1986 – Not the best year for recording quality
Exhibit A: Paul Simon’s Graceland.
Exhibit B: Peter Gabriel’s So.
Nothing further, your honor.
On the best copies, the sound is spacious and high-resolution. The bright, dry, grainy, analytical sound is replaced with something warmer, richer, fuller, sweeter, smoother — in other words, more ANALOG sounding. (more…)
Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Elvis Costello
Years ago we had a British Import Demon Records 2 LP set that sounded decent — better sound than you’d find on any domestic copy — and the songs, spanning the period from 1976 to 1986, are GREAT!
But the CD has much better sound than any vinyl I have yet to hear.
Buy the CD, it’s one of the best compilations — of any artist’s music — I know of.
This is a SUPERB set from Oscar Peterson’s sometimes underwhelming Pablo period. This one is from 1986 and includes the estimable Joe Pass on guitar.
Side one has the kind of sound one associates with late-’70s jazz, jazz that often seems to be recorded in dead studios.
Side two sounds much better somehow — more clear, present and lively.
The liner notes tell us it’s the same studio, even the same day, but there is simply no mistaking the better sound quality. Such are the vagaries of the vinyl record.
If you’re in the market for a top quality Oscar Peterson piano trio recording (with bonus guitar), this side two should be just the ticket.
With two outstanding sides, this pressing gets two critically important elements of the recording right: the strings in the orchestra, and, for obvious reasons, even more importantly, Linda’s voice. We guarantee that these sides give you a more natural-sounding Linda than you’ve ever heard, or your money back. (more…)