1978-best

Ambrosia – Life Beyond L.A.

More of the Music of Ambrosia 

  • With superb Double Plus (A++) grades from start to finish, we guarantee you’ve never heard Life Beyond L.A. sound this good – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • These sides are dramatically bigger and richer, and have more vocal presence and hard-rockin’ energy, than a lot of the others we played in our most recent shootout
  • The sound is solid and rich, the vocals breathy and immediate, and you will not believe all the space and ambience – which of course are all qualities that Heavy Vinyl records have far too little of, and the main reason we have lost all respect for the bulk of them
  • “[The album] marked a bit of a move away from their lush arrangements and introduced a more raw, aggressive progressive rock / jazz influence.”

This Hot Stamper Ambrosia LP has the kind of sound you would never expect to find in the grooves of this album. It was a thrill to hear, especially at the volumes at which we played it! The transparency and openness were excellent. We’re big fans of this band here at Better Records — we love their take on complex, Big Production Arty Rock.

The Music

Life Beyond L.A. may not be especially well known in audiophile circles but it is certainly an album we know and love here at Better Records. I’ve been playing it regularly for decades. There’s so much good music on the album that, now that we can hear it right, we’ve come to appreciate it all the more. It rocks in a more straightforward manner compared to the first two albums. It’s still got plenty of proggy elements and breakdowns, but now there’s an entirely new jazz element introduced into the mix, which comes to the fore strongly on the wonderful “Apothecary.” Side one is exceptionally strong from first note to last.

Side two starts out brilliantly with the dynamic, energetic “Dancin’ By Myself,” a song that ranks with the best by the band. It’s followed by “Angola,” a tongue-in-cheek staple of their live act these days, and then on to the wonderful ballad “Heart to Heart,” pointedly reminiscent of “Holdin’ On To Yesterday,” right down to the violin solo. The last track is a bit of a downer, but everything before that is superb.

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Van Morrison – Wavelength

More of the Music of Van Morrison

  • This vintage pressing (only the second copy to hit the site in over four and a half years) boasts STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides
  • Richer, warmer and bigger than practically all of the other copies we played, here is the kind of analog smoothness that’s essential to the sound of Morrison’s music
  • His biggest selling album to date? Seems hard to believe but that’s what is says on Wikipedia – it went gold in 3 months
  • 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
  • Time magazine raved: “Morrison has made two, maybe three albums that rank high among the finest of all rock ‘n’ roll. Wavelength is good enough to stand close by Morrison’s best work, a record of sinuous, sensuous magic. The man just can’t be beat.”

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Neil Young – Live Rust

More of the Music of Neil Young

  • You’ll find roughly Shootout Winning Triple (A+++) sound or close to it on all FOUR sides of these vintage Reprise pressings
  • Not many recordings, live or otherwise, give you this kind of unvarnished, front-row experience
  • This killer live set, the ultimate Neil Young acoustic and electric concert collection, combines brilliant early material like “After the Gold Rush” with wonderful later songs such as the amazing “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)” and “Tonight’s the Night”
  • 4 1/2 stars on AllMusic, just check the tracklisting and get ready to hear these NY classics come to life

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Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – You’re Gonna Get It!

More of the Music of Tom Petty

  • A vintage Shelter pressing that was doing just about everything right, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Rich and open with a killer bottom end, musically it’s surely the best record Tom Petty ever made – a late 70s Rock Classic
  • Three of Petty’s best songs are here – “Restless,” “I Need To Know,” and “Listen To Her Heart” – and on this early pressing they sound outstanding
  • “Overall, the current LP boasts an impressive stylistic cohesiveness with its predecessor, but what makes the album exciting are the fresh hints of openness and expansion just beneath the surface. The rhythms are a bit looser, and there’s a new emphasis on Petty’s rough, driving, rock & roll guitar in the mix.” – Rolling Stone
  • If you’re a Tom Petty fan, his sophomore effort, released in 1978, surely belongs in your collection
  • This is a Personal Favorite of yours truly, and a Must Own Rock and Pop album from 1978, which, in hindsight, turned out to be a surprisingly good year for music

Sweetly textured guitars, breathy vocals — all the subtleties of a High Quality Recording are here, along with prodigious amounts of bass and powerful dynamics. Check out that drum sound! If you can play this one at the levels it demands, you might just be shocked at how good it sounds.

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Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on The Edge Of Town

More of the Music of Bruce Springsteen

  • With seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them on both sides, this original pressing has the right sound for Darkness… as well as a healthy dose of analog magic in its grooves
  • Forget whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – if you want to hear the size and energy of this classic from 1978, this is the only way to go
  • The piano is solid and weighty, and there’s a fair amount of Tubey Magic (particularly on side one) considering the troubled history of the project
  • “In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Dave Marsh viewed Darkness on the Edge of Town as a landmark record in rock and roll because of the clarity of its production, Springsteen’s unique guitar playing, and the programming, which he said connected the characters and themes in a subtle yet cohesive manner. Marsh remarked that the subject matter of the songs fulfilled the hype that previously surrounded Springsteen…”
  • If you’re a Springsteen fan, his 1978 follow-up to Born to Run is surely a Must Own

It’s not easy to find good sound on this record — or any Springsteen album, for that matter — but copies like this prove that this is a MUCH better recording than we ever gave it credit for. It’s a rare pressing that can bring this passionate, emotionally charged music to life, but the open, spacious soundstage and full-bodied tonality here are up to the challenge. (more…)

Peter Gabriel – Self-Titled No. 2 (Scratch)

More of the Music of Peter Gabriel

  • With KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish, this original UK Charisma pressing is doing practically everything right
  • This has long been a favorite album of mine, a Desert Island Disc if you will, with some of the most powerfully produced, intelligently written and passionately performed songs in the entire PG canon
  • We shot out a number of other imports and the midrange presence, bass, and dynamics on this outstanding copy placed it head and shoulders above most other pressings we played
  • 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
  • 4 stars on AllMusic: “‘On the Air’ and ‘D.I.Y.’ are stunning slices of modern rock circa 1978, bubbling with synths, insistent rhythms, and polished processed guitars, all enclosed in a streamlined production that nevertheless sounds as large as a stadium.”
  • If I were to compile a list of my top twenty rock and pop albums of 1978, this album would most likely be one of the most played titles on that list, one that I still listen to regularly to this day

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Blondie – Parallel Lines

More of the Music of Blondie

  • With KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other version of Blondie’s One True Masterpiece you’ve heard – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • The powerful sound of this Power Pop Classic really comes through here – and that’s not a claim you can make about very many copies
  • There’s not a bad song to be found on the album, and lots of great ones: “One Way Or Another,” “Heart Of Glass (here in an extended version),” “Hanging On The Telephone,” etc.
  • 5 stars: “Blondie’s best album,” which is actually a bit of an understatement – it’s by far their best album
  • More reviews and commentaries for Blondie’s brilliant Parallel Lines
  • If you’re a Blondie fan, this breakthrough album from 1978 is a Must Own

All the Blondie magic you could ever want is in these grooves. The truly powerful sound of this Power Pop Classic really comes through on this bad boy — and that’s simply not a claim you could make about too many copies out there in record land, which tend to be flat, opaque and compressed. Not so here. This one just plain rocks.

Can this kind of music get any better? This album is a Masterpiece of Pure Pop, ranking right up there with The Cars’ first album. I can’t think of many albums from the era with the perfect blend of writing, production and musicianship under the guidance of producer Mike Chapman (The Knack) Blondie achieved with Parallel Lines.

As expected, if you clean and play enough copies of a standard domestic major label album such as Parallel Lines eventually you will stumble upon The One, and boy did we ever. The very best copies in our recent shootout were off the charts with presence, breathy vocals, and punchy drums. On top of that they were positively swimming in studio ambience, with every instrument occupying its own space in the mix and surrounded by air.

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Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy

More of the Music of Warren Zevon

  • Excitable Boy is back on the site after a three year hiatus, here with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER on both sides of this vintage Asylum pressing
  • The sound is anchored by an exceptionally fat, rich, punchy low end, and this copy delivers on that promise big time
  • Much like The Pretender, this is a superb recording with the kind of Tubey Magical Analog Richness we go crazy for here
  • 4 stars: “Excitable Boy was an actual hit, scoring one major hit single, ‘Werewolves of London,’ and a trio of turntable hits (‘Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner,’ ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money,’ and the title track).”
  • If you’re a fan of Warren’s, this has to be seen as a Top Title from 1976 that surely belongs in your collection
  • It’s without a doubt his best sounding album, and, to our way of thinking, his only essential one

Just listen to ‘Excitable Boy’ and ‘Werewolves Of London’ to hear how full-bodied the sound of this album can be — the louder you play it the better it gets!

That’s the “big speaker quality” we live for around here. You turn it up and it starts to really rock.

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The Who – Who Are You

More of the Music of The Who

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides, this vintage UK import is doing just about everything right – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • This copy has the Glyn Johns big, bold sound we’ve come to expect from this famous producer/engineer
  • Forget the domestic pressings, forget the DD Labs Half-Speed, forget whatever lame reissues have come or will come down the pike – if you want to hear this album right, a Hot Stamper British pressing is the only way to go
  • The title song sounds great on this outstanding copy – the dynamic power of the recording comes through loud and clear
  • If you’re a fan of The Who, and what audiophile wouldn’t be?, this album from 1978 belongs in your collection

Big, tubey and rockin’, this copy has The Who sound we know from Who’s Next so well. Huge and spacious, with lovely three-dimensional depth, the sound has that patented “live in the studio” quality that Johns’s practically trademarked. Breathy vocals and great life and presence to every instrument — this is the way to hear it!

This copy has the Glyn Johns Who sound we’ve come to expect from one of the most famous producer/artist collaborations in the history of rock music. (I would argue Johns’s work with the Stones is even more legendary.)

This is certainly not the equal of the beyond brilliant Who’s Next — what is? It’s an undisputed Masterpiece — but the best songs here are certainly in that league. The title track is one I used to demo my system with twenty years ago and, with a copy like this, would be happy to again.

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Cheap Trick – At Budokan

More of the Music of Cheap Trick

  • Very good sound on this true classic from Cheap Trick, with both sides earning Hot Stamper grades – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • We guarantee there is more space, richness, presence, and performance energy on this copy than others you’ve heard or you get your money back – it’s as simple as that
  • One of only two Cheap Trick albums that cuts it for us sonically and musically (the other being Dream Police)
  • 5 stars: “With their ear-shatteringly loud guitars and sweet melodies, Cheap Trick unwittingly paved the way for much of the hard rock of the next decade, as well as a surprising amount of alternative rock of the 1990s, and it was At Budokan that captured the band in all of its power.”

The first pressings of this record come with an OBI strip and a Japanese style lyric and photo booklet, giving the impression that this is a Japanese pressing. But it’s clearly domestic, so kudos have to go to Epic Records for doing a wonderful imitation that would practically fool any record collector.

Most of the copies we have to offer will come with the booklet, while the OBI strips are long gone.

This is probably the only Cheap Trick record most casual fans will ever need. The live versions of ‘Ain’t That A Shame’ and ‘I Want You To Want Me’ are AS GOOD AS IT GETS. Where would Classic Rock Radio be without catchy pop like this? Nowhere man!

A Rock Masterpiece

We consider this Chip Trick album their Masterpiece. Others that belong in that category can be found here.

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