Dear Record Loving Audiophiles of Earth,
I’m afraid we have some bad news. [This was written back in 2011 when the record came out so it’s hard to imagine that what I am about to say is news to anyone after all these years.]
Regrettably we must inform you that the 2011 edition of Tea for the Tillerman pressed by Analogue Productions on Heavy Vinyl doesn’t sound very good. We know you were all hoping for the best. We also know that you must be very disappointed to hear this unwelcome news.
But the record is what it is, and what it is is not very good. Its specific shortcomings are many and will be considered at length in our review below.
Yes, we know, the folks over at Acoustic Sounds, in consultation with the late George Marino at Sterling Sound, supposedly with the real master tape in hand, and supposedly with access to the best mastering equipment money can buy, labored mightily, doing their level best to master and press the Definitive Audiophile Tea for the Tillerman on Vinyl of All Time.
It just didn’t come out very good, no matter what the reviewers say. And what do they say? Allow me to quote one.
…superbly dynamic, spacious and detailed…The attack of the pick on the guitar strings is astonishingly clean and detailed.
Depth is pronounced…
…the resolution of low level detail reveals a host of details that are either buried or glossed over on the other versions I’ve heard…
Uh-oh, wait a minute, here’s a blindingly red flag:
If you have the edition, you’ll find this similar in one way: there’s nothing “mellow” about the overall production and when the music gets loud (and Marino lets it get so) it can get a bit hard, but better that than to soften it and lose the clarity, focus and detail of this superb recording, especially in the quieter passages where the resolution of low level detail is astonishing.
More about that later.