1978

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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Prokofiev / Scythian Suite and Lt. Kije – Abbado

More of the Music of Sergei Prokofiev

  • Boasting excellent Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from first note to last, this pressing is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other recording of these orchestral spectaculars you’ve heard
  • Scythian Suite takes up all of this Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) side one and is practically as good as we have ever heard, right up there with our Shootout Winner
  • This wonderful LP boasts our favorite performances for both of these popular 20th century works
  • Big, clear, present and transparent, with a huge bottom end, you better believe that this is some Demo Disc sound
  • When the brass is the way it is here – rich and clear, not thin and shrill – you have yourself a top quality DG pressing

With huge amounts of hall space, weight and energy, this is Demo Disc quality sound by any standard. Once the needle has dropped you will quickly forget about the sound and simply find yourself in the presence of some of the greatest musicians of their generation captured on some of the greatest analog recordings of all time.

The bass drum (drums?) here must be heard to be believed. We know of no Golden Age recording with as believable a presentation of the instrument as this. The drum is clearly and precisely located at the back of the stage. Even better, it’s as huge and powerful and room-filling as it would have been had you attended the session yourself. That’s our idea of hi-fidelity here at Better Records! Since this is my favorite performance of all time, I can’t recommend the record any more highly.

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Carly Simon – Boys In The Trees

More of the Music of Carly Simon

  • With an INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side one, we guarantee you’ve never heard Boys in the Trees sound this good
  • Both of these sides have the sound we were looking: rich and sweet, with the kind of transparency that lets you hear every breath Carly takes
  • This pressing is just doing its job — showing you what’s really on the master tape — and not too many of the copies we played were able to do that
  • “… what really made the album a winner was that Simon had had a couple of years to write some strong songs in her unflinching, reflective style, and she continued to explore the loves and mores of her age and class movingly.”

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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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Genesis – And Then There Were Three

More of the Music of Genesis

  • With a KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side two mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side one, you’ll have a hard time finding a copy that sounds remotely as good as this vintage Charisma import
  • Forget the dubby domestic LPs and whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – the UK pressings are the only way to fly on And Then There Were Three
  • 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
  • “And Then There Were Three, more than either of its immediate predecessors, feels like the beginning of the second phase of Genesis… [they] don’t quite want to abandon prog at this point, but the increasing emphasis on melody and tight song structures points the way toward the group’s 80s work.”

This vintage UK Charisma pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for — this sound. (more…)

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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Styx – Pieces Of Eight

More of the Music of Styx

  • This vintage copy was doing just about everything right, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Here is the kind of sound we want on our ELP, Yes and Queen-like multi-layered Proggy Pop Rock – big, full-bodied and lively (particularly on side one)
  • 4 stars: “Styx’s feisty, straightforward brand of album rock is represented best by ‘Blue Collar Man,’ an invigorating keyboard and guitar rush… reaching number 21, with the frolicking romp of ‘Renegade’ edging in at number 16 only six months later… the rest of the album includes tracks that rekindle some of Styx’s early progressive rock sound, only cleaner. Tracks like ‘Sing for the Day,’ ‘Lords of the Ring,’ and ‘Aku-Aku’ all contain slightly more complex instrumental foundations…”

Who likes their Wall of Sound small and closed-in? Certainly not big speaker guys like us. By all accounts this band wanted their records to sound good, or at least as good as their contemporaries (and the bands that inspired them, name-checked above). There’s no shortage of production polish here and on the best pressings, the sound really works.

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10cc – Bloody Tourists

More of the Music of 10cc

  • 10cc’s sixth studio album debuts on the site with solid Double Plus (A++) sound on both sides of this vintage UK import pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The sonics are big, lively, clear and present, and probably as close to what the band was going for as you can hope to experience
  • Of course the main attributes that set the better copies apart from the also-rans are size, energy, weight, vocal presence and an overall freedom from grit and grain, and we guarantee that this copy will do better in all of these areas than any you have ever heard

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Journey – Infinity

More of the Music of Journey

  • Both sides of this vintage Columbia pressing have excellent sound for the band’s 1978 release, earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • This copy was bigger and bolder than most others we played, with huge choruses that really come alive – just the way we like our Journey albums to sound
  • Spaciousness, richness and freedom from grit and grain are key to the better pressings, and here you will find all three
  • 4 stars: “Released in January of 1978, Infinity easily proved to be the band’s most cohesive work to date. Dead and buried were the jazz fusion overtones of previous offerings, and with the new songwriting combo of Perry/Neal Schon leading the march, the band set out to completely redefine their sound. Traditional pop arrangements were now adopted, cutting out the unnecessary musical fat, and allowing each bandmember to play to his strength: Perry’s soaring, whale of a voice, Schon’s scorching fret work, and Gregg Rolie’s subtle keyboard arrangements.”

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