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The Kinks – Everybody’s In Showbiz

More Rock and Pop

  • Everybody’s In Showbiz makes its Hot Stamper debut with solid Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them on all FOUR sides of these vintage RCA pressings
  • It’s lively and rich, with plenty of deep punchy bass, a nicely extended top and a huge three-dimensional soundfield (particularly on sides one and two)
  • The sound on sides one and two is remarkably full-bodied, with solid, present vocals, as well as excellent clarity all around, and sides three and four are not far behind in all those areas
  • “…they were in full bloom at this point in their career. Infectious, sly, brazen, and solidly awesome, this is that pre-Arista Kinks stuff you should be hip to.”

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Suppe – Overtures / Solti

More Imported Pressings on Decca and London

  • Solti and the Vienna Phil’s exquisite performance of Suppe’s Overtures debuts on the site with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them throughout this original London Stereo pressing
  • Lovely string tone and texture, rich bass, a big hall, no smear, lovely transparency – the sonics here are hard to fault
  • This recording is overflowing with the kind of rich, spacious, Tubey Magical sound that can only be found on vintage vinyl

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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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Albert King / Born Under a Bad Sign

More Electric Blues

  • Born Under A Bad Sign returns to the site for the first time in years, here with KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades on both sides of this original Stax pressing – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • These are just a few of the the things we had to say about this amazing copy in our notes: “big and tubey and 3D”…”jumping out of the speakers”…”very full vox”…”weighty and rich”…”great energy”…”so much room and detail”
  • No other copy came close to this one, and we had a bunch, many of which earned grades of 1.5+ because,  on this record, you really have to know what to look for in the dead wax
  • Incredibly dynamic, rich and full, with lots of texture to the guitars, this copy brought the music to life right in our listening room
  • Accept no substitutes – no reissue of the album can ever give you the energy, size and you-are-there presence that’s on this disc
  • 5 stars: “It was immediately influential at the time and, over the years, it has only grown in stature as one of the very greatest electric blues albums of all time.”

A Must Own Record

We consider this album a Masterpiece. It’s a recording that belongs in any serious soul, blues, and R&B collection.

Others that belong in that category can be found here.

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Elvis Costello / Punch The Clock

More of the Music of Elvis Costello

  • Here is a vintage F-Beat import pressing of Punch the Clock with great sound from start to finish – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Two Costello classics are found on side one: “Everyday I Write the Book,” and “Shipbuilding,” with a heartbreaking trumpet solo by none other than Chet Baker himself
  • We guarantee there is more space, richness, presence, and performance energy on this copy than others you’ve heard or you get your money back – it’s as simple as that
  • “Elvis Costello … remains the most consistently interesting songwriter in rock & roll, and there is evidence that a new, more emotionally generous sensibility may soon be present in his work.” -Rolling Stone

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Various Artists – For My True Love / Almeida

More TAS List Super Discs

  • For My True Love makes its Hot Stamper debut with INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout this original Stereo Capitol pressing
  • Both of these TAS-approved sides have all the qualities that make analog so involving and pleasurable – the warmth, the naturalness, and above all the realism
  • Dramatically richer, fuller and more Tubey Magical than practically all other copies, with breathy vocals and some of the most tubey, warm acoustic guitar sound you could ever ask for
  • This is a lot of money for a somewhat noisy copy, but the sound is so awesome and quiet pressings of the album so hard to come by that we hope someone will take a chance on it and get the thrill we did from hearing it sound so right
  • You may notice that we do not put up a lot of Capitol pressings from the 50s — many of the great Nat “King” Cole titles come to mind — because we simply cannot find early pressings that play quiet enough for our customers
  • If you don’t have a quiet cartridge installed in a top quality ($10k+), highly-tweaked front end, this is probably not the record for you

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Donny Hathaway – Self-Titled

More Soul, Blues, and R&B

  • Hathaway’s sophomore LP debuts on the site with outstanding Double Plus (A++) grades on both sides of this original Atco pressing
  • Richer, warmer, more natural, more relaxed – these vintage pressings are what analog is all about, that long-lost sound that never calls attention to itself and just lets the music flow
  • “…’Magnificent Sanctuary Band’ is the standout [while] ‘Little Girl’ is a nice piece of gospel testifying with great male harmonizing on the chorus, and ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ is a solid rendering of a song usually drenched in pathos.” 

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Shelly Manne & His Men – At The Black Hawk, Vol. 4

More of the Music of Shelly Manne

  • Here is an early Contemporary stereo pressing with solid Double Plus (A++) sound on both sides
  • This is West Coast Jazz at its best, and if anyone can capture the realism of a live jazz club, it’s the engineers and producers at Contemporary
  • For our shootout, we chose to play Volumes 2, 3 and 4 on the same day, which taught us something we might not have known otherwise — Volume 4 tends to have the best sound of those three albums
  • If you want to hear a healthy dose of the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this wonderful live session recorded at the Black Hawk in September 1959, this copy will let you do that
  • 4 stars: “Shelly Manne’s 1959 quintet (with trumpeter Joe Gordon, tenor saxophonist Richie Kamuca, pianist Victor Feldman, bassist Monty Budwig, and the drummer/leader) was … a hard-swinging unit well versed in bebop. The lengthy solos are consistently excellent, making this entire series recommended to straight-ahead jazz fans.

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Traffic – The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys

More Prog Rock

  • With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides, this UK Island pressing (only the second copy to hit the site in four and a half years) could not be beat
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this killer copy in our notes: “rich and dynamic”…”big and tubey”…”great size and energy”…”huge bass”…”tubey and present and 3D vox”…”pretty great!” (side two)
  • Low Spark is clearly one of the best sounding Proggy/Arty Rock records ever made – the space it recreates is huge
  • A Better Records Top 100 album and real Demo Disc on a pressing that sounds as good as this one does
  • This is a lot of money for a somewhat noisy copy, but the sound is so awesome and quiet pressings of the album so hard to come by that we hope someone will take a chance on it and get the thrill we did from hearing it sound right for once
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The commercial and artistic apex of the second coming of Traffic… The standout was the 12-minute title track, with its distinctive piano riff and its lyrics of weary disillusionment with the music business. “
  • Our last shootout for the album was in 2019, and a domestic copy did better back then than it would do now

After doing the shootout for John Barleycorn recently, a record we love in spite of its problematic sound, this album was truly a breath of fresh air. I can honestly and enthusiastically say that the sound we heard on the best pressings was out of this world. This album is a permanent member of our Rock and Pop Top 100, that’s how good it is.

Who knew? We had no idea this recording could sound so incredibly spacious and open. The distortion level is so close to zero that we don’t even want to assign a positive number to it. Let’s just say it’s below the threshold of hearing; does that work for you?

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Milt Jackson – Bags & Flutes

More Recordings Engineered by Tom Dowd 

  • This 70s Atlantic reissue pressing boasts seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them from top to bottom
  • Forget whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days (as well as the early mono pressings) – if you want to hear the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this wonderful album from 1959, a vintage pressing like this one is the only way to go (particularly on this side one)
  • “Jackson is partnered alternately with Frank Wess and Bobby Jaspar — two of the leading pioneers that helped bring the flute into the mainstream of jazz. For these performances, the rhythm section blends and balances superbly, creating supple, meaty, hard bopping grooves for Jackson’s limitless capacity for invention and for the stellar, swinging performances of Jaspar and Wess.” -The Jazz Record Review (more…)