Record Store Day 2017 Sound Quality And Music Reviews

The Monk and Bill Evans are both pretty stunning.

 

Haven't filled out my profile yet, so my opinions my not mean much, but...
Played side 6 of Decades, sounds good and the pressing is top quality
Groove is in the Heart sounds pretty good and excellent pressing. I have the original 12" so I will do a play-off later in the week to see how the sound holds up.
Sting Live-good pressing again, and it is a live album so it is subject to a lot of variables but I like it.
The Black Swan-the sound is WOW, deep and powerful, but a bit of minor noise her and there-hope a good cleaning straightens it out. Impulse buy for me but glad I got it.

Still got Mirage, Bladerunner (low expectations-it's a picture disc), Robert Johnson, Air, Springsteen, Andromeda Strain, and Goblin to test drive-plus Monk and Cocteau Twins when I get them from overseas.

Oh yeah, the Prince Take the Place of Your Man-pressing pretty good but not all in on the sound-I'm gonna dig out my original 12" and refresh my memory of the original sound.

 

Thanks for the info on The Cure hits discs, sounds like unless you've got a warped copy the sound is fairly good for a picture disc, they often have very poor sound with lots of background noise, the best picture disc I have to date is Culture Club - colour by numbers, pressed by Orlake records, nice full sound from that pressing.
I've the Acoustic hits on CD and the vocals were quite loud on that but still OK to my ears, just hope they don't suffer from excessive sibilence.
As for the Tom Schilling picture disc, will be giving it a miss at those prices unless I can find it in a shop locally, considering the cast and quality of the period drama and artwork from some of the past releases of the song, it's not the most exciting picture disc.

 

Finally listening to my RSD loot. I'll start with The Doors San Francisco '67. Nice live sound that worsens my itch to get that tube preamp. Somebody help me! Anyway, don't fret if you plan on picking this one up.

 

I loved my Bill Evans, I had missed it last year and it was on the top of my list this time. Really happy I got it, it sounds amazing.
Didn't like Interstellar Overdrive too much, but it's my first copy of it so I am absolutely no expert on it.
I will write back on my other purchases

 

That's explained in the copious liner notes. The radio station in question only broadcast the first half-hour of every set they aired live, so sadly that is what survives of those shows, hence the fadeout.

 

Where are you seeing this? I only find an entry for the 7". It never fails to amaze me which German acts are popular in the UK or USA. The fact alone that somebody did release Peter Schilling for RSD and it's not even 1983 is.... wow!

"Down in space it's always 1982
The joke we always knew"

 

Peter Tosh-- Legalize it. No issues and sounds pretty good.

Rush-- Cygnus X-1. Disappointed to say the least. Scratches, scuffs, and non-fill on side 2, and my originals sound much better. Got sucked in for collectibility. Lesson learned.

 

Picture discs are for collectors, they are not meant to be played, so it's a bit meaningless to ask about the sound quality of a picture disc.

 

Still going through my haul. So far...

Springsteen's live album is exceptional, worthy of any studio release. The sonics remind me of Bob Seger's Nine Tonight, or Live Bullet. Very clean.

Stevie Ray's isn't so hot. I don't care for the mix, it's super compressed and the bass competes too much. It sounds like a lot of work was done on an old tape recording, or it came from a video.

The Monk box set is very good. Lively acoustics. I perhaps could use the piano a bit more forward in the mix, it sounds like the mic is not very close to the piano. He played so hard, his dynamics so extreme, I wonder if they placed the mic more distant to accommodate his harder notes to avoid over modulation. The recording lacks the intimacy of "Alone in San Francisco." The drums and bass are separated nicely, saxophone is rich and breathy. His performance is just beautiful. I can listen to Thelonious for days.

Andre 3000's All Together Now is a grade A recording and pressing. I'm not thrilled with the rendition, but it's fun.

 

Wasn't going to bother buying them (and they sold out super quick) as i reckoned they'd be just the horrid Robin Guthrie remasters pressed onto vinyl, but picked up the 2 Cocteau Twins releases on Monday at a Mixed Up records outside the city centre in the West End of Glasgow. They had a lot of good stuff left. The very same stuff that was gone in a flash on Saturday at Monorail and LoveMusic in town. Played Four Calendar Café so far and it sounded pretty nice (was a great quiet pressing). Not sure if it is Guthrie's remaster but it sounds nice on vinyl like the original cd which i have. Got the Sugar Copper Blue 3 disc set there too (as they had 2 copies) for £28 which i could not get at Monorail/Love Music and was going for £65 online on Ebay on Sunday so very pleased.

Only things i got on Saturday that were on my want list was the last copy left in Love Music of the Durutti Column album (sounds nice but again mastered loud like the last few re-issues of their classic albums) after it being gone in Monorail well before i got there at 11.45am. and The Smith 7" i got for my wife, which sounds good too for demos.

 

Can anybody comment on the sound on the Uriah Heep Live RSD release?

 

Has anybody heard the T. Rex Live in 1977 set. How is the sound quality?

 

Thank you! My local store has mislaid my Cocteau Twins so I had to order them from Amazon. I was fearing another shoddy RSD job but that sounds encouraging.

Also managed to get Lunas "Penthouse" last night so my RSD list 2017 is pretty complete and all without overpaying paying more than regular retail price. It can be done

Virtually the only thing missing is "Cracked Actor.

 

Tried to exchange my defective rsd buys today - without luck. "Decade" had some serious non fill issues on lp2 and lp3, the 2 big star third vol.3 disks came severely scratched straight out of the box. While my shop agreed that the Big Star disks were awful, he already sold out on the box and could only offer a refund. In case of "Decade" however he still had a copy left but didn't want to exchange it. Despite the non fill the decade lp's look clean and by playing 20 sec of 2 sides in front of me he wanted to demonstrate me that the error must be on my side, which is simply not true.
Told him that I expect perfect sounding albums when paying 42 euros for each to which he responded that would he take my Neil Young copy back, he won't be able to either return it or sell it in store.
Basically, I'm out of luck with both albums.

 

Ummm.... the Rostropovich disc sounds very good.

 

Bad form on the part of the store. They're being penny-wise, pound- foolish.

 

I had to flatten Art Pepper, Alternate Mirage and Whiter Shade of Pale. Now they're all perfectly flat. Good call on the Vinyl Flat.

 

How did you manage to get the Luna 'Penthouse' 2LP? It was only available in the U.S.A. and Canada. I secured a copy though via a family member who resides in the U.S.A. but I don't know when I will actually have it. Let us know how it sounds once you've listened to it, please. Of all of the RSD 2017 releases, there has been no mention at all about the Luna release.

 

hhv in Berlin - a small but ambitious store rooted in hip hop culture - managed to get it. Rough Trade in London has it too. At £36 or 41€ it is definitely not cheap but... hey... I've been wanting this album on vinyl for so long.

 

Is it (Luna 'penthouse') a different version than the one in the recent vinyl box set?

 

I've got a buddy who says it sounds amazing. take that for what it's worth, but it prompted me to buy a copy from amoeba last night.

 

it's a double lp with demos/unreleased tracks on the second disc.

 

Comments are on the bottom-
Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Coming Home)

 

Re: the Luna Penthouse LP, the packaging and artwork are FAR nicer that the box set's Penthouse LP. I played my RSD copy yesterday - very nice sound quality and pressing. Mastered by Scott Hull @ Masterdisk.