Best vinyl pressing of THE CULT: Love...

Heh... nah... I've read many of your posts. Always most helpful regarding vinyl. Hmmm, that's interesting that you say the mastering is DIFFERENT for the German pressing. Finding a better mastering here is going to be the key, if one exists...

 

Electric: There is a US Monarch "Masterdisk HW" (Howie Weinberg) out there that sounds pretty good to me. The quoted portion is hand scribed in the dead wax and the dead wax itself is full of info.
My Love is an early Sire (Specialty Records Corp) but no initials in the deadwax that I can see. I always thought it sounded pretty good. I use a Shure V15 III with a MR stylus and a tube preamp, Cornwalls with 15" woofers so I don't usually miss any bass and I don't think it is too bright.

 

I'll have to give my SRC another listen, I've since downgraded carts My current (Orto Blue) may soften it up a little. Your set-up may be giving it a helping hand

 

Yeah, my Electric sounds awesome! I think it is a Masterdisk (possibly a DMM?) That is VERY good to know about the Specialty Records pressing of Love. I was wondering about that when I saw it on Discogs. Honestly, I really need to sit down and CAREFULLY listen to the 1st UK pressing that I just received. My disappointed reaction was based on a very quick cursory sonic 'glance' Later today I'm going to my listening room, so after my system is warmed up (it's components are always on, with an inverter circuit feeding a tuner signal through my phono inputs to keep them active at all times, but I still need to play vinyl for about at least an hour or so before things become more listenable) I will definitely give that a more careful listen.

 

That is actually a very good point! My system strongly favours imaging and soundstage, but likely compared to many of your guy's systems, tonally is where it can be weak at times, especially if the mids are particularly bright.

When the recording is very good, the mids can be especially dimensional and spacious due to the tall line arrays and complete open dipole setup. However, if they are really on the bright or strident side, my system can be a bit unforgiving...

 

Regarding sound, sometimes you just have to accept that some LP's just don't have it. Rarely does an inferior version of something really get in the way of me enjoying it though. But, when it's right you just know it. Some albums sound so good, so visceral. I think a really good example of an LP that would show anyone the merits of vinyl would be an original US Lou Reed Transformer. To me, it's like Lou is just standing a few feet in front of me playing, singing. These 80's albums though, some are kind of murky. I really like the 80's as a musical decade and have a pretty good collection of vinyl as I was buying up to the bitter end, but there were some albums that were just plastered with sounds and layers and I think it was hard to reveal all that was going on. Sometimes I think that my original CD's of these titles might be better than the vinyl versions as I doubled up on many. The Cure's Disintegration comes to mind. As for the Cult, lots going on, lots of sounds, tough job for anyone mastering it to make it perfect.

 

Yep, fully agree mate! Good analysis of the way it is sometimes, sadly... Actually, interesting that you mention Disintegration. I just listened to the copy I've had for probably over 20+ years the other day for the first time in forever. I had read extensively on the thread discussing the Cure remasters. Fortunately, FWIW, I have a DMM US pressing that actually sounds surprisingly good! But, after reading all the excellent comments about the new remaster (of which I am always suspicious) I also snagged the 2 LP version from Amazon. So, I'm looking forward to comparing the two

And YES, sadly sometimes even with newer remasters like Rush's Counterparts, I found the vinyl unlistenable and will just have to settle for the CD which in the context of where I listen to it here at home (ONLY vinyl in my listening room) it sounds really good. So, I'm sure that many times that might be the case for many of the albums that were recorded during that time period (of which I have quite a few too) THANKFULLY, one of my very favourites, A Flock of Seagulls, the 1st US pressings of both the 1st and 2nd albums, sound lovely!

 

It doesn't help that LOVE is over 50-minutes long and not really an ideal length for a quality LP cutting.

It would be great if it were reissued (and mastered by our host, Kevin Gray or Chris Bellman) and spread over 3 sides, with maybe a couple of bonus cuts on side 4.

 

I'd be happy with the remaster with less compression laid to wax...

 

I've been onboard as a fan of 'Love' since November of 1985. Was record-shopping with some birthday money my Ukrainian Baba gave me & heard it in a record-store. Bought the album on-the-spot, a beautiful Canadian LP manufactured by Polygram Inc. & mastered at Disques SNB Ltee by the immortal Emile Lepin.
This sucker is by no means 'too bright' and thunders like few other pressings, and I've tried many different pressings from many different countries, including a remaster or two. Crank this sucker loud enough & 'Phoenix' just might melt your face:
The Cult - Love

P.S. - Stick with your Masterdisk LP of 'Electric', as it is one of, if not THE best-sounding hard-rock LP you may ever hear. My UK pressing with the MASTERDISK deadwax is insane:
The Cult - Electric

 

@aroney
Probably why I prefer my old Canadian Cinram compact disc over my US lp. I get better bass out of it plus it has more punch.
I didn't want to mention a favorite as this is an lp thread.

@Old Rusty, thanks for confirming my suspicions on Emile

 

DAMN straight on that!

And a VERY good point to about the length of the album. I hadn't thought of that...

 

AHHHHHHH, NOW we're talk'n! Thanks mate! I was curious about one of the Canadian pressings, the one pressed at Vertigo I think. That is SO dang good to hear. I wouldn't mind at all springing for reconstructive surgery if Phoenix does indeed melt my face!

If this one sounds as good as you say (or at least a lot better than the others) I will owe you BIGTIME mate!

And YES, when I listened to Electric for the first time in many years the other day, I was frigg'n blown away by how amazing it sounded. I guess that is likely why I was SO dang disappointed that Love sounded so much poorer.

Now, I've got a Canadian pressing to jump on!

Cheers mate!

 

I'm sorry... did someone just mention a CD...?



J/K mate! Seriously, like I might have mentioned above about Rush: Counterparts, sometimes that just is the case...

 

Mentioned upthread somewhere but I don't think anyone followed up on it... there were three singles released from Love...

She Sells Sanctuary
Rain
Revolution

My 12" singles of all three UK pressings sound great, and Revolution is fairly different from the LP version so worth tracking that down, as well as for the stellar b-sides on all three.

 

Tempting... Thanks for mentioning that! I was looking into that if I couldn't find a decent pressing of the album. I have a message out to a guy in Portugal who has the 2 LP 45 version with lil' Devil and 3 or 4 live versions of songs from this album INCLUDING Phoenix

 

My US promo copy has almost the exact same deadwax markings the release below (the only difference is "SR-2" rather than "SR-1").

The Cult - Love

It sounds pretty bright, but not in a way that detracts from the music. Seems to fit the style of the album well.

 

Yep, that was one of the ones I was looking at due to the information in the deadwax.

 

Inspired by this thread, I'm listening to the album now. I still think it sounds solid, particularly considering how long it is. For example, side 1 is over 26 minutes long and, to my ears, the last track Rain has noticeably lower fidelity than the earlier songs. Side 2 fares better, probably because Black Angel is a much mellower track.

 

Good to know, thanks!

 

What I find weird is how The Cult vinyl seems to have vanished. It never was hard picking up "Love", "Electric" or "Sonic Temple" for a tenner but I honestly can't remember when I've seen one of these albums last in the wild.

 

Agreed. I didn't come across a copy of 'Sonic Temple' in record-stores for so long I gave up & ordered one on Discogs. Having been so impressed with pretty well every German LP I have in my collection, I went with this Sonopress version:
The Cult - Sonic Temple

 

Based on it's recording history below I bet it does sound good. When I see A&M studios and Sterling Sound, I get excited.

• Phonographic Copyright (p) – Beggars Banquet Records Ltd.
• Copyright (c) – Beggars Banquet Records Ltd.
• Recorded At – Little Mountain Sound Studios
• Mixed At – A&M Studios
• Mastered At – Sterling Sound
• Pressed By – Sonopress
• Printed By – TOPAC

 

After your HUGELY helpful recommendation of the Canadian release, I've been waiting anxiously for the Canadian seller I contacted on Discogs to get back to me!

It's interesting, I initially THOUGHT the other Canadian pressing (gatefold) was the same. It shows the same mastering, BUT it is pressed at Columbia rather than at Polygram which is the one you recommended, so I definitely zeroed in on that one!

Thanks again mate!

 

Not so, there are also these, and I think they are essential:
The Cult - Rain
The Cult - Revolution E.P.
Different mixes of the main tracks, and the additional songs are great.

On the first "Sanctuary" there are some good additional songs as well:
The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary (Long Version)
The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary (Howling Mix)
The second one is mainly remix craziness, for the completist.

If you really like The Cult you need to get into the 12" stuff (and 7" too), there is so much more material to discover there, and many of them are much easier to find than the LPs.