1979

The Eagles / The Long Run

More of the Music of The Eagles

  • With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides, this copy has a rockin’ “Long Run” like you have never heard
  • The sonics are full, rich and vibrant with impressive punch down low and nice extension up top
  • The best songs prove that the Eagles were still at the height of their powers, at least some of the time…
  • The first two songs on both sides are practically as good as it gets for mainstream rock from this era – they’re playlist staples of Classic Rock stations from coast to coast to this day
  • The last song on side two, “The Sad Cafe,” is also a standout. Others, as they used to say in school, ‘need improvement.’
  • But five Killer Eagles songs is nothing to sneeze at. This is an album that belongs in most rock and pop collections, even if you choose to only listen to the best material on it.
  • “The Long Run is a chilling and altogether brilliant evocation of Hollywood’s nightly Witching Hour, that nocturnal feeding frenzy first detailed by Warren Zevon on his haunting Asylum debut (Warren Zevon, 1976) and the equally powerful Excitable Boy.” – Rolling Stone

The True Test For Side One

Want to know if you have a good side one on your copy? Here’s an easy test. Timothy B. Schmit’s vocal on “I Can’t Tell You Why” rarely sounds right. Most of the time he’s muffled, pretty far back in the soundstage, and the booth he’s in has practically no ambience. On the good copies, he’s not exactly jumping out of the speakers, but he’s clear, focused, and his voice is breathy and full of emotional subtleties that make the song the heartbreaking powerhouse it is.

This is why you need a Hot Stamper. Most copies don’t let you feel the song. Not like this one does. And the rest of the band is cookin’ here as well. From the big, full-bodied bass to the fat, punchy snare, this side is doing pretty much everything we want it to.

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The Jam – Setting Sons

More Rock and Pop

  • Setting Sons appears on the site for only the second time ever, here with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them throughout this vintage Polydor pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Both of these sides have energy and presence that positively jumps out of the speakers, two of the qualities that we prize most highly in our Hot Stampers, and two of the things (among many) that Heavy Vinyl does so poorly
  • 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
  • 5 stars: “Setting Sons often reaches brilliance and stands among the Jam’s best albums….”

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Elvis Costello / Armed Forces – A Phenomenal Demo Disc from 1979

More of the Music of Elvis Costello

  • This vintage UK pressing will show you just how good sounding Elvis’s best recording can be, with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides
  • It’s some of the biggest, boldest rock sound ever recorded
  • A Top 100 Demo Disc, and just amazing here – every track is Elvis at his best
  • 5 stars: “In contrast to the stripped-down pop and rock of his first two albums, Armed Forces boasted a detailed and textured pop production… However, the more spacious arrangements – complete with ringing pianos, echoing reverb, layered guitars, and harmonies – accent Costello’s melodies… It’s a dense but accessible pop record and ranks as his third masterpiece in a row.”
  • There are about 100 records we think deserve to be more popular with audiophiles, and Armed Forces is one of them.

This album checks off a number of our most-prized boxes:

Armed Forces is one of the best-sounding rock records ever made, and a copy like this is proof enough to back up that claim. The best copies are extremely transparent and silky sounding, but with unbelievably punchy, rock-solid bass and drums.

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Cheap Trick – Dream Police

More of the Music of Cheap Trick

  • Boasting two STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Dream Police you’ve heard
  • This copy was doing everything right — there was nothing close to it in our shootout, so if you can put up with some surface noise, you are going to be to hear this album sound better than you ever imagined
  • Forget whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – if you want to hear the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this wonderful album, a vintage pressing like this one is the way to go
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these Classic Rock records, but once you hear just how incredible 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
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Underneath the gloss, there are a number of songs that rank among Cheap Trick’s finest, particularly the paranoid title track… it would later feel like one of the group’s last high-water marks.”

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Supertramp – Breakfast In America

More of the Music of Supertramp

  • Both sides of this vintage copy have stunning sound for the band’s Must Own 1979 release, earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them
  • An excellent recording with huge, powerful, dynamic sound – the Tubey Magical richness of these sides will have your jaw on the floor
  • Turn it up good and loud and you will be amazed at how dynamic some of the guitar solos are.
  • As is sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs, there are some bad marks that play (most notably on “Take the Long Way Home” and “Casual Conversations”) but once you hear just how incredible sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and just be swept away by the music
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The majority of the album consisted of tightly written, catchy, well-constructed pop songs, like the hits ‘The Logical Song,’ ‘Take the Long Way Home,’ and ‘Goodbye Stranger.'”

We’re always amazed by just how good the better copies of this album can sound — huge, spacious, punchy sound we can never get enough of around here. If you have big speakers, a great copy will blow your mind…and it will probably blow your mind even if you don’t!

We are not the least bit ashamed to say that we love this album here at Better Records, and a copy like this will certainly help to show you why. Drop the needle on “Gone Hollywood,” “The Logical Song” or “Take The Long Way Home” to hear how powerful this music can sound when you have a great pressing.

Most copies of this record are grainy, thin, shrill and aggressive. When you get a Hot Stamper like this one, the highs are sweet and silky. This recording has plenty of top end, so if the highs aren’t correct it pretty much ruins the sound of the record.

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Various Artists – Musique de la Grèce Antique / Musicae de Madrid / Paniagua

More Classical and Orchestral Recordings

  • With two solid Double Plus (A++) sides or close to them, this original Harmonia Mundi France import pressing will be very hard to beat – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Spacious, rich and smooth (particularly on side two) – only vintage analog seems capable of reproducing all three of these qualities without sacrificing resolution, staging, imaging or presence
  • So transparent, dynamic and real, this copy raises the bar for the sound of this kind of unique music on vinyl (also particularly on side two)
  • “Perhaps [Atrium Musicae de Madrid]’s most famous recording is Musique de la Grèce Antique (Music of Ancient Greece), in which they performed ancient Greek music carefully taken from scattered extant fragments of papyrus. Performing the ancient compositions also meant they had to reconstruct an arsenal of ancient instruments. This ancient music was an important aspect of the group’s live performances during a series of acclaimed international tours.” – oldmusicbook.wordpress.com
  • “Utilizing a small chorus of six and a battery of instruments, [Paniagua] creates a fascinating landscape of sound, with thunderous breaks of fragmented melody and shards of recited and sung poetry breaking up periods of silence.”

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Richard & Linda Thompson / Sunnyvista

More of the Music of Richard Thompson

  • Boasting two solid Double Plus (A++) sides, this original UK Chrysalis pressing (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in years) is doing just about everything right
  • None of the domestic copies we played were more than passable, and even worse, most of the Brit originals we played were almost as smeary, veiled and opaque
  • Both of these sides are simply bigger, more present, more energetic and just plain more fun than most others in our recent shootout
  • If you’re a fan, this is the only way we know of to hear this album sound the way it should
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…the wittiest and most joyous album Richard & Linda made together.”

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The B-52’s / Self-Titled – A Proud Member of Our Top 100

More of the Music of The B-52’s

  • With an INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides one mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side two, this vintage pressing of The B-52’s’ debut album is overflowing with analog magic in its grooves – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Talk about sound that is positively jumpin’ out of the speakers – every instrument here is clear and present, laid out from wall to wall right in your listening room
  • Tubey Magic in 1979? Somehow they managed to pull it off. So dynamic too – what a recording!
  • The sound of the best pressings is raw, real and exceptionally unprocessed
  • A New Wave Classic, 5 stars in the All Music Guide: “These songs illustrated that the B-52’s’ adoration of camp culture… was a world view capable of turning out brilliant pop singles and, in turn, influencing mainstream pop culture… a hell of a good time.”

We think you will be surprised at just how good the sound can be. And you may or may not be surprised at just how FUN the music is.

Listen to the huge, spacious soundstage and amazingly rich, full-bodied and uncolored tonality that earned this recording a place in our Top 100.

Who knew that good sounding records were still being recorded in 1979? Candy-O comes to mind, but the B-52s’ first album has virtually none of the grit and Roy Thomas Baker heavy-processing of that one, and a lot more Tubey Magic to boot — when you get a pressing like this of course. (more…)

Tom Petty / Damn The Torpedoes

More of the Music of Tom Petty

  • Both sides of this vintage copy were giving us the hard rockin’ sound we were looking for
  • Credit for the tremendous presence and energy of the recording goes to the brilliant engineer Shelly Yakus
  • The better copies of Damn the Torpedoes are, simply put, the best sounding Tom Petty albums we have ever played
  • Tons of hits too: “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl,” and my favorite of the bunch, “Don’t Do Me Like That”
  • 5 stars: “Few mainstream rock albums of the late 70s and early 80s were quite as strong as this, and it still stands as one of the great records of the album rock era.”

Credit must obviously go to the man behind the console, Shelly Yakus, someone who we freely admit, now with a sense of embarrassment, has never been one of our favorite engineers. After hearing a White Hot Stamper pressing of Damn the Torpedoes and a killer copy of Animal Notes, we realize that we have been seriously underestimating the man.

If your Damn the Torpedoes doesn’t sound good (and it probably doesn’t), you sure can’t blame him — the master tape is mind-boggling in its size, weight, power and sheer rock n’ roll energy.

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Led Zeppelin – In Through The Out Door

More of the Music of Led Zeppelin

  • You’ll find solid Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this vintage copy of Zep’s final release
  • It’s all here: huge amounts of rock-solid bass, grungy guitars, breathy, natural vocals, and jump-out-of-the-speakers presence and energy
  • “Fool In The Rain” and “All My Love” are two of the best, and best sounding, tracks on the album
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these Classic Rock records – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • “The album’s opening number, ‘In the Evening,’ with its stomping rhythms and heavy, staggered riffs, suggests that Zeppelin haven’t deviated from their course, but by the time the rolling shuffle of ‘South Bound Suarez’ kicks into gear, it’s apparent that they’ve regained their sense of humor.”
  • If you’re a Zep fan, this title from 1979 is surely a Must Own
  • The complete list of titles from 1980 that we’ve reviewed to date can be found here.

This may not be Zep’s best album, but there are some great songs here, and the music really works when the sound is this good. (more…)