugh on this copy, you will be convinced, as I am, that this is one of the greatest popular recordings in the history of the world. I don’t know of ANY other album that has more LIFE and MUSICAL ENERGY than this one. (more…)

Fleetwood Mac / Greatest Hits

More of the Music of Fleetwood Mac

  • With two solid Double Plus (A++) or BETTER sides, this vintage British import will be very hard to beat
  • Big, rich, energetic, with an abundance of analog Tubey Magic, this original Orange Label UK pressing has exactly the right sound for this music
  • “Oh Well, Parts One and Two,” “Black Magic Woman,” “Man of the World,” and the surprise Number One single “Albatross” are all here and guaranteed to blow your mind
  • Peter Green is hands down our favorite British Blues Guitarist of All Time – play this record and you will surely see why we feel that way
  • This is a lot of money for a somewhat noisy copy, but the sound is so awesome and quiet pressings of the album so hard to come by that we hope someone will take a chance on it and get the thrill we did from hearing it sound right for once
  • We’ve recently compiled a list of records we think every audiophile should get to know, along the lines of “the 1001 records you need to hear before you die,” but with less of an accent on morbidity and more on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life.

If you’re a fan of Fleetwood Mac, this copy is guaranteed to blow your mind. Like all the best vintage British pressings, the sound is smooth, rich and full. This is Old School ANALOG, baby. They don’t make ’em like this anymore because they don’t know how to.

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Gordon Lightfoot / Summer Side of Life

More of the Music of Gordon Lightfoot

  • A vintage copy of Gordon’s wonderful 1971 release with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout
  • So transparent, open, and spacious that nuances and subtleties that escaped you before are now front and center
  • Everything you want in the sound of a good Folk Rock album is here in abundance – enjoy!
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings, but once you hear just how incredible sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and pops and just be swept away by the music
  • “. . . an album that has him curling up with both his guitar and his kind, fragile voice . . . With Gordon Lightfoot’s honest, unhindered composure now becoming well-known in the U.S. and not just in Canada, Summer Side of Life helped strengthen his songwriting and refine his delicate vocal style, which, in turn, made 1972’s Old Dan’s Records and 1973’s Don Quixote two of his best albums.”

Tubey Magical Acoustic Guitar reproduction is superb on the better copies of this recording. Simply phenomenal amounts of Tubey Magic can be heard on every strum, along with richness, body and harmonic coherency that have all but disappeared from modern recordings (and especially from modern remasterings). (more…)

Richie Havens – Alarm Clock

More of the Music of Richie Havens

  • Alarm Clock is back on the site for only the second time in over three and a half years, here with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it from first note to the last – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Side one is super open and transparent with excellent bass and lots of depth to the soundfield, and side two is not far behind in all those areas; this copy had more top end and more vocal presence than most others we played it against (also particularly on side one)
  • This one went all the way up to #29 when it came out in 1971, a far better showing than Haven ever had on the charts before or again
  • Side one kicks off with a great cover of “Here Comes The Sun,” and on a copy like this it sounds out of this world

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Jimi Hendrix – The Cry of Love

More of the Music of Jimi Hendrix

  • With two outstanding Double Plus (A++) sides, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other The Cry of Love you’ve heard – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Big, bold Hendrix sound – powerful energy and presence with the size and space of a fresh analog tape
  • The first and probably best of the posthumous Hendrix albums, with top tracks including “Angel,” “Ezy Rider,” “Freedom,” “Drifting” and more
  • VH1 called it “the greatest posthumous classic rock record of all time” and they just might be right

With Eddie Kramer and Robert Ludwig on the payroll, doesn’t this record have to be spectacular? Good, yes, but spectacular? Not really. Some copies just don’t rock, and those copies lose a huge number of points for that shortcoming, especially on a Monster Rock record such as this.

Some are leaned out, some have no real top end — as Murphy’s Law makes clear, if something can go wrong it will go wrong.

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The Beach Boys – Surf’s Up

More of The Beach Boys

  • Superb sound throughout this vintage copy, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them, and vinyl that plays about as quietly as any we can ever hope to find
  • The Beach Boys revolutionized the popular music of their day with their genius for harmony, and this copy succeeds where others may fail – it gets their voices right (particularly on side one)
  • Includes classics “Long Promised Road,” “Till I Die,” and of course the title smash hit, “Surf’s Up”
  • 4 stars: “A masterpiece [which] defined the Beach Boys’ tumultuous career better than any other album … The album closer, ‘Surf’s Up,’ is a masterpiece of baroque psychedelia, probably the most compelling track from the Smile period.”

When it works, boy can this album sound amazing. Full of Tubey Magic, not to mention analog warmth and sweetness, this is clearly one of the band’s best albums of the 70s.

What’s magical about The Beach Boys? Their voices of course, what else could it be? It’s not a trick question. Any good pressing must sound correct on their voices or it has no practical value whatsoever. A Beach Boys record with bad sound in the midrange — like most of them — is to us a worthless record.

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John Lennon / Imagine

More of the Music of John Lennon

  • An early Apple import pressing that was doing just about everything right, earning superb Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides
  • These UK pressings are rich, weighty and oh-so-tubey – it took us a long time to find the right stampers, and these are they
  • Two of our favorite engineers worked their magic on this recording – our deepest thanks go to Eddie Offord and Shelly Yakus
  • 5 stars: “While the album had a softer surface, it was only marginally less confessional than its predecessor [and] it is… a remarkable collection of songs that Lennon would never be able to better again.”

Both sides here are excellent, capturing the essence of what Lennon and Phil Spector (and let’s not forget Yoko, who also gets a producer credit here) were going for. Copies that sound as good as this and play as exceptionally quiet as this do not grow on trees. If it wasn’t ridiculously difficult to find Hot Stamper pressings of Imagine it certainly would not have taken us so long to offer another one on the site.

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