wondetalki

Stevie Wonder – Talking Book

More of the Music of Stevie Wonder

  • This is a Talking Book that sounds the way you always hoped it would, with solid Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom – fairly (and unusually) quiet vinyl for this notoriously problematic title
  • Richer, warmer, more natural, more relaxed, this is what vintage analog is all about, that smooth sound that never calls attention to itself and just lets the music flow
  • So many great songs: “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” “Tuesday Heartbreak,” “You’ve Got It Bad Girl,” “Superstition,” and many, many more
  • “Superstition” is one of the funkiest songs ever recorded, with my favorite clavinet work of all time
  • Add in moog bass and, with big speakers playing at loud levels, you now have yourself a Demo Disc for funky low end that’s so good it’s hard to believe
  • Finding copies with audiophile sound and surfaces, and no scratches that play, is no mean feat, which makes this a very special one indeed
  • 5 stars: “What had been hinted at on the intriguing project Music of My Mind was here focused into a laser beam of tight songwriting, warm electronic arrangements, and ebullient performances — altogether the most realistic vision of musical personality ever put to wax…”
  • One customer who loved his Hot Stamper pressing of the album took our critics to task in a letter he wrote to us not long ago
  • If I could recommend one Stevie Wonder album to every audiophile and music lover, it would be Fulfillingness’ First Finale. No record collection should be without it, and Innervisions as well, the two albums which happen to be his best sounding with his best music. (Talking Book and Songs in the Key of Life, in that order, would be right behind them.)

Those of you familiar with this record will not be surprised to learn that these shootouts are TOUGH. Very few copies are any better than mediocre, and the Motown vinyl holds many of the better sounding pressings back with excessive noise and grain.

This copy is more dynamic, open and transparent than most pressings by far. There’s ton of space around all of the instruments, the bass is big and punchy and the vocals are present, warm and tonally right on the money. (more…)

Letter of the Week – “I am still amazed by the negativity I read sometimes about your records and prices…”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Stevie Wonder Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom,   

I also offer my humble apologies for ordering one LP at a time, it started with that (insanely good by the way) 4-star pressing of my wife’s favorite Stevie Wonder record, then, I have been waiting for a solid B-52 pressing for years now, so I had to grab it and just today, I noticed the Bee Gees… just glad nobody snatched it before me, seriously, this is the HARDEST Bee Gees record to get in any condition at all !!

I am still amazed by the negativity I read sometimes about your records and prices… we talked about it before but, for god’s sake, nobody is forced to buy anything. Plus, you have very fair prices for hot stampers that are great pressings of the best records, if the luxury items are not your cup of tea.

Still keeping my eyes open for a 4-star (or maybe 5 stars 😉 Hunky Dory one day. Would not mind a similar grade for a copy of Southern Accent too !!

Cheers,
David

My reply to David, in part:

The lack of curiosity on the part of the audiophile community is really something, but who am I to complain? I held many of the same mistaken ideas about Heavy Vinyl up until about 2000, so let’s be fair and give the audiophile community another twenty years and hope they catch on the way we and our customers have.

(There were so many records I used to like that don’t sound especially good to me now that I felt I needed to come clean about them, so I created a special link to them on the blog. Click here to read more.)

Pardon my cynicism, but we doubt that much of the audiophile community is likely to catch on.

We had to work very hard for more than twenty years to get to where we are now.

Most audiophiles don’t seem very interested in doing that kind of work.

It takes time, effort and discipline to create, tweak and tune a system to be both revealing and accurate.

When it gets to be resolving and accurate enough, such a system can reveal how lacking the modern remastered LP really is.

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