Vinyl Reviews

The Beatles - 2018 Stereo Mix, 2-LP

In John Lennon’s famous 1971 interview with Rolling Stone, he claimed The Beatles, better known as The White Album, really was the work of each Beatle working solo and bending the rest of the band to his will. Outtakes from the record’s sessions—included in the expanded 50thanniversary CD/Blu-ray box set as well as in more […]

Neil Young - After the Gold Rush

Neil Young’s second LP, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, fulfilled the promise he had shown in his work with Buffalo Springfield and on his first solo album. Ye the record that followed, After the Gold Rush, not only solidified his reputation, it showed he could sell records. “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” became an AM radio hit and reached #33 on the Billboard charts. Many other songs enjoyed steady play on FM, including “Southern Man,” still in rotation on classic-rock stations.

George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

The 2017 vinyl reissue of All Things Must Pass replicates the original cover art, including the inner sleeves and full-color poster of George Harrison. Ron McMaster cut the vinyl from 24-bit/96kHz files remastered at Abbey Road Studios. The remaster uses less compression than what’s on the original U.K. pressing of the album.

Pink Floyd - Animals

With Animals, Roger Waters’ cynicism and dark view of Western (especially English) industrial culture becomes more focused and begins to define Pink Floyd’s worldview. What could have been tiresome and preachy—and, lyrically, still is at times—becomes listenable because of the band’s inspired playing.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced

When listening to this album I think of this band or music: Jimi Hendrix was like no other guitarist or songwriter. While listening, I think of some of his imitators, especially Robin Trower. More often I recall a pivotal figure in jazz, Charlie Parker, who changed the course of the music. Also, Hendrix’s use of […]

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

Kevin Gray’s all-analog remaster of the album, pressed by RTI on 180-gram vinyl, greatly improves what was a very good-sounding LP.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold As Love

In contrast to my earlier Reprise pressing, the newer reissue has more space, depth, and transparency.

Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde

Upon release in 1966, Blonde on Blonde signified Bob Dylan’s third rock n’ roll album in less than 18 months. He recorded both Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited in 1965, and returned midway through the following year with this masterwork. The three aforementioned works not only inspired and liberated Dylan but had a profound impact on popular music.

Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

Kreig Wunderlich’s remaster of Blood on the Tracks for Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab is sonically richer than the original Columbia Records release and presents a clearer picture of the music. The acoustic guitars have a more natural tone. Details in the original pressing that were somewhat masked are also now more apparent. It’s easier, for example, to hear each of the three guitars that accompany Dylan on “Tangled up in Blue” and to visualize them in your listening room.

Bruce Springsteen - Born in the U.S.A.

Vocals possess a deep, choral-like aura that links the song to the 50s doo-wop and R & B that inspired it. Every tune benefits from a more spacious presentation and less digital reverb, along with the aforementioned refined top end. MPO’s high-quality pressing is very quiet and flat. The album jacket seems a little thicker than the original to allow for the heavier vinyl and the reproduction of the inner sleeve and lyric sheet.

Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run

Sony Legacy’s reissue stands as the definitive, well-balanced version of Springsteen’s iconic LP. When I want to hear Born to Run, this is the LP I’ll spin.

The Steve Miller Band - Brave New World

The sound on the original is expansive and comes out into the room. If you can find one, buy it. (Avoid later pressings, such as those from the mid-70s, which sound bloated and dark). In the meantime, the newer pressing features enough likeable qualities to recommend it.

Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home

Bob Dylan’s acoustic guitar opens “Subterranean Homesick Blues” on Bringing It All Back Home. But as soon as Bruce Langhorne’s electric guitar and Bobby Gregg’s drums enter, Dylan effectively announces he’s making a rock n’ roll record. Mobile Fidelity’s reissue of the album, cut at 45RPM and pressed on two LPs, lets you hear the three guitars backing Dylan more clearly than the original Columbia Records version and brings other instruments into the open.

Frank Zappa - Burnt Weeny Sandwich

Bernie Grundman’s all-analog master for the new Zappa Records reissue, cut from a 1970 analog safety master, retains much of the low-frequency energy of the original but presents a cleaner top end that renders horns, keyboards, and drums more clearly and with added realism and accuracy.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

If you can track down the 30th anniversary edition, it’s the one to have. Good luck finding one at a reasonable price. The same thought applies to clean original U.K. pressings. If you don’t have either of these, or you have the abysmal U.S. pressing, the new pressing of Dark Side of the Moon is worth picking up.

Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge of Town

Darkness on the Edge of Town has long been my favorite-sounding Springsteen album. This reissue is the best version to own on vinyl, but I won’t be surprised if I occasionally play the original to hear the slightly grittier versions of “Adam Raised a Cain” and “Candy’s Room.”

Billy Squier - Don’t Say No

What’s surprising is how well Don’t Say No stands up nearly four decades after its release. Squier is, first and foremost, a rocker, and his music carries as much Rolling Stones in its DNA as it does Aerosmith or Led Zeppelin.

Mark Knopfler - Down the Road Wherever

Bernie Grundman’s cut of the album deepens the soundstage and gives instruments a little more room than they enjoy on the CD version. Guy Fletcher’s keyboards accompany Knopfler’s guitar on the intro to “Trapper Man” and possess a light, airy quality. Knopfler’s voice remains out in front of the music, with the nicely layered backing vocals confined to the left channel. Low frequencies, too, boast pleasing fullness and ample separation.

The Allman Brothers Band - Eat A Peach

On balance, there are things to like about both pressings. I’ve played my Capricorn copy of Eat a Peach many times over the last 46 years—and far more than I’ve played the CD—as it powerfully conveys the liveliness and conviction of the music. The MoFi version lets you hear more of what’s going on, but occasionally loses some of the original pressing’s excitement and drive in order to clean up the sound. I like it the more I play it, but I will probably more often turn to the original.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

Marino gives listeners a more transparent picture of what Hendrix and his collaborators were doing in the studio. I have an affection for my earlier pressings of Hendrix’s LPs after more than 40 years of listening to them, but the pressings cut from Marino’s 2010 masters are sonically more exciting and are the ones to which I now turn.

Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

With his second album Young firmly established himself as one of the key musicians and songwriters of the 60s and beyond. Everything he would accomplish over the long span of his creative life took seed on the album, whether it’s the proto punk of “Cinnamon Girl” or the country rock distinguishing the title tune. The guitar wrangling on “Down by the River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand” anticipates his later experiments with noise and dissonance.

Marshall Crenshaw - Field Day Expanded Edition

Kevin Gray’s remaster of the album for Intervention Records retains the excitement and drive of the original while giving instruments more space to make their mark. He also remains true to Lillywhite’s detail-dense production even has he delivers a bigger soundstage. Field Day justifies the A+ rating famed Village Voice critic Robert Christgau awarded it in his original review—a fact made clearer by this first-class release.

Blackberry Smoke - Find a Light

Southern influences course through Blackberry Smoke’s music. Continuing a winning streak that effectively began on 2015’s Holding All the Roses, the group takes command of such idioms and seamlessly ties them together into compelling original creations on Find a Light.

The Steve Miller Band - Fly Like An Eagle

Miller and Hertz also bring more balance to this master of Fly Like an Eagle, toning down the upper end and tightening the bass. Resultingly, other elements in the recording come into play with added clarity … The new pressing is cut at a lower volume than the original, yet increasing the volume on my system evokes the rock ‘n roll excitement of the original while revealing a more subtle recording than I’d ever realized.

Neil Young - Harvest

In addition to serving as the best and most musical version of Harvest, Reprise’s 2009 reissue features artwork and packaging better than that of the original. Printed on heavier cardboard, the album cover has a more textured, weathered look. As with all the vinyl releases I’ve heard in Young’s Archive Series, Harvest stands as a model of how reissues should be done.

Neil Young - Hawks and Doves

When Young released the album, he was dealing with his son Ben’s health issues, which affected the effort and several that followed. Critical reaction proved, at best, muted, even as Robert Christgau rated it highly in his review for Village Voice. After nearly 40 years, Hawks & Doves is definitely worth revisiting.

Paul Simon - In the Blue Light

Even at 77 years old, Simon’s voice remains fluid. He doesn’t appear to have lost the ability to hit the high notes. The reverb on his singing casts a stronger presence on vinyl, and the separation between the instruments and Simon seems more pronounced. The LP also has a slightly more solid, better-defined low-end fullness.

Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Look Now

Look Now leans less towards the rock side of Costello and more towards sophisticated pop. The horn arrangement on “Under Lime,” a sequel to “Jimmy Standing in the Rain” from 2010’s National Ransom, hints at psychedelia before the vocal arrangement pulls the tune over to Broadway.

Van Morrison - Moondance

Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman collaborated on an all-analog master of Moondance for Rhino, and RTI pressed the LP on 180-gram vinyl. The updated version expands the soundstage and lets instruments and voices come out into the open more than they do on the original, olive-label Warner Brothers pressings.

Rush - Moving Pictures

I don’t hear any of the edginess often attributed to DMM, and I’ve heard other DMM pressings during the last few years that suggest the process has improved. The original pressing of Moving Pictures sounds a tad warmer, but Magee’s remaster is more spacious and boasts far more instrumental detail.

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

Nebraska unfolds on a much deeper soundstage on this pressing, which gives Springsteen’s voice a three-dimensional quality. Not to say that I don’t miss the DIY quality of the original release, which definitely sounds more like a home recording. Its rough quality always matched the music, and for all the traits I admire about the new master, I’m sure I’ll return to the original at times.

Neil Young - Neil Young

For the first release of Neil Young’s eponymous debut, Reprise Records used the Haeco-CSG encoding system, which some record labels employed in the late 60s to make stereo LPs more compatible with mono record players. Young disliked the sound and ordered the album remixed and reissued later in the year.

Neil Young - On The Beach

Thankfully, this pressing atones for past errors and makes the album’s genius apparent.

The Beatles - Rubber Soul (Mono)

The 2014 mono pressings of the Beatles’ albums compare favorably to the originals. By extension, the ’14 edition of Rubber Soul sounds very much like the original mono Parlophone pressing, and features a bit more low-frequency energy and better high-frequency focus. The mastering engineers, Sean Magee and Steve Berkowitz, were able cut the new LPs without worrying about the limitations older turntables imposed on their predecessors.

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Deluxe Edition

The original release of Sgt. Pepper’s forms part of our cultural DNA … this deluxe 2LP release exists as a model of how technology can improve a great recording without compromising its original intent.

Eric Clapton - Slowhand

Pulling the volume up a tad on the new pressing, however, brings things into sharper relief and reveals the music as more layered and carefully assembled. Slowhand ranks among Clapton’s best records. Polydor’s reissue presents it with more warmth and subtlety than the original.

The Rolling Stones - Studio Albums Vinyl Collection, 1971-2016

One of the pleasures of Studio Albums Vinyl Collection, 1971-2016 relates to affording fans the ability to return to albums the Stones recorded over the years and reminding them of the band’s remarkable consistency. Records that took me a while to enjoy at first, such as Emotional Rescue and Undercover, are better than I remembered. And the group’s later-era records proved something of a revelation in these masters, which register an enormous improvement over the originals. If your Stones collection has big gaps, you could do much worse than acquiring this beautifully packaged, well-mastered reissue.

Joe Jackson - Summer in the City: Live in New York

Ted Jensen’s mastering on the CD release of Summer in the City, Joe Jackson’s live album from 2000, has long been a sonic favorite of mine. But Kevin Gray’s remaster for the recording’s first release on vinyl brings out details that put you at a table close to the bandstand. In the initial moments, the audience applauds as Jackson, bassist Graham Maby, and drummer Gary Burke take the stage in a small club—and you are in the midst of the crowd.

Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow

” … as soon as I played “Somebody to Love” on the Mobile Fidelity and could more clearly visualize where Paul Kantner’s voice is placed in relation to Slick’s, just behind and in support, I knew it’s the version everyone should own—as well as more transparent, dynamic, full, and musical. Don’t miss it.”

Mark Turner and Ethan Iverson - Temporary Kings

Temporary Kings stands as an engaging, challenging statement by artists who have played together long enough to quickly react to each other. A duo performance puts great demands on musicians, but Turner and Iverson respond with balanced intelligence, strong compositions, and terrific playing.

Bruce Springsteen - The Album Collection Vol. 1 1973-1984

The Album Collection Vol. 1: 1973-1984 traces Springsteen’s career from the aforementioned albums through the enormous commercial success of 1984’s Born in the U.S.A. Bob Ludwig remastered the recordings for vinyl using the Plangent Process, which corrects anomalies (such as wow and flutter and distortion) in tape playback. It all results in a high-resolution digital file, which Chris Bellman used as the source for cutting the lacquers for the set.

The Beatles - The Beatles (“The White Album”)

In sum, Martin and Showell give The Beatles more sonic consistency and tame the occasional high-frequency aggressiveness of the original. While my memories of earlier pressings remain strong and favorable, this remixed and remastered version stands as a welcome and pleasing alternative. Recommended without reservation.

The Doors - The Doors

However, as good as the original LP sounds, Analogue Productions’ 45RPM edition betters it, and not by a little. he vinyl pressing, by Quality Records Pressings, is flat, dead quiet, and jet black. The tipped-on gatefold cover art looks great, with the cover itself comprised of hefty cardboard—in contrast to the lightweight cardboard used for the packaging on the original release.

The Pretenders - The Pretenders

Mobile Fidelity’s pressing of The Pretenders retains much of the fire of the original Sire Records US pressing while adding space around the instruments and a deeper soundstage. Chrissy Hynde’s voice comes out into the room with the instruments layered behind her in support. Small details, such as the touch of reverb that Chris Thomas added to Hynde’s singing, are easier to hear and Chris Farndon’s bass lines are larger and have even greater impact.

Neil Young - Tonight’s The Night

Neil Young recorded Tonight’s the Night in 1973 after losing two close friends, Danny Whitten of Crazy Horse and roadie Bruce Berry, to heroin overdoses. Along with guitarist/pianist Nils Lofgren and steel guitarist Ben Keith, drummer Ralph Molina and bassist Billy Talbot formed the Santa Monica Flyers as the band that accompanies Young on most of the album. Molina and Talbot had been with Whitten in Crazy Horse.

Eric Clapton - Unplugged

Unplugged presents the full spectrum of Eric Clapton’s playing, so it sounds like him. Still, when he plays an old blues tune such When Eric Clapton appeared on “MTV Unplugged,” the show had been on the air for three years. His performance—and the resulting LP—doubtlessly rank as two of the most remarkable outcomes from the […]

Buffalo Springfield - What’s That Sound? Complete Albums Collection

What’s That Sound? Complete Albums Collection delivers the best, most revealing versions of Buffalo Springfield’s music I’ve ever heard.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

Like all of Pink Floyd’s 2016 vinyl reissues, Wish You Were Here was very likely cut by Bernie Grundman from high-resolution 24-bit/96kHz digital masters done by James Guthrie and Joel Plante. The 1975 set followed the enormously popular Dark Side of the Moon and takes as one of its subjects the inspiration and abiding spirit of co-founder Syd Barrett, by then no longer a member of the group. The album also criticizes the exploitative nature of the music business.

Neil Young - Zuma

Bellman’s mastering on Young’s Archive Series brings out more of the music without changing its feel or impact. Guitars distort and overdrive where they should, but Bellman’s approach lets the bass and drums stand on their own. Acoustic instruments also sound more natural and Young’s expressive voice shines, revealing layers of emotional honesty and textural complexity.

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