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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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Elvis Costello – An Overview

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Hot Stamper Pressings of Elvis’s Albums Available Now

Note that the bulk of this commentary was written many years ago. I still feel the same way about Elvis’s albums and play them regularly to this day.

Trust is one of my three favorite Elvis Costello albums, along with his first and third, My Aim Is True and Armed Forces.

All three are Must Owns in my book.

I remember loving the sound of my old Brit copy from twenty years back [now 30], even to the point of agreeing with Michael Fremer when he put it on his top 40 rock album list. Now I know better: that most of them leave something to be desired, especially in the lower frequencies.

Did I have good one? Did he? Who can say? Everything is different, and revisiting old sonic favorites can sometimes be a bit of a shock.

Elvis: Still The King

By the way, we played a domestic copy of this album, just for fun you might say, and sure enough it was a real mess.

Boosted highs (Columbia had a habit of doing that for records mastered from dub tapes), poor bass definition and copious amounts of grit and grain — 70s Columbia at their best. What else is new?

The first album and Spike (far from the best but tolerable) are the only Elvis records I know of that work on domestic vinyl. Forget the rest.

If you love Elvis Costello as much as we do around here, we suggest you do yourself a favor and trash your domestic LPs — you need a British copy to even get in the ballpark on most of his albums, and even that’s far from a guarantee of good sound. Elvis is “Still the King,” but you will never know it without the right pressing.

Trust, along with Armed Forces, is one of the records that helped me make real progress in audio.

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Letter of the Week – “…an occult experience, as the sound emanating was totally inexplicable.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of Elvis Costello’s Albums Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom,   

My nearly white hot stamper of “Armed Forces” has literally and honestly left me in tears. I didn’t know my system could sound so… elevated? Perfect? Whole?

Listening to “Two Little Hitlers” was an occult experience, as the sound emanating was totally inexplicable.

Understand, I own over 10 versions of this album. I have collected original UK pressings and I have one that I was pretty sure you couldn’t match. I’m a damned expert of “Armed Forces”. Pathetic, but true.

I was going to return this slab. I had made up my mind before I heard it that it’s going back. The old me, before I went though your transformative experience of Crowley-esq audio magik, said smugly that:

“This was just an experiment. I’m not going to spend that kind of money on a LP, especially when I own so many good versions.”

No. You’re not getting my copy of “Armed Forces” back. 

And I guess you’ll be hearing a lot more from me and my credit card.

Adam G

Thanks, Adam, occult experiences are exactly what we were going after.

Further Reading

Elvis Costello Arrayed His Armed Forces and Produced His Single Best Sounding Album

Hot Stamper Pressings of Elvis’s Albums Available Now

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

The sound of the rhythm section ranks with the best we’ve ever heard. Beyond that, the musical chops of this band at this time rank with the best in the history of rock. Steve, Bruce and Pete rarely get the credit they deserve for being one of the tightest, liveliest backing bands ever to walk into a studio or on to a stage.

The song Oliver’s Army on the first side is a perfect example of what we’re talking about. Rock music doesn’t get much livelier than that.

Skip on down to Green Shirt for another track that’s as punchy as they come.

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Letter of the Week – “…the Hot Stamper is a step above the rest.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Talking Heads Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom,  

Just wanted to let you know I finally played the Little Creatures Hot Stamper last night for the first time. Very, very nice record. Admittedly, I have more copies of Little Creatures than any sane person should. Many of these copies sound very good, the Hot Stamper is a step above the rest. Great slam. More space between instruments. Love it. 

I have spent the last month or so collecting various versions of Elvis Costello – Armed Forces for a shootout. It’s a Top Five record for me and with my daughter heading for college soon, a White Hot copy is out of reach at this point. First press UK’s, later UK “Porky’s” and first run German “Porky’s” have all been gathered.

Honestly, the whole process is a pain in the ass and very time consuming. The results have been interesting and I have acquired what I believe to be a very good record but it probably would have been cheaper to give you a call.

Keep up the good work.

Sean M.

Sean, I would have been happy to save you the work, we do if for a living.

Come to our site to get a ready-to-play, guaranteed killer copy mailed right to your door. (Assuming we have one in stock.)

Best, TP

Armed Forces – Our Four Plus Shootout Winner

Hot Stamper Pressings of Elvis’s Albums Available Now

This White Hot Stamper side one of Armed Forces was HEAD AND SHOULDERS better than ANY side of ANY other copy we played. We are awarding it our very special Four Plus grade; the sound goes beyond anything we’ve heard before. It’s also one of less than two dozen such records to ever hit the site.

At this point we’ve easily done more than a thousand Hot Stamper listings, so we are talking in the range of the top one or two percent for sound. Most audiophiles will go their whole lives without hearing a rock record sound this good, considering the tens of thousands of records we’ve had to buy, clean and play to find the handful of OFF THE CHARTS copies we’ve reviewed. (more…)