1977-best

Arnold et al. / Guitar Concertos / Williams – Superb Sound from Columbia in 1977

More Classical and Orchestral Pressings

 

  • Amazing sound throughout this Columbia Masterworks pressing, with both sides earning superb Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or very close to them
  • It’s also fairly quiet at Mint Minus Minus, a grade that even our most well-cared-for vintage classical titles have trouble playing at
  • These sides are wonderfully rich, full-bodied and Tubey Magical, with a present guitar and tons of space around all of the instruments in this lovely chamber orchestra recording
  • A friend played me this record more than twenty years ago and I was knocked out by the beauty of the sound at the time, especially considering it was recorded in 1979, long after great classical recordings had become so rare as to be practically nonexistent
  • With top quality cleaning and the ability to find even better sounding pressings in our shootouts, you can be sure the copies we offer are a big step up from what I heard all those years ago
  • There’s a very good chance that you have never heard a better guitar concerto record, let alone owned one of such quality

If I could have only one guitar concerto recording in my collection, there’s a very good chance I would choose this one — that’s of course assuming I could have a copy that sounds as good as this one does on side one. It’s spacious and open and three-dimensional in a way that few classical recordings we play are, and we play an awful lot of top quality classical records. 

Although it may not be from the Golden Age or on London, it sounds to these ears every bit as good as any guitar concerto record I can remember hearing from that era or that label.

And the music is sublime. I heard this piece at a customer’s home in a very large room with a high ceiling, the speakers pulled well out from the walls. The speakers disappeared, leaving sound that was nothing less than glorious, as big as the room and as natural as any I had heard up until that time. That was about twenty years ago. 

(more…)

Billy Joel – The Stranger

More of the Music of Billy Joel

  • This vintage pressing of Joel’s 1977 breakthrough album (thanks, Phil!) is doing most right, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them
  • Tonally correct, solid, open, clear, with plenty of hard-rockin’ energy and present vocals (particularly on side two), what’s not to like?
  • “The Stranger,” “Only the Good Die Young,” “Vienna,” “Just The Way You Are,” “Movin’ Out,” “She’s Always A Woman” – some of Joel’s strongest songwriting can be found right here
  • We are especially big fans of the songs “Vienna,” a top track that often flies under the radar in body of work
  • 4 1/2 stars: “None of his ballads have been as sweet or slick as ‘Just the Way You Are’; he never had created a rocker as bouncy or infectious as ‘Only the Good Die Young’; and the glossy production of ‘She’s Always a Woman’ disguises its latent misogynist streak… Joel rarely wrote a set of songs better than those on The Stranger, nor did he often deliver an album as consistently listenable.”

We recently completed a shootout for the album and this was one of the better copies we heard. After playing a stack of mediocre Strangers, we are completely confident in saying that you’ll have a very hard time finding a copy that sounds this good.

The Stranger is chock full of some of Joel’s biggest hits, including Just The Way You Are, Movin’ Out, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, Only The Good Die Young and She’s Always A Woman. AMG raves about this one (4 1/2 stars) and it’s easy to see why — this is the kind of pop music that still sounds fresh 40 years (!) after it was recorded and might just be good for another forty years. (more…)

Art Pepper – Thursday Night at the Village Vanguard

More of the Music of Art Pepper

  • This original 1979 Contemporary pressing boasts a KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side two
  • The sound was bigger, richer and livelier than practically all others we played – above all it’s balanced, avoiding many of the problems we heard on other pressings
  • If anyone can capture the realism of a live jazz club, it’s the engineers and producers at Contemporary, in this case Bob Simpson and Lester Koening
  • The first of four volumes that make up the Art Pepper Village Vanguard set, recorded live over a three-night period in New York in July 1977
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The great altoist soars on lengthy versions of ‘Valse Triste’ (in a particularly passionate take) and ‘Goodbye.’ In addition to Pepper, his trio – pianist George Cables, bassist George Mraz, and drummer Elvin Jones – is also in top form, and the music is consistently stimulating and emotional.”

(more…)

Muddy Waters – Hard Again

More of the Music of Muddy Waters

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish, this vintage Blue Sky pressing (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in four years) will be very hard to beat – remarkably quiet vinyl too
  • Both sides are big, lively and jumpin’ out of the speakers – just right for this down and dirty music
  • A Grammy Winner, an AllMusic Five Star album – simply a superb recording and one of our favorites for 70s blues
  • 5 stars: “Christgau attributed the record’s intense quality to ‘the natural enthusiasm of an inspired collaboration,’ and remarked on its standing in Chicago blues, ‘except maybe for B.B. King’s Live at the Regal and Otis Spann’s Walking the Blues… I can’t recall a better blues album than this.'”

(more…)

Iggy Pop – The Idiot

More Rock and Pop

  • Iggy’s 1977 release is brought to life on this vintage RCA pressing with stunning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound from start to finish – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • These sides had the most energy, the punchiest bass, and the biggest, most immediate, most powerful presentation of practically any copy in our recent shootout
  • It’s the rare copy that’s this lively, solid and rich… drop the needle on any track and you’ll see what we mean
  • “[David] Bowie co-wrote a batch of new songs with Iggy, put together a band, and produced The Idiot, which took Iggy in a new direction decidedly different from the guitar-fueled proto-punk of the Stooges.”
  • 5 stars: “[The album] introduced the world to a very different Iggy Pop, and if the results surprised anyone expecting a replay of the assault of Raw Power, it also made it clear that Iggy was older, wiser, and still had plenty to say; it’s a flawed but powerful and emotionally absorbing work.”

(more…)

Weather Report – Heavy Weather

More of the Music of Weather Report

  • Both sides of this vintage copy have excellent sound for the band’s 1977 Masterpiece, earning top grades
  • “Birdland” on this pressing has some of the most dynamic, wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling, jam-packed sound ever committed to vinyl
  • Joe Zawinul and Jaco Pastorius are both here and at the absolute peak of their creative powers – this is a work of genius
  • 5 stars: “‘Birdland’ is a remarkable bit of record-making, a unified, ever-developing piece of music that evokes, without in any way imitating, a joyous evening on 52nd St. with a big band.”
  • We’ve 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,” but with the accent on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. Weather Report’s seventh (!) album is a good example of a record many audiophiles may not know all that well but do well to find the time to get to know better.
  • As is sometimes the case, there is one and only one set of stampers that consistently wins our shootouts for Heavy Weather.  Click on this link to see other titles with one set of stamper numbers that always come out on top

The hottest of the hot stamper pressings demonstrate that this is a truly amazing recording, with some of the most dynamic, wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling jam-packed sound ever committed to vinyl. The grit, grain and grunge of most pressings is nowhere to be found on these killer sides, and that alone puts them in a very special league indeed. (more…)

Steely Dan – Aja

More of the Music of Steely Dan

  • Incredible sound for Steely Dan’s magnificent Jazzy Pop breakthrough album, with both sides earning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • Punchy, full and smooth, with the kind of rhythmic energy that brings out the jazzy funk in the music
  • A Better Records rock and pop Top 100 album and a true Demo Disc on a pressing that sounds as good as this one does
  • If I were to make a list of my favorite rock and pop albums of 1977, this album would definitely be right at the top
  • Considering how dismal the releases by Cisco Music and Mobile Fidelity were, it seems that no one outside of Bernie Grundman has managed to get Aja sounding right on vinyl, and that was 47 years ago
  • The sound is as heavily processed, artificial and overly glossy as practically anything produced in the 70s, which means that its Mid-Fi appeal is all but assured
  • For those of you on the Higher Fidelity end of the spectrum, our best Hot Stampers get everything sounding as right, balanced and natural as Aja can possibly sound
  • Unfortunately for those of you who don’t like paying our prices or doing your own shootouts, Bernie’s new UHQR leaves a lot to be desired. With mediocre-to-bad sound on all four of its sides and a price tag of $150, what else can you call it but another Analogue Productions rip-off?

Folks, there’s not much I can tell you about this copy of Aja that’s going to make you want this record, other than to say this: If you’re in the market for a superb pressing of what’s gotta be the most beloved Steely Dan record they made, look no further. It’s right here. (more…)

Laurindo Almeida – Virtuoso Guitar

More of the Music of Laurindo Almeida

  • A killer copy of this 45 RPM direct to disc recording featuring Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Some of the tubiest, warmest acoustic guitar sound you could ask for from a “modern” record – this is the sound of analog done right
  • It has the kind of sound we prefer, with none of the razor sharpness that you get on some direct to disc recordings
  • One of the best Almeida albums we know of and probably the best Crystal Clear title (which we know isn’t saying much)

Volume Is Key

This recording has very little processing or EQ boost, and the studio is somewhat dead sounding (all too common in the late 70s). That combination can mean only one thing: If you don’t play this record loud enough, it will not sound right.

The famous Sheffield S9 is exactly the same way. It sounds dead and dull until you turn it up. When you do, lookout — it really comes alive.

The best pressings can sound shockingly like live music, something one just does not hear all that often, even when one plays records all day long as we do.

(more…)

Brian Eno / Before And After Science – The Last of the Must Own Eno Records, We Regret to Say

More Arty Rock Records

  • This vintage Island pressing boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound from the first note to last
  • Even with so many quiet passages, this copy held up very well all the way to the end
  • Here you will find that rare combination of silky highs and deep low end, with huge amounts of space in the middle, three qualities among many that make this album an especially magical listening experience
  • I know whereof I speak – I must have played this album at least two hundred times in the 48 years that have passed since I first bought my copy
  • If you’re a fan of Art Rock or Prog Rock or just like something a little different, this is an album that belongs in your collection
  • 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
  • 5 stars: “Despite the album’s pop format, the sound is unique and strays far from the mainstream. The music on Before and After Science at times resembles Another Green World (“No One Receiving”) and Here Come the Warm Jets (“King’s Lead Hat”) and ranks alongside both as the most essential Eno material.”

Side one, the rock side, strongly relies on its deep punchy bass to make its material come to life and rock (or should we say art rock?). Eno’s vocals are clear and present with virtually no strain. Phil Collins’ drumming is energetic and transparent and perfectly complemented by Percy Jones’ simultaneously acrobatic and hard-driving bass work. (more…)

Caldera / Sky Islands

More Jazz Fusion

  • KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them bring Caldera’s amazing sophomore LP to life on this vintage Capitol pressing
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this killer copy in our notes: “huge and weighty drums and bass”…”fully extended from top to bottom”…”jumping out of the speakers”…”big low end”
  • Demo Disco sound – this copy was just bigger and richer than any other we played, with rock solid energy to beat them all
  • If you like percussion instruments of all size and shape jumping out of your speakers, this is the record for you
  • Not only is this a phenomenally well-recorded album, it’s also one of the best Jazz Fusion albums of all time, and easily takes top honors in the sub-category of Latin Jazz Fusion

This White Hot Stamper Caldera album has Demo Disc sound, big and bold, wall to wall and then some! Listen to the monster drum at the opening of “Sky Islands” — it’s not deep like the bass drum in an orchestra, but it’s solid, punchy and way up front in the mix where it really grabs your attention right from the get go. It’s the perfect introduction to a band that wants to get in your face and knock you over with the power and energy of their music. The immediacy of the recording is like standing at the front of the stage where the music is its loudest and clearest, exactly where I like to be.

(more…)