Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Elton John Available Now
Our thoughts circa 2007, about the time we found our first real breakthrough pressing.
This has to be one of the best sounding rock records of all time. The highs are silky sweet, the vocals are full-bodied and breathy, and the tonal balance is perfection from top to bottom.
If you have any doubts that Elton John was a pop music genius, just play this record. It’s all the proof you will need. Drop the needle on any track — you just can’t go wrong.
There’s no need to go on and on about the sonic qualities of this copy. Everything you’d ever want from this record is here in abundance. Folks, this copy is the epitome of what we call Master Tape Sound — on both sides.
Two mastering approaches
The original British copies of this record, with the leatherette cover, have two distinctly different mastering approaches.
The earliest pressings tend to be very lively, but a bit hi-fi-ish and aggressive in places. I used to think these were the best.
The later British originals tend to sound dull and muddy.
There was a time when we liked a certain British stamper that we thought split the difference between the mastering approaches mentioned above.
The copies we played this time around with that stamper were practically unacceptable this time around.
Our best domestic pressings actually bettered many of the Brit copies with our old favorite stamper.
Recent improvements in our stereo and evaluation process have allowed us to discover the stampers with that we think have the right sound.
When it comes to stampers, labels, mastering credits, country of origin and the like, we make a point of revealing little of such information on the site, for a number of reasons we discussed in a commentary we wrote many years ago, at the dawn of the Hot Stamper revolution. (Ahem.)
However, in 2024 we decided to reverse our previous policy. We now make available to our readers a great deal of that information, under these four headings:
Please to enjoy.