1978-best

Bob Seger – Stranger In Town

More Bob Seger

  • One of the few Bob Seger recordings capable of audiophile quality sound – this pressing is big, full and Tubey Magical (for 1978) with plenty of rock and roll energy
  • If you own a radio you know Stranger In Town – more than half of it still gets played on the radio to this day
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…it’s as lively as Night Moves, rocking even harder in some places and being equally as introspective in the acoustic numbers. If it doesn’t feel as revelatory as that record, in many ways it does feel like a stronger set of songs.”

Vintage covers for this album are hard to find in clean shape. Most of them will have at least some amount of ringwear, seam wear and edge wear. We guarantee that the cover we supply with this Hot Stamper is at least VG, and it will probably be VG+. If you are picky about your covers please let us know in advance so that we can be sure we have a nice cover for you.

Stranger In Town and Night Moves are clearly the two Must Own albums for Bob Seger fans, and with sound this good we would count ourselves among those who find his music interesting and compelling. (“Main Street” on Night Moves is one of the best radio-friendly pop songs ever recorded.)

Both these sides had the energy and rock solid weight we were looking for on this Classic Rock Album from 1978. If you own a radio you know Stranger In Town, because more than half the tracks got plenty of airplay, including:

Hollywood Nights
Still The Same
Old Time Rock & Roll
Feel Like A Number

and that monster power ballad, complete with strings (!):

We’ve Got Tonight

All sounding pretty darn good! (more…)

Bryan Ferry / The Bride Stripped Bare – A Personal Favorite

More of the Music of Roxy Music

  • A strong copy, with a Double Plus (A++) side two and a side one that’s nearly as good
  • These two sides show us just what a monster rocker this album can be when it’s mastered and pressed right
  • I’m a big fan of the record – it’s as original and as moving as practically anything the man ever did
  • Bryan Ferry owned the 70s as much as David Bowie did; they’re both artistic giants in my book
  • The Bride Stripped Bare is a personal favorite of yours truly
  • It’s a well recorded album of excellent music, one that we think should be more popular with audiophiles

UPDATE 2024:

Our last shootout was 2016 as I recall. The album, like most of Ferry’s solo outings, does not sell well and so we have no plans to offer it to our customers in the short term, but you never know when we might chance upon a great souding copy and decide to give it another shot.

Our notes from 2016:

It’s been years since I last played this album, and I’m happy, ecstatic even, to report that it sounds way better than I remember it. In the old days, I recall it sounding dry, flat and transistory. Now it’s BIG and BOLD, revealing a band that’s on fire in the studio.

These two sides show us just what a monster rocker this album can be when it’s mastered and pressed right. The reviews were mixed when the album was released in 1978, but time has been kind to it — after hearing the killer copies I would rank it up at the top with the best of Ferry’s and Roxy’s bodies of work.

We were a bit surprised to find that the domestic copies we played were clearly better sounding than the UK imports. It may be counterintuitive, but these are the kinds of things you find out when doing shootouts. We have little use for intuitions (UK recording, UK pressing) and rules of thumb (original equals better).

Hard data — the kind you get from actually playing the records — trumps them all.

Top Bryan Ferry / Roxy Sound

Let’s face it, we love many of Roxy Music’s and Bryan Ferry’s records, but most of them have their share of problems. Perhaps at a later date we will break them down in more detail, but for now let’s just say that this is one of the strongest sounding of Ferry’s solo output. This and the first three albums are all very well-recorded. The first three are clearly better on import, but the next two, In Your Mind and this one, both recorded by Steve Nye, are best on domestic vinyl in our experience.

In Your Mind is another personal favorite, but the sound is not quite up to Hot Stamper standards. As good as the music is, we were forced to abandon our attempt at a shootout years ago and haven’t heard a good enough sounding copy since to change our minds.

It doesn’t happen very often — today’s modern cleaning technologies have made many shootouts possible that had previously failed badly — but in some cases, even a dozen carefully cleaned LPs are not able to get even a single pressing over the finish line.

(more…)

Donny Hathaway – The Best of Donny Hathaway

  • Hathaway’s 1978 compilation album finally arrives on the site with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER throughout
  • Richer, warmer, more natural, more relaxed, these vintage pressings are what analog is all about, that long-lost sound that never calls attention to itself and just lets the music flow
  • The legendary Roberta Flack joins Hathaway on two or our favorite duets of all time: “You’ve Got A Friend” and “Where Is The Love” – the results are nothing short of magical
  • 4 stars: “…taste the musical genius of the late Donny Hathaway… he delivers a strong, understated reading of Leon Russell’s song. He blends deliciously with Roberta Flack… their chemistry is breathtaking.”

(more…)

Joe Walsh – The Best of…

More Joe Walsh 

  • An outstanding copy of Walsh’s first compilation album, with Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on side one matched to a Hot Stamper side two 
  • With sound close to our Shootout Winner on side one, Turn To Stone and Rocky Mountain Way are amazing here
  • We expected to hear dubby, sub-generation tape copy sound, but instead we discovered that these tracks – on the right pressings, natch – sound pretty darn close to the ones on the albums they originally came from
  • The perfect sampler for a casual Joe Walsh fan, featuring songs from his tenure with the James Gang along with some of his best known solo tracks

(more…)

Gino Vannelli / Brother to Brother – A Desert Island Disc

More of Our Favorite Titles from 1978

I love this album! It’s very pop, beautifully arranged, the kind of popular music they just don’t make anymore. Four stars in my book!

Gino doesn’t get a lot of respect, but he has plenty of talent and his music still holds up today.

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. Brother to Brother is a good example of a record many audiophiles may not know well but would be well advised to get to know better.

(more…)

Van Halen – Self-Titled

More Van Halen

Reviews and Commentaries for Van Halen

  • This outstanding copy of the band’s debut album boasts solid Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Both sides here are smooth, rich and Tubey Magical, with soaring guitars and huge choruses that really get loud 
  • One of the most powerful rock recordings of its day (if you get one that sounds like this)
  • 5 stars: “They sound vital, surprising, and ultimately fun — and really revolutionary, because no other band rocked like this before Van Halen, and it’s still a giddy thrill to hear them discover a new way to rock on this stellar, seminal debut.”

Turn up your nose if you like, but this music is widely considered classic rock by now. I’m not going to pretend it’s on a level with After The Gold Rush or Zep II, but this album does exactly what it’s trying to do — it really ROCKS. (more…)

Bach, Mendelssohn, Widor / Discovery / Welch

More of the music of Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

This is an INCREDIBLY RARE Wilson Audio LP in IMMACULATE condition, with works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Widor and others.

This is actually an amazing sounding record. I’ve owned a copy for over 20 years. It’s some of the best sounding organ music with the deepest bass I’ve ever heard.