Incredible sound throughout this vintage Janus pressing of Stewart’s 1976 Masterpiece, with both sides earning Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them
With engineering by Alan Parsons, the top pressings are every bit the audiophile Demo Discs you remember
The best sides have Tubey Magical acoustic guitars, sweet vocals, huge amounts of space, breathtaking transparency, and so much more
The sound may be too heavily processed and glossy for some, but we find that on the best copies that sound really works for this music
4 1/2 stars: “A tremendous example of how good self-conscious progressive pop can be, given the right producer and songwriter — and if you’re a fan of either prog or pop and haven’t given Al Stewart much thought, prepare to be enchanted.”
