My copy of Donny Hathaway’s Everything Is Everything showed up this morning. In anticipation of it showing up, last night I spun my original stereo copy, still in shrink with the original hype sticker promoting “In the Ghetto.” After playing side two of the Vinyl Me, Please pressing, the bongo and bass breakdown in “In The Ghetto” sounds incredible in mono. I haven’t done an A/B comparison between the stereo and mono mixes, I just listened to the original stereo vinyl last night and the VMP mono this morning, but my copy of the VMP pressing is flat, centered, and quiet. My original stereo is probably VG+, the record looks clean, but has some light snap, crackle, and pop from being 50 years old and having been played over those 50 years. To people who always say, “Why is album X being reissued, an original pressing is better,” I say, you can’t always just go down to the record store and buy a mint original pressing, no matter how much time or money you have. I have a pretty nice original pressing of this album, but the VMP pressing is brand new, clean, quiet, and pretty much perfect. VMP also did a great job with the sleeve, using heavy cardboard, and I guess what is called the “tip on” method: the back cover slick is pasted on. In my experience, front cover artwork is usually a huge stumbling block for any vinyl reissue. More often than not, you get a cheap scan that’s blurry, washed out, pixelated, etc. By contrast, the front cover of VMP’s Everything Is Everything is at least as good as my original Atlantic pressing, perhaps even a tiny bit better. The detail is more or less the same, and the colors of the children’s clothes are maybe just a tiny bit brighter. But they got very, very close to the original cover. The repro Atlantic white label promo labels on the record look very authentic as well. Only the 2020 copyright date gives away that they’re not original labels. The only original packaging detail VMP didn’t bother to recreate is the original Atlantic catalog inner sleeve. Instead you get a nice modern QRP inner sleeve. The only negatives I have are minor. I still don’t understand why VMP uses obi strips on their records. Sort of cool, but one more fragile piece of paper to look after. The little liner notes book is tiny, and also, for some bizarre reason, comes wrapped in another obi strip, that was very hard to slide off without damaging it. Putting the thick little liner notes book inside the sleeve with the record is just asking to warp the record, in my opinion, although my copy of the record is not warped. But if someone kept this record sealed for years, I’d bet anything the booklet would warp the record. The VMP resealable outer sleeve with a hype sticker about the record is also far too tight, and would also cause warping if the record was left in that sleeve for years, I bet. I don’t understand the VMP fetish for obi strips, but leaving aside their weird packaging quirks, this record was flat, quiet, perfectly pressed, and offers a rare mono mix. The album sleeve, artwork, and record labels are all near perfect reproductions of the originals, possibly even slightly better. This pressing is overall better than the best vintage pressing of this album I’ve been able to acquire in all my years of record collecting. I’d give this record a 9.5 out of 10, with a half point docked for the obi strips, dumb liner notes book, and too tight outer sleeve. But, those tiny little nitpicks aside, this is a home run for VMP, easily worth $40, in my opinion. Original mono white label promos of this album have gone for $200 on eBay, and, even if you can find one of those, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be clean and brand new records like this one that you can get from VMP for $40. And, aside from the minutiae of how good a job VMP did recreating an original mono pressing of this album, this is a brilliant album, up there with What’s Going On and anything Stevie Wonder did during this era, in my opinion. Great to see it get a reissue, even a limited reissue like this one. More people should hear this record.
Great review, I'm very happy with this pressing as well. Many of the people who claim that vintage pressings are always better are also affected by their "nostalgia attachment" to that pressing and/or mastering and sound. If the reissue is cut from tape (good condition), then the reissue will likely sound better (better mastering technology, better vinyl, etc.). There is a sweet spot for vintage pressings (typically early 70s mastered at TML, Sterling, UK original masterings, etc.) but vinyl quality started going down somewhere in the 70s with the oil crisis and by the mid 80s vinyl was an afterthought and into the 90s cut from digital masters. Typically, 60s and earlier pressings had to make mastering compromises for the playback systems of the day. As much flack as VMP gets overall, I give them a solid "A" for quality. On a side note, my Sparklehorse Box just arrived! I gave it a cleaning on the VPI 16.5 and will try to give it a listening in the next week or so. Pressing and packaging quality appear to be really nice, expensive but well done set.
Nice review. I personally love OBIs, but can understand why some don't. Most don't fit inside the cover sleeve all the way, but the new ones starting from fall last year do so I'll usually tuck them in there.
My obsessive compulsive solution was to put the obi on a new blank white cardboard LP sleeve, and put that in the Vinyl Me Please resealable bag with the hype sticker, which I hate (by which I mean I hate resealable LP bags), and also throw the dumb liner notes book, with its own dumb obi, in that bag as well. That way I have all of the collectible “pieces” of the LP safely stored away. Meanwhile, the main LP jacket and its QRP inner sleeve are now in a plastic sleeve, with the record stored outside the LP jacket to prevent ring wear, so I can play the record without messing with all of the dumb “collectible” elements of the package.
According to news from Legacy Recordings, a VMP Anthology box set is planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Philadelphia International Records. 8 LPs remastered from the original master tapes.
Have changed my settings and tried to pm but getting an error message... "Your content can not be submitted. This is likely because your content is spam-like or contains inappropriate elements", not sure whats going on?! Edit - as it's a new account my posts need moderator approval before they appear here, wonder if this has something to do with it?
Guess the contents of a PIR box: Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes - Wake Up Everybody Billy Paul - 360 Degrees ... MFSB - Philadelphia Freedom O'Jays - Back Stabbers Patti LaBelle - I'm in Love Again Teddy Pendergrass - Live! Lou Rawls - All Things in Time Three Degrees - International
Uggh! I've already got the Who SellOut box, the Let it Be box and some cables to buy this year. I'm also really close to signing up for the Jack White vault.
I’d prefer the Three Degrees’ 1973 album featuring “When Will I See You Again,” as that’s one of my favorite songs of all time. I’d definitely be interested in this box.
As a “Philly guy”, fan of soul music, and VMP Anthology enthusiast, I’m pretty excited about the Philadelphia International Records Anthology announcement. I’m curious how they will handle the pre-order window for this set. They already have my money for Herbie and Tribe, and we know about the delays on Herbie. Would they put this set up for pre-order before one of those actually ships? If memory serves they’ve never had more than 2 preorders running simultaneously.
As a percussionist, Hathaway fanatic, and twerp, I'm afraid I'm going to have to point out that that's Congas you're hearing on "The Ghetto". This can be confirmed by checking out the epic live version where Donny, with swag to spare, introduces the percussion solo thusly: "We gonna head over to the percussion side of town, featuring on Conga....from Chigago Illinois....Earl deRoy!" https://open.spotify.com/track/37M3f5O3nMjnAGK2I5Qve3?si=GMwghmnETkaLLY99n9Efvw So, so good...
Yeah, your review got me over the line - just ordered a non-member copy. Figure I can sell my Speakers Corner. Having afterpay available was welcome bonus. Can't wait for that punchy mono goodness.
I'm interested to see what new stuff will be in the swaps today other than usual that's been sitting for a while.
That's what I do with my VMP titles. They've been using several different outer sleeves, a couple recently came in just giant bags that are really loose. I set all that filler material aside in a mailer box i'm using to store all the printed stuff, and put the LP's in a SleeveCity 5.0mil ulimate outer sleeve. LP outer sleeves that are strong and durable and super clear. I have the Speaker's Corner stereo version, so i passed on this Mono one, but i'm jealous of the nice jacket VMP printed, Speaker's Corner jackets are very mediocre in both materials and image quality.
Agreed. I love my Speaker's Corner A Love Supreme, but the gatefold sleeve is flimsy. The new Acoustic Sounds Series ALS gatefold quality is fantastic.
Holding them sided by side - the SC has better contast/resolution/layout on the front image - and the labels are correct. I held on to the ASV version for the sound. Thick jacket is nicer too. Got good price by selling the SC early - covered cost and shipping of ASV.
Very true. I was a little irked by the misprinted labels, but it sounds amazing and will be a nice thing to hold onto since they're correcting the label for the next run of ALS.
Thanks! I have yet to listen to my Everything Is Everything, but I'll get to it soon. Agreed about VMP's packaging quirks, which are probably totally driven by marketing. --If VMP must have an obi, just make it a real, Japanese-style obi and be done with it. BTW, I couldn't care less about obis. --Ditch the little liner notes book, and print the notes on a 10" x 10" double-sided insert. However many pages it takes to get it done, do it that way. I don't know if the little book would ever actually cause warping, but still...I'd be more likely to actually read the notes if the format was more friendly.
The little book is thick. If it were left in the tight plastic jacket with the record for months or years, it would clearly warp the record. Why they can’t print the liner notes as an LP sized two- or four-page booklet escapes me. That would be easier to read, and far less likely to cause warping of the record. Or make a custom inner sleeve with liner notes. Putting a thick little book in the sleeve with the record is so stupid. But they managed to double down on the stupid by wrapping the little book in a second obi, that’s nearly impossible to slide off of the book. At least that’s what I experienced with my copy. I hate obis. I recently bought the half-speed mastered 3-LP edition of the Who’s Live at Leeds - which has an obi. I did the same trick of wrapping the obi around a blank white LP sleeve and setting that aside (actually, I put all three LPs in blank white LP sleeves, because leaving the records in any triple album package is asking for damage, in my opinion) to keep the obi undamaged. I’m obsessive compulsive enough about keeping all of the “pieces” of any LP package intact to bother with doing so, but it’s a pain in the neck. Still, the pressing of the record itself was nearly perfect, and sounds great, and that’s what ultimately matters.
