Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Grateful Dead Available Now
UPDATE 2026
This review for Workingman’s Dead was written shortly after the release of the album in 2003.
An audiophile hall of shame pressing and a Heavy Vinyl disaster if there ever was one (and oh yes, there are plenty. Here are some of the more recent examples we’ve played).
The 2003 Rhino reissue on Heavy Vinyl of Workingman’s Dead is absolutely awful. It sounds like a bad cassette.
The CD of the album that I own is superb, which means that the tapes are not the problem, bad mastering and pressing are.
This pressing has what we call ”modern” sound, which is to say it’s clean and tonally correct for the most part, but it’s missing the Tubey Magic the originals and the good reissues both have plenty of.
Is it the worst version of the album ever made? The pressings on the last WB labels are pretty awful, but this awful? Who can say?