1988

Bon Jovi – New Jersey

More Rock Classics

  • New Jersey debuts on the site with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout this original Mercury pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • HUGE Rock Sound – the guitars and drums are positively jumping out of the speakers with dynamic energy, presented on a stage that’s exceptionally wide and tall
  • Which means the two monster hits – “Lay Your Hands On Me” and “Bad Medicine” – both rock like crazy on this Triple Plus side one, with more bottom and top end extension than on any of the other copies we played
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Bon Jovi had perfected a formula for hard pop/rock by the time of New Jersey, concentrating on singalong choruses sung over and over again, frequently by a rough, extensively overdubbed chorus, producing an effect not unlike what these songs sounded like in the arenas and stadiums where they were most often heard.”

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Glenn Frey – Soul Searchin’

More Eagles

  • With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides, this copy (only the second to hit the site in years) is practically as good as we have ever heard
  • We were shocked to find out that this album actually sounds very analog – rich, smooth, sweet and natural
  • Elliot Scheiner (Royal Scam, Aja, Nightfly) produced and also did some engineering – he is to be commended for his excellent work here
  • “Though I left Detroit and went to California to cut my teeth on country-rock, I’ve remained obsessed with the music of my adolescence, the great soul hits of the 60s and early 70s.”

The best copies are both rich and open, with the sound we tend to associate with the better 70s recordings and rarely hear on records from the 80s. But here’s a record from 1988 that sounds the way we like our records to sound — like analog. We don’t really know if it is or not, or mostly is or mostly isn’t, but we’ve never really cared about those sorts of things as long as the record sounds good.

It’s our one and only criterion. Any other criterion is a sign that you’re not really listening, you’re reading.

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Rob Wasserman – Duets

More Rob Wasserman

  • This rare and wonderful album from 1988 on the original MCA label boasts KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this incredible copy in our notes: “really full and present vox”…”good weight”…”the most space” (side one)…”detailed and textured and spacious”…”deep bass”
  • In-the-room vocal presence (Jennifer Warnes is stunning on Leonard Cohen’s “Ballad Of The Runaway Horse”) and tight, note-like bass are key to the best pressings
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Some amazing duets and a great lineup that includes Aaron Neville (v), Stephane Grappelli (violin), Dan Hicks (v, g), and so on. The jazz community missed this one.” [But the audiophile community loved it.]
  • Our old friend Bernie Grundman handled the mastering for Duets, back when he was still making good sounding records. Everything changed when he started working for Classic Records in the ’90s. Based on the scores we’ve played, the vast majority of his remastered pressings leave a lot to be desired. You can read more about them here.

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The Traveling Wilburys – Volume One

More of The Traveling Wilburys

More Rock and Pop

  • This original copy of the Wilburys’ debut album boasts two INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sides or close to them – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Proof that, when you put Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne in a recording studio together, something good is bound to happen
  • Certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, this album was Grammy nominated Album of the Year in 1989
  • 4 1/2 stars: “There never was a supergroup more super than the Traveling Wilburys… It’s impossible to picture a supergroup with a stronger pedigree.”

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Anita Baker – Giving You The Best That I Got

  • Outstanding sonics throughout this vintage Elektra pressing, with both sides earning solid Double Plus (A++) grades
  • Key to the sound is richness and Tubey Magic, along with strong midrange presence, and on this pressing you get all three
  • We remembered this as a good recording and were still surprised with how good the better copies sounded
  • 4 stars: “…far superior to most of 1988’s uninspired R&B releases. Instead of tampering with Rapture’s consistently romantic and mellow soul/pop approach, Elektra brought back that album’s producer, Michael J. Powell, and kept [Baker] at the top of the charts with such sleek yet earthy fare as ‘Just Because,’ ‘Priceless,’ the haunting ‘Good Love,’ and the title song.”

We had a ton of copies for our recent shootout and can report that the typical pressings tend to be veiled, grainy, and lifeless. Most of them lacked richness, but a few of them had surprising analog qualities that gave the music a smoother, fuller sound.

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Bob Dylan – Down in the Groove

More Bob Dylan

More Rock and Pop

  • Down in the Groove appears on the site for only the second time ever, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout this original Columbia pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • These are just a few of the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “big and weighty”…”jumping out [of the speakers]”…”fat kick and snare”…”vox breathy and present”
  • Both of these sides are big and rich, with remarkable clarity and three-dimensional space, the kind of sound that most other pressings only hint a
  • “It begins and ends with strong covers, opening with Wilbert Harrison’s ‘Let’s Stick Together’ (a good, raucous rocker with stuttering tremolo guitars and an aggressive Dylan vocal) and closing with the Stanley Brothers’ apocalyptic country hymn ‘Rank Strangers to Me’ (a simple, heartfelt guitar-vocal performance with fusionesque glissando bass). [And t]here is no mistaking the emotional vocal investment in his country-gospel treatment of the traditional folk song ‘Shenandoah’ or the eerie morbidity of his delivery in ‘Ninety Miles an Hour (Down a Dead End Street)'” – Rolling Stone

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Sade – Stronger Than Pride

More Sade

More Soul, Blues and R&B

  • An original Epic import pressing (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in nineteen months) with solid Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • This is probably the quietest copy to come out of our shootout — plenty of these had issues, including most of the best sounding pressings
  • This copy had more of the in-the-room vocal presence, note-like bass, and powerful dynamics we were looking for than most of the other pressings we played, many of which had exactly the same stampers
  • Forget the veiled, closed-in domestic pressings and whatever crappy Heavy Vinyl poseur may be in print – this copy will bring a living, breathing, oh-so-sultry Sade Adu (age 29) right into your very own listening room
  • “Sade demonstrated some intensity and fire on her third release… she had more animation in her delivery on such songs as ‘Haunt Me,’ ‘Give It Up,’ and the hit ‘Paradise.'”

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Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Session

More Digital Recordings with Hot Stampers

  • A Trinity Session like you’ve never heard, with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or BETTER on both sides of this original UK import (one of only a handful of copies to ever hit the site)
  • The sound is big and rich, the vocals breathy and immediate, and you will not believe all the space and ambience – which of course are all qualities that Heavy Vinyl records have far too little of, and the main reason we have lost all respect for the bulk of them
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Who says you can’t make a great record in one day – or night, as the case may be? The Trinity Session was recorded in one night using one microphone, a DAT recorder, and the wonderful acoustics of the Holy Trinity in Toronto. As an album, it’s still remarkable at how timeless it sounds, and its beauty is – in stark contrast to its presentation – voluminous and rich, perhaps even eternal.”
  • If you want to dig deeper into the sound of the various pressings we played, here is a link to a commentary we think you might enjoy

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Enya – Watermark

More Enya

  • Watermark returns to the site after a twenty-one month hiatus, here with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from first note to last, and pressed on vinyl that’s about as quiet as we can find it
  • The vocals are breathy and full-bodied with staggering immediacy, and the bottom end is weighty and powerful
  • “Orinoco Flow” (aka “Sail Away”) is the big hit here and it is certainly as good as we’ve ever heard on this amazing Triple Plus side two
  • 5 stars: “…the subtlety that characterizes her work at her best dominates Watermark, with the lovely title track, her multi-tracked voice gently swooping among the lead piano, and strings like a softly haunting ghost, as fine an example as any.”

The sound here is airy, open, spacious, and super transparent. This may not be our favorite music in the world, but it’s hard to argue with sonics like this. The instruments all have lovely texture, and it’s easy to pick out and follow them over the course of a song. (more…)

Gene Harris All Star Big Band – Tribute To Count Basie

More Jazz Recordings

  • With seriously good Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last, this original Concord LP is doing just about everything right
  • Gene Harris, one of my favorite pianists, leads an all star crew on a series of tracks performed in the spirit of Count Basie
  • One of the better sounding Concord records we’ve ever played – this is one of the real sleepers from the label, with plenty of Big Band ENERGY in the grooves
  • Concord turns out consistently boring jazz 98% of the time, but here’s a record that fits into that 2% slice and is guaranteed to make you sit up and pay attention
  • “Harris’ 16-piece orchestra does bring back the spirit of Basie’s band…with a lightly but steadily swinging rhythm section and such soloists as trumpeters Conte Candoli and Jon Faddis and tenors Plas Johnson and Bob Cooper.”

Since when did Concord learn to make a record that sounds as good as this one, with inspired, energetic performances from this solid group of veterans of the jazz wars no less?

Where is the typical Concord sub-gen, opaque, closed-in, compressed and lifeless sound we’ve been hearing all our lives? This is one jazz label that has done almost nothing of any real interest from the very start, and yet somehow they not only managed to get Gene Harris and his band of All Stars to play with tremendous enthusiasm and skill, they actually managed to capture, with considerable fidelity I might add, the prodigious big band energy they produced onto a reel of analog tape. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t heard it with my own two ears.

Not only is the sound EXCELLENT, but the big band really swings. They pull out all the stops. Gene Harris, one of my favorite pianists, leads an all star crew on a series of tracks performed in the spirit of Count Basie. Not a slavish recreation, but an inspired performance in his style. This has to be one of the best sounding Concord records I’ve ever heard. Without a doubt one of the real sleepers from the label.

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