mccarbest

Paul McCartney – Pipes of Peace

More of the Music of Paul McCartney 

  • You’ll find excellent Double Plus (A++) grades throughout this vintage UK pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • The sound here is rich and Tubey Magical, two qualities the CD made from these tapes surely lacks and two qualities which are crucial if this music is to sound the way Sir Paul intended
  • These sides are bigger, more natural, warmer and more solid than those of any other copy you’ve heard or your money back
  • The sound may be heavily processed, but that sound works surprisingly well on the best sounding pressings (played at good, loud levels on big dynamic speakers in a large, heavily-treated room, of course)
  • “‘Say Say Say’ [featuring Michael Jackson] hits hard, sounding as funky as anything on Thriller, and ‘Pipes of Peace’ achieves an earned grace. Perhaps Pipes of Peace doesn’t have the gravitas of Tug of War but it offers something equally valuable: a portrait of an impeccable craftsman at play.”

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Paul McCartney – Tug of War

More of the Music of Paul McCartney

  • Boasting KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them from top to bottom, we guarantee you’ve never heard Sir Paul’s 1982 release sound as good as it does on this original UK copy – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • We had a devil of a time finding sonics as good as these on Tug of War – most copies are just plain awful
  • A copy with transparency and clarity like this lets you appreciate George Martin‘s masterful production work – you will easily hear the results on “Ebony and Ivory”
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs – those on “What’s That You’re Doing? (feat. Stevie Wonder)” are especially bad – but if you can tough those out, this copy is going to blow your mind
  • 4 1/2 stars: “[Its] crowd-pleasing genre-hopping finds its apotheosis on ‘Take It Away,’ a salute to eager performers and the crowds who love them, which means it summarizes not only the appeal of Tug of War in general – it is, by design, a record that gives the people old Beatle Paul – but McCartney in general.”

Drop the needle on the opener Tug Of War and listen to how wide and deep the sound field is. Take It Away follows with a bit of an ’80s reggae feel, and on the better copies you get meaty, tight bass that sets the foundation for the fun to follow. (more…)

Paul McCartney & Wings – Back to the Egg

More of the Music of Paul McCartney

  • The band’s final release makes its Hot Stamper debut with solid Double Plus (A++) grades throughout this British import pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • 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 at
  • Forget the dubby domestic pressings and whatever crappy Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – the UK LPs are the only way to fly on Back to the Egg

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Paul McCartney & Wings – Band on the Run

More of the Music of Paul McCartney

  • With incredible Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades on both sides, this British pressing is practically as good a copy as we have ever heard, right up there with our Shootout Winner
  • Another record that rarely can be found with audiophile playing surfaces – noisy vinyl is the rule, not the exception
  • The legendary Geoff Emerick engineered the album, a Top 100 title here at Better Records – it’s an impressive recording when it sounds as good as this copy does
  • The title track, “Jet,” “Bluebird,” “Mrs. Vandebilt,” “Let Me Roll It,” “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” – so many great songs
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs – those on “Mamunia” are especially bad – but if you can tough those out, this copy is going to blow your mind
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…sophisticated, nuanced arrangements and irrepressibly catchy melodic hooks… McCartney’s infallible instinct for popcraft overflows on this excellent release.”

This is a TOUGH album to find with great sound and quiet vinyl but when you come across an excellent copy like this, the record is a MONSTER. The track list includes some of the best McCartney songs of the seventies: the title song, “Jet,” “Bluebird,” “Mrs. Vandebilt,” “Let Me Roll It,” “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” (my personal favorite on the album) — there’s really not a dog in the bunch.

This is clearly the last consistently good studio album the man recorded.

So many copies we play are either murky or a bit edgy, and it takes a very special copy to strike the ideal tonal balance that will allow all the songs to sound their best.

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Paul McCartney / Wild Life

More of the Music of Paul McCartney

  • This INCREDIBLE Apple UK import copy (the first to hit the site in many years) has Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or very close to it on both sides
  • Both of these sides are big and rich, with tons of bottom end weight and three-dimensional space, the kind of sound that most other pressings only hint at
  • It had been a long time since we last shot out this title, but after spending the day listening to copies like this we found ourselves LOVING IT!
  • Forget the dubby domestic pressings and whatever crappy Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – the UK LPs are the only way to fly on Wild Life

Let’s face it: finding good sounding McCartney records with the exception of the first album is pretty darn tough. From Ram on it’s slim pickings, even on import. Most of those later albums sound like cassettes; they’re as dead as the proverbial doornail. They bore us to tears. Wild Life stood up and showed us that there’s more good sound to be found after McCartney’s debut.

If you want the ultimate nexus of music and sound for McCartney, a Hot Stamper of the first album is the way to go. That said, this album is MUCH BETTER sounding than we ever suspected, and it’s much better music than we were led to believe by the critics. If you aren’t happy with it we will give you your money back.

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Paul McCartney – Unplugged

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  • A true Demo Disc and superb sounding import pressing with solid Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • A strikingly intimate document of a live show, fronted by one of the greatest performers in history, Sir Paul McCartney
  • You get more extension up top, more weight down low, and more transparency in the midrange, than on most other copies we played
  • 4 stars: “… it remains one of the most enjoyable records in McCartney’s catalog. McCartney is carefree and charming, making songs like ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula’ and ‘Blue Moon of Kentucky’ sound fresh.”

Superb sound for this amazing recording! On the better copies, the sound is warmer, richer, and sweeter, or in a word, more analog sounding. You get more extension up top, more weight down low, and more transparency in the midrange. It’s surprising how veiled and two-dimensional so many copies can be, considering that this is a live recording (by the legendary Geoff Emerick himself) with not a lot of “messing around” after the fact.

Finding The Best Sound

This isn’t your typical rock record that sounds crappy on eight out of ten copies. Most copies of Unplugged sound pretty good. We did hear quite a few that had a somewhat brittle quality to the top end, with no real extension to speak of. It wasn’t ever a dealbreaker, but the copies with a silky openness up there are much more enjoyable — and, unfortunately, fairly uncommon.

There are copies that lack warmth, copies that never fully come to life, and copies that are a bit dark. Some that we auditioned didn’t seem to get the breath in the vocals, and others lacked weight to the piano. Again — not one of the pressings we played sounded bad, but many of them definitely sounded dry, boring and lifeless.

Just for fun, check out Linda’s percussion and tambourine work in the right channel of the first track on side one, “Be-Bop-A-Lula.” Since that’s one of our test tracks, we had the opportunity to hear her ‘contribution’ to the song about twenty times or so, and it became a source of — to be charitable — ‘entertainment’ in its own right as the shootout progressed.

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Paul McCartney & Wings – Venus and Mars

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  • This vintage British pressing is doing practically everything right, with incredible Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades from start to finish, just shy of our Shootout Winner – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • We shot out a number of other imports and this one had better midrange presence, bass, and dynamics than practically any other copy we played
  • These sides have real depth to the soundfield, full-bodied, present vocals, plenty of bottom end weight, and lovely analog warmth
  • “Venus and Mars is an interesting mix of musical styles, punctuated by Paul McCartney’s unerring sense of melody and hooky songs.” – Oldies.com
  • These are the stampers that always win our shootouts, and when you hear them you will know why – the sound is big, rich and clear like no other
  • We’ve discovered a number of titles in which one stamper always wins, and here are some others

This original UK Capitol pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records can barely BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn’t showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to “see” the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with the band, this is the record for you. It’s what vintage all analog recordings are known for — this sound. (more…)

Paul McCartney – Wings at the Speed of Sound

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  • Killer sound throughout this vintage Capitol pressing of Wings’ follow-up to Venus and Mars, with a Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side two
  • This copy has a “cinematic” quality – it’s just plain bigger, with more depth to the soundfield, and more energy than we remember from the last time we did the shootout
  • The big hits, “Let ‘Em In” and “Silly Love Songs,” as well as minor gems such as “Beware My Love,” are outstanding here, with good body and a smoother, more natural, but still extended top end
  • The right stampers are key on this title, and these are definitely the right ones
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs, but once you hear just how superb sounding this copy is, you might be inclined, as we were, to stop counting ticks and pops and just be swept away by the music
  • “…At the Speed of Sound ostensibly invites the listener to spend a day with McCartney and Wings—a day in which the listener is gently harangued as well as entertained.” – Rolling Stone

The better copies such as this one had the qualities that really make the songs come to life and give you a taste of the old McCartney magic.

Import Vs. Domestic

We’ve played plenty of both and in our experience the best domestic pressings are clearly superior. This is not true for many of McCartney’s albums but it is definitely true for this Wings at the Speed of Sound and his first, McCartney.

The copies that were flatter, more transistory, more opaque, less present; the ones that had no real extension up high or down low, or little in the way of Tubey Magic — here we are basically describing the all-too-common typical pressing — simply did not make the cut and ended up in the trade pile. That’s not our sound and never has been.

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Paul McCartney & Wings – Wings Over America

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More of The Beatles

  • With excellent sound on all six sides, these vintage Capitol pressings will be very hard to beat
  • SIX sides of live Wings music, phew! As I’m sure you can imagine, this shootout was quite the undertaking
  • This copy was just BIGGER and RICHER than most others we played – it’s clean, clear and full-bodied with a solid bottom end, tons of energy and lots of space around all of the musicians
  • “… the Beatles mystique was still very much attached to record and artist alike… and it seemed like McCartney represented the part of the group’s legacy that came closest to living up to fans’ expectations. Thus the album ended up selling in numbers, rivaling the likes of Frampton Comes Alive and other mega-hits of the period, and rode the charts for months.”
  • If you’re a McCartney fan, this title from 1976 is surely of interest, assuming you already have the first album, Unplugged and Band on the Run, and maybe Ram – all Must Own Titles or something close to them

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Paul McCartney – McCartney II

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More Beatles

  • Boasting KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout, this vintage British pressing could not be beat
  • Forget the dubby domestic pressings – these UK imports are the only ones that can deliver the McCartney II Magic
  • Both of these sides are clean, clear, and dynamic with lots of Tubey Magic and a huge bottom end
  • “Entitled McCartney II because its one-man band approach mirrors that of his first solo album, Paul McCartney’s first record since the breakup of Wings was greeted upon its release as a return to form… [It] finds Paul in an adventurous state of mind, which is a relief after years of formulaic pop.”

If you’ve heard the album, you know it’s not exactly a straight-ahead pop record. Paul is in his one-man-band mode here, just as he was for his brilliant solo debut, but this time around he relies more on synth-heavy arrangements and plenty of studio experimentation. Assuming you have the right pressing, UK only in our experience, it can be a very good sounding record. (more…)