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Spirit’s Psych Rock Masterpiece (The First of Two)

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  • Wall to wall, with layered studio depth like you will not believe, the kind of space you hear on an engineering classic like Dark Side of the Moon
  • 4 1/2 stars on Allmusic, but in our estimation it deserves five – it’s simply one of the All Time Greats from the era
  • We’ve recently compiled a list of records we think every audiophile should get to know better, along the lines of “the 1001 records you need to hear before you die,” with an accent on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. Spirit’s First Album is a good example of a record many audiophiles may not know well but would be well advised to get to know better.
  • If I were to make a list of my favorite Rock and Pop albums from 1968, this album would definitely be on it, close to the top I should think.

Need a refresher course in Tubey Magic after playing too many modern recordings or remasterings? These Ode pressings are overflowing with it. Rich, smooth, sweet, full of ambience, dead-on correct tonality — everything that we listen for in a great record is here.

No recordings will ever be made that sound like this again, and no CD will ever capture what is in the grooves of this record. There is of course a CD of this album, quite a few I would guess, but those of us with a good turntable could care less. (more…)

Spirit in ’68 – One of the Most Phenomenal Debuts of All Time

More of the Music of Spirit

Hot Stamper Pressings of Psych Rock Albums Available Now

Want a glimpse into the kind of energy the band was generating in the studio? Drop the needle on the opening track, Fresh Garbage, and you will hear this band come alive in a way you probably never imagined you’d experience.

It’s positively startling how immediate and lively the sound is here.

This is the band at their best, fired up and ready to show the world that The Doors are not the only SoCal rock band who have innovative ideas about rock music and the performing chops to pull them off, not to mention the studio wizards who managed to get it all down on tape with State-of-the-Art ’60s Rock sound quality.

The venerable jazz arranger Marty Paich was brought in to lend his talents to the project, something I never knew until I glanced at the liner notes during a shootout many years ago. No wonder the arrangements, especially the string arrangements, are so innovative and interesting. I can think of no Psych record outside of The Beatles’ with better strings.

Spirit’s first album checks off a few of our favorite boxes:

The Doors Vs. Spirit

If I had to choose between The Doors’ first album and Spirit’s, say for a nice drive up the coast with the top down, no contest, Spirit would get the nod (not to take anything away from The Doors mind you). I had the album on 8 Track back in high school and played it to death. Doing this shootout, hearing the album sound so good after so many years, was nothing less than a THRILL. (I went right up to Amazon and bought a CD for the car. Might just take a drive up the coast.)

If you like Surrealistic Pillow and Revolver/Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles and early Doors albums, and you don’t know the album well, you are really in for a treat. It’s a classic of its day that still holds up forty-plus years later.

I simply cannot recommend any current album on the site more highly.

This Demo Disc Quality recording should be part of any serious Rock Collection. Others that belong in that category can be found here.

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Spirit – The Mono Rocks

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Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Spirit

This review was written in 2010. I doubt we would prefer the mono pressings to the stereo pressings were we to do the shootout this year, but you never know. (Don’t get your hopes up. We simply can’t find clean copies of this album anymore.)

That’s what shootouts are for, to give you the data to back up your opinions and your guesses. Without more current data, who can say which of the two we would prefer?

Our old review:

A distinguished member of the Better Records Rock Hall of Fame, not for the best Hot Stamper stereo copies, but for this amazing MONO. 

This killer pressing from 2010 has almost EVERYTHING you want from this ’60s Psych Pop Masterpiece — the energy, presence and sheer rock and roll POWER made a mockery of every stereo copy we played.

Want a glimpse into the kind of energy the band was generating in the studio? Drop the needle on Fresh Garbage, the opening track of this amazing mono pressing, and you will hear this band come alive in a way you never imagined you’d ever hear them.

It’s positively startling how immediate and powerful the sound is here.

That said, from an audiophile point of view, mono does involve a sacrifice — the huge three-dimensional soundstage of the best stereo copies is nowhere to be found here.

From a musical or performance point of view, this mono cannot be beat; it shows the band at their best, fired up and ready to show the world that The Doors are not the only SoCal rock band who have innovative ideas about rock music and the performing chops to pull off their conceptions, not to mention the studio wizards backing them to get it all down on tape.

If I had to choose between The Doors’ first album and Spirit’s, say for a nice drive up the coast with the top down, no contest, Spirit would get the nod. I had the album on 8 Track back in high school and played it to death. Doing this shootout, hearing the album sound so good after so many years, was nothing less than a THRILL. (I went right up to Amazon and bought a CD for the car. Might just take a drive up the coast.)

If you like Surrealistic Pillow and Revolver/Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles and early Doors albums, and you don’t know this album well, you are really in for a treat. This album is a classic of its day that still holds up forty plus years later. I cannot recommend any current album on the site more highly.

(more…)

Spirit – Sundazed Heavy Vinyl Mono Reviewed

Hot Stamper Pressings of Psychedelic Rock Recordings Available Now

Sonic Grade: D

Another Sundazed record reviewed and found to be way off the mark.

As usual, the Sundazed only hints at the exceptionally good sound found on the best early pressings. We recommended it back at the day — let’s face it, we had a lot to learn.

In its defense, allow me to point out that it’s tonally correct, so for fifteen bucks you are getting your fifteen bucks worth, and probably not a dime’s more. We just cannot take this kind of sound seriously anymore.

Once you’ve heard the real thing, this pressing just won’t do.

Kevin Gray remastered this title, and we have found that the bulk of the records he’s involved with are rarely better than awful. Here is a good example of a record he mastered that falls far short of any record that would qualify to have the words “audiophile pressing” attached to it.

Look for these obvious signs that you are playing one his recuts:

The sound is opaque. It resists your efforts to hear into the recording. This is to be expected. Modern records in general tend to lack transparency, one of the most important qualities that the better vintage pressings have in abundance.

In addition, Gray’s records consistently lack ambience and air. We discuss that subject in more depth here.

If you are looking for audiophile sound on vinyl, our advice would be to avoid any record he is associated with.