1976-best

These are the albums with some of the best sound and best music that were released in 1976.

Led Zeppelin – Presence

More of the Music of Led Zeppelin

xxx

  • Massive amounts of Zeppelin rock and roll energy on this copy, with both sides earning INSANELY GOOD Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades
  • Here is a pressing with the power, the dynamic contrasts, the low end WHOMP, as well as the in-the-room midrange presence (pun only slightly intended) you’ve been waiting for
  • Featuring a stripped down, harder rock sound, Presence really benefits from the outstanding bottom end found on this early LP
  • “Presence has more majestic epics than its predecessor, opening with the surging, ten-minute ‘Achilles Last Stand’ and closing with the meandering, nearly ten-minute ‘Tea for One.'”

(more…)

Paul McCartney – Wings at the Speed of Sound

More Paul McCartney

More Beatles

  • Killer sound throughout this vintage Capitol pressing of Wings’ follow-up to Venus and Mars, with a Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side two
  • This copy has a “cinematic” quality – it’s just plain bigger, with more depth to the soundfield, and more energy than we remember from the last time we did the shootout
  • The big hits, “Let ‘Em In” and “Silly Love Songs,” as well as minor gems such as “Beware My Love,” are outstanding here, with good body and a smoother, more natural, but still extended top end
  • The right stampers are key on this title, and these are definitely the right ones
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs, but once you hear just how superb 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
  • “…At the Speed of Sound ostensibly invites the listener to spend a day with McCartney and Wings—a day in which the listener is gently harangued as well as entertained.” – Rolling Stone

The better copies such as this one had the qualities that really make the songs come to life and give you a taste of the old McCartney magic.

Import Vs. Domestic

We’ve played plenty of both and in our experience the best domestic pressings are clearly superior. This is not true for many of McCartney’s albums but it is definitely true for this Wings at the Speed of Sound and his first, McCartney.

The copies that were flatter, more transistory, more opaque, less present; the ones that had no real extension up high or down low, or little in the way of Tubey Magic — here we are basically describing the all-too-common typical pressing — simply did not make the cut and ended up in the trade pile. That’s not our sound and never has been.

(more…)

Carly Simon / Another Passenger

More of the Music of Carly Simon

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Carly Simon

  • An original Elektra pressing of Simon’s underrated release from 1976 with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from start to finish
  • Both of these sides are rich, full-bodied and warm, with real immediacy to Carly’s wonderfully present and breathy vocals
  • You get lovely extension up top, good weight down low, as well as exceptional transparency in the midrange, all qualities that were much less evident on the average copy we played
  • “Another Passenger is Carly Simon’s best record. The sniffs of ‘So what?’ that that assertion may provoke are exactly what Simon is confronting with this album.” – Rolling Stone
  • We’ve recently compiled a list of records we think every audiophile should get to know better, along the lines of “the 1001 records you need to hear before you die,” with an accent on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. Another Passenger is a good example of a record audiophiles may not know well but we think might benefit from getting to know better

This is my personal favorite of all of Carly’s albums. It’s her most consistent work in terms of her singing and songwriting. Nothing too heavy, just well crafted and enjoyable Singer Songwriter pop. If you like the kind of albums Paul Simon used to make before Graceland, or middle period James Taylor, you should like this.

Some of her albums can be badly overproduced, with big echoey drum thwacks; thankfully this is not one of them, so we think most listeners will find that the album wears very well. I can personally attest to that fact because I have a tape of this album in my car and I’ll bet you I’ve played it two hundred times or more.

(more…)

Harry James & His Big Band – The King James Version

More Big Band Jazz Recordings

  • This early Sheffield pressing was doing practically everything right, with both sides earning KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “tubey bass and brass”…”big and 3D”…”powerful and weighty low end”…”jumping out [of the speakers]”…”tubey and spacious horns”
  • These sides fulfill the promise of the direct to disc recording technology in a way that few – very, very few – direct to disc pressings can
  • Big Band energy and enthusiasm is key to the best pressings like this one, as well as some of the most natural sounding ambience of practically any copy in our most recent shootout
  • This one has almost everything going for it, with big bass, dynamics, clarity, top end extension and more – it’s a real Demo Disc, make no mistake about it

On the better pressings, the horns are so lively and high-rez, not to mention full-bodied, this could easily become a favorite big band album to demo or test with — or just to enjoy the hell out of.

Unlike most Direct to Disc recordings, this album actually contains real music worth listening to — but only when the pressing lets the energy of the musicians through, with actual fidelity to the sounds of the real instruments.

Brass without bite is boring. Drummers who are too delicate in their drumming will put you to sleep.

Many copies of this album will do exactly that, which is a real shame. During our shootout, the more we played the good copies, the more we appreciated the music these guys were making. They were swinging, a big group of top quality players totally in the groove.

When it’s played well, and the sound is as good as it is here, there’s nothing boring about these big band jazz classics. The music works. It swings.

If you like the kind of big band recordings Count Basie made — and who doesn’t — you should find much to like here.

(more…)

Art Pepper / Living Legend

More Art Pepper

More Jazz Recordings featuring the Saxophone

  • Stunning sound throughout this vintage Contemporary pressing, with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from first note to last
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this killer copy in our notes: “very natural + roomy + relaxed”…”3-D + rich”…”sax jumps out [of the speakers]”…”sweet + rich + breathy”
  • Both of these sides are a textbook example of the Contemporary sound we love here at Better Records: rich, warm and lively, with superb clarity throughout
  • Which means that well into the 70s, Contemporary was still at the top of their game, and well ahead of most of the jazz label competition
  • Pepper’s saxophone sound is right on the money – breathy and airy with clearly audible leading edge transients
  • Speaking of transients, listen for the powerful kinetic energy produced when Shelly Manne whacks the hell out of his cymbals
  • This is only the second copy of this title to hit the site in years – finding them in audiophile condition is getting harder (and more expensive) than ever these days
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs, but once you hear just how incredible sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting stitches and just be swept away by the music
  • 4 stars: “After 15 years filled with prison time and fighting drug addiction, Pepper was finally ready to return to jazz. Accompanied by three of his old friends (pianist Hampton Hawes, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Shelly Manne), Pepper … shows a greater emotional depth in his improvisations and was open to some of the innovations of the avant-garde in his search for greater self-expression.”

(more…)

Count Basie And His Orchestra – I Told You So

More Big Band Jazz

Labels We Love – Pablo

  • Boasting seriously good Double Plus (A++) sound throughout, this vintage Pablo pressing will be very hard to beat
  • A Top Basie Big Band title in every way – musically, sonically, you name it, this album has got it going on!
  • This is the way it must have sounded in 1976, in the New York studios where the famous RCA engineer Bob Simpson was still behind the board
  • 4 stars: “This is one of Count Basie’s best big-band studio recordings for Norman Granz during his Pablo years. The arrangements by Bill Holman are both challenging and swinging, containing enough surprises to make this session a real standout.”

On the best pressings, the horns are so present and high-rez, not to mention full-bodied, this could easily become a favorite big band album to demo or test with — or just to enjoy the hell out of.

I never noticed until just now that the album cover picture for Farmer’s Market Barbecue and this album are exactly the same! Wow, Pablo, that takes balls. (more…)

Jeff Beck – Wired

More Jeff Beck

More Jazz Fusion

  • You’ll find seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides of this vintage copy of Beck’s sophomore solo effort (one of only a handful to hit the site in eleven months) – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Big and full with a punchy bottom end and driving jazz/rock energy, here are the elements critical to the better sounding copies
  • Wired, the sequel to the hugely successful Blow by Blow, was produced by Sir George Martin and mixed by Geoff Emerick
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Within a two-year span, the twin towers Blow by Blow and Wired set a standard for instrumental rock that even Beck has found difficult to match. On Wired, with first-rate material and collaborators on hand, one of rock’s most compelling guitarists is in top form.”
  • If you’re a Jeff Beck fan, or perhaps more a fan of mid-70s Jazz Fusion, this title from 1976 is surely a Must Own

Copies with the most bass, the richest lower midrange and the most extension up top (to keep the upper midrange from becoming too hard and shrill) did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren’t veiled or smeary of course.

So many things can go wrong on a record. We know, we heard them all. We’re glad to report this copy was doing just about everything right, hence the high Hot Stamper grades. (more…)

Electric Light Orchestra / A New World Record

More Electric Light Orchestra

More Arty Rock

  • A superb British import LP of ELO’s rock masterpiece, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from start to finish
  • Reasonably quiet vinyl throughout – not even those copies we’ve unsealed for our shootouts have been free from ticky vinyl in places or played much quieter than Mint Minus Minus
  • Both of these sides have the punchy bass and fully-weighted sound that this music demands – the energy level coming from these grooves is off the scale
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Opening with the opulently orchestrated ‘Tightrope,’ which heralds the perfect production found throughout this album, A New World Record contains seven of the best songs ever to come out of the group.”
  • If like us you’re a fan of arty rock from the ’70s, this is a killer album from 1976 that belongs in your collection.

A New World Record checks off a number of important boxes for us:

  1. It’s a Must Own title.
  2. It’s a rock and pop masterpiece, and
  3. It’s a personal favorite of mine.

The British originals are the only ones that can convey the sweet TUBEY MAGIC of the British Master Tapes. The string tone on the average domestic copy is shrill and smeary; too little of the critically important texture remains after the master tapes have been dubbed and the copies sent to America for mastering.

As a result of Jeff Lynne’s everything-but-the-kitchen-sink production approach, it’s the rare copy that provides enough transparency and resolution to bring out all the elements in these incredibly dense mixes, strings included. For audiophiles, ELO on LP doesn’t get any better.

Love those female background singers — their voices are clear and individually separated, but even more importantly, on the best copies like this one they are ENTHUSIASTIC. This is the very definition of a Hot Stamper: ELO on this copy is full of life and energy. The average copy is just another ELO record, like most of them Dead On Arrival.

(more…)

Brahms / Handel – Variations And Fugue On A Theme By Handel / Mayorga

More Direct to Disc Recordings

More Classical and Orchestral Recordings

  • Lincoln Mayorga‘s wonderful performance of these classical works for solo piano returns to the site for only the second time in years, here with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout this original Sheffield Direct to Disc import pressing
  • As we discovered many years ago, all pressings of this recording are out of polarity – you must reverse the polarity of your system to hear this record properly
  • Out of polarity, it sounds shockingly small, practically mono – with the polarity corrected, it is as big and real as if you were listening to the recital live from the front row
  • Both of these sides are amazingly rich, spacious, and transparent, with an exceptionally clear, solid and present piano and virtually no trace of smear
  • This copy fulfills the promise of the audiophile-oriented recording in a way that few – shockingly few, to be honest – pressings of its kind ever have

This Sheffield Direct-to-Disc LP is one of the best records ever put out by Sheffield.

Lincoln Mayorga is an accomplished classical pianist: this is arguably his best work. (I had a chance to see him perform at a recital of Chopin’s works early in 2010 and he played superbly — for close to two hours without the aid of sheet music I might add.)

(more…)

Boston – Self-Titled

More of the Music of Boston

  • With big, bold, hard-rockin’ Double Plus (A++) sound, this pressing will show you just how good Boston’s debut album can sound
  • The multi-tracked, multi-layered guitars are as big as life on this copy and guaranteed to rock your world — on big speakers at loud levels this is a Demo Disc with few peers
  • 4 1/2 stars and a Top 100 title: “Nearly every song on Boston’s debut album can still be heard on classic rock radio today due to the strong vocals of Brad Delp and unique guitar sound of Tom Scholz. Boston is essential for any fan of classic rock, and the album marks the re-emergence of the genre in the 1970s.”
  • This is clearly Boston’s best sounding album. Roughly 100 other listings for the best sounding album by an artist or group can be found here.
  • In our opinion, this is the only Boston record you’ll ever need. Click on this link to see more titles we like to call one and done

Boston’s first (and only good) album is a long-time member of our Top 100, and on a great pressing like this it’s easy to see why. It’s an incredible recording when you can hear it right, and this is about as right as it gets!

It’s obvious why the first Boston album became a Multi-Platinum Record. Practically every one of its songs still gets heavy radio play on every rock station in town. Consummately well-crafted music like this is almost impossible to find nowadays. I guess that’s why they call it Classic Rock.

More Guitar

The multi-tracked layers of guitars really come to life on the better copies. The not-so-great pressings tend to be congested and compressed, thickening the sound and diffusing the layers of multi-tracked harmonies. Tom Scholz’s uniquely overdriven, distorted leads have near-perfect timbre. On the top copies, you can really hear how much power that sound adds to the music.

(more…)