1981

Devo – New Traditionalists

More New Wave

  • The Hot Stamper debut of Devo’s 1981 release, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound from start to finish – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • We guarantee there is dramatically 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
  • “Apparently deciding – admittedly, not without reason – that America’s comprehension of irony was sorely lacking, Devo largely abandons its sense of absurdity on New Traditionalists, explicitly stating their cultural views… The opener “Through Being Cool” actually benefits from the new outlook, making for a clear and effective statement of purpose. It sets the stage for some of Devo’s angriest, most embittered songs, which often function as connections between new wave and the punk attitudes that were so crucial in its creation.”

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The Police – Ghost in the Machine

More Sting and The Police

  • With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides, this vintage UK pressing was giving us the sound we were looking for on the band’s 1981 release – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this stunning copy in our notes: “huge and weighty”…”big bass”…great energy”…”fully extended down low”…”breathy vox”…”relaxed and open top”…”jumping out of the speakers”
  • These Sterling pressings, whether domestic or imported, are the only ones we know of with the potential for top quality sound
  • Features some of the band’s most sophisticated hits: “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Invisible Sun,” “Spirits In The Material World,” and more
  • Hugh Padgham took over engineering duties for both Ghost and the band’s next album, resulting in a dramatic improvement in the quality of their recordings
  • “This album has more variety than the menu in a Bangkok brothel. In particular, Sting’s voice has taken on a new depth and fresh maturity. The opening song, ‘Spirits In The Material World’, may have what sounds like a dumb title, but the song is a dream of close harmonies and nicely understated drums.” – Record Mirror

If you’re looking for big hits, this is the Police album for you. I mean, get three tracks in and you’ve already heard “Spirits In The Material World,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” and “Invisible Sun” — not a bad way to get things started!

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Billy Joel / Songs in the Attic

More of the Music of Billy Joel

  • Demo Disc live rock concert sound on this vintage Columbia pressing, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • The sonics have so many wonderful analog qualities when you get a good copy — the hardness of the typical pressing just disappears, leaving surprisingly transparent and sweet sound on virtually every track
  • The WHOMP factor here is off the scale. There are few studio recordings that have these kinds of dynamics. We forget how compressed most of them are. It takes a record like this to show you how much life there is in live music
  • 4 stars: “Songs in the Attic is an excellent album, ranking among his very best work… even if Joel wasn’t a celebrity in the early 70s, his best songs of the era rivaled his biggest hits.”

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Black Sabbath – Mob Rules

More Black Sabbath

More Rock Classics

  • This Mob Rules rocks like nothing you’ve heard, with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER from start to finish – exceptionally quite vinyl too
  • Massive and powerful throughout – this copy is big, rich, full-bodied and solid like you won’t believe
  • 4 stars: “…a quick follow-up to Heaven and Hell, continuing…that record’s energy as well as its shift away from dark metal to more commercial hard rock. Mob Rules and Heaven and Hell work well as each other’s companion pieces, making the first round of Dio-fronted Sabbath material a bright spot…”

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Brian Eno and David Byrne – My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts

More Brian Eno

More Talking Heads

  • My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts returns to the site for the first time in years, here with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout this vintage Sire pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this killer copy in our notes: “big and open”…”huge and weighty and rich”…”jumping out [of the speakers]”…”rich percussion”
  • Both sides here are spacious, full-bodied and Tubey Magical with a solid bottom end and driving rhythmic energy
  • Rick Wright of Pink Floyd noted that the album “knocked me sideways when I first heard it – full of drum loops, samples and soundscapes. The way the sounds were mixed in was so fresh, it was amazing.”
  • 5 stars: “… a whirlwind 45 minutes of worldbeat/funk-rock … it’s a tremendously prescient record for the future development of music during the 1980s and 90s.”

If you like Remain in Light as much as we do here at Better Records, you will surely have a blast with this record. I’ve been a big fan of the album since the day it came out. As an added bonus, it’s a much better recording than Remain in Light — sweet and spacious, not hard and brittle the way that can album can be, especially on the first track. (more…)

Kim Carnes – Mistaken Identity

More Kim Carnes

More Women Who Rock

  • Boasting excellent Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish, this copy will be very hard to beat
  • The immediacy of the vocals is striking, putting a living, breathing Kim Carnes right in front of you
  • “Bette Davis Eyes” was the biggest selling single of 1981, but we guarantee you’ve never heard it sound as good as it does on this very LP
  • 4 1/2 stars, Grammy Nomination for Album of the Year – the big as life rock sound Val Garay‘s engineering and production achieved with this album surely deserve much of the credit

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Foreigner – 4

More Foreigner

  • Superb sound for this radio rock classic, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER
  • Side one was sonically very close to our Shootout Winner – you will be shocked at how big and powerful the sound is
  • It’s the impossibly rare copy that’s this lively, solid and rich… drop the needle on any track and you’ll see what we mean
  • Rockers like “Juke Box Hero” and “Urgent,” along with the heartfelt ballad “Waiting For A Girl Like You,” are guaranteed to sound better than you ever imagined or your money back
  • 4 1/2 stars: “In producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange – fresh off his massive success with AC/DC’s Back in Black – guitarist and all-around mastermind Mick Jones found both the catalyst to achieve [a grand slam of a record] and his perfect musical soulmate… All things considered, 4 remains Foreigner’s career peak.”

What’s key to the sound of Foreigner’s records?

Obviously, the big one would have to be ENERGY, a subject we discuss at length on our blog. Next would be punchy ROCK BASS, followed by clear, present vocals.

Those are the big ones, and we are happy to report that this copy had the best Foreigner sound in all three areas.

Problem Areas

Number one: Too many instruments jammed into too little space in the upper midrange. When the tonality is shifted-up, even slightly, or there is too much compression, there will be too many elements — voices, guitars, drums — vying for space in the upper area of the midrange, causing congestion and a loss of clarity.

With the more solid sounding copies, the lower mids are full and rich; above them, the next “level up” so to speak, there’s plenty of space in which to fit all the instruments comfortably, not piling them one on top of another as is so often the case. Consequently, the upper midrange area does not get stuffed and overwhelmed with musical information.

Number Two: edgy vocals, which is related to Number One above. Almost all copies have at least some edge to the vocals — the band seems to want to really belt it out in the multi-tracked choruses — but the best copies keep the edge under control, without sounding compressed, dark, dull or smeary.

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Art Pepper – Art Lives

More Art Pepper

More Jazz Recordings Featuring the Saxophone

  • An original Galaxy pressing with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it on both sides
  • You’d be hard-pressed to find a copy that’s this well balanced, big and lively, with wonderful clarity in the mids and highs
  • This live album features music from Pepper’s 1981 engagement at the Maiden Voyage club in Los Angeles
  • 4 stars: “Pepper, pianist George Cables, bassist David Williams, and drummer Carl Burnett are heard at their best on ‘Allen’s Alley’ and ‘Samba Mom Mom.'”
  • Here are some other reviews for the better live jazz club recordings we’ve auditioned over the years

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AC/DC – For Those About To Rock

More AC/DC

Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of AC/DC

  • Both sides of this copy were giving us the big and bold sound we were looking for, earning stunning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades, just shy of our Shootout Winner – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Once again the phenomenally talented Robert Ludwig gets the rock and roll power from the tape onto the vinyl like no one else can
  • For Those About To Rock has wall to wall sound and in-the-room presence like you will not believe
  • This link will take you to the Hot Stamper pressings of our currently available hardest rockin’ albums
  • Here are the titles that have earned a place on our none rocks harder list
  • “AC/DC are the real thing, perhaps the purest major practitioners of hot and snotty rock since Led Zeppelin lumbered off the boards. Other groups, from Van Halen to REO Speedwagon, may base their music on similar elements, but they inevitably emerge from the studio sounding cleaned up and rather too eager for AOR airplay. AC/DC, from the start, have always left the rough edges in. The rough edges are the point, much as they were part of the point of, say, Little Richard in the Fifties or the Rolling Stones in the mid-Sixties.” – Rolling Stone

From the moment the title track began, we knew we were in for a real treat. The transparency and clarity are shocking — we heard texture on the guitars and room around the drums that simply weren’t to be found elsewhere, plus tons of echo and ambience. The vocals are amazing — they’re breathy and full-bodied with loads of texture.

The bottom end is right on the money — big, beefy, and rock-solid.

You probably never thought you’d ever use an AC/DC LP as a demo disc, but this copy will have you reconsidering that notion — it’s alive with rock and roll power chords like nothing you have ever heard.

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Duran Duran – Self-Titled

More Duran Duran

More New Wave

  • An original British import of the band’s debut LP that was giving us the big and bold sound we were looking for, earning INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from start to finish
  • This pressing is huge, spacious and rich, with prodigious amounts of bass, guaranteed to sound better than any other copy you’ve heard
  • 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 things among many that Heavy Vinyl does so poorly
  • 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: “Duran Duran’s eponymous debut artfully coalesced the sonic and stylistic elements of the burgeoning new romantic movement they were soon to spearhead: pumping synths, glossy production, and seemingly impossible haircuts.”

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