I have the Canadian half speed without the gold border, and it's stellar. I think form memory I must have lucked out surface noise-wise too. I also have two copies of the Canadian half speed BIA, and I do tend to prefer it over the recent MOFI, which is excellent apart from they ruined 'Gone Hollywood' by trying to tame the cymbals. So I'll happily stick with the copies I have, as the Speakers Corner and especially the UHQR will both be unobtainable on a sensible budget...
If it is still available, I bought the Speakers Corner release at the start of 2013 and I'm very happy with it. If it is still available, you probably won't find a better copy without forking out hundreds. [Edit]---> Sorry about that. It appears I was one of the last to buy it new!
Now I remember the difference between the US and UK first pressings. The UK isn't particularly good. I did a quick comparison using "Dreamer" and "Bloody Well Right." The UK sounded soft in the top end, which can be good as this record tends toward brightness, but it's also not that dynamic. When does soft become lifeless? The US one is brighter and punchier. Its bass is better. Dynamics are definitely greater on the US copy. My copy is still in the shrink with a cool hype sticker. Bonus. In 1978, Crime Of The Century put Mobile Fidelity on the map. It had an advantage, though. Its catalog number is MFSL 1-005. Numbers 1-001 through 1-004 were essentially sound effects recordings. This is real music, baby. It also sounds damn fine. Yes, this master is a little too bright but it has the bass and midrange to handle that. It doesn't stand out as such because the other frequencies are there, too. Only when you compare it to even better copies does it then sound a bit hot. In any case, the MoFi sounds bigger and more cinematic than the US pressing. It's bold in its presentation of the music. With a better deep bass, more attack, really great dynamics, and an expansive midrange that just rolls out from the speakers, it is a winner. Mobile Fidelity sold a lot of these so I'd look here or elsewhere for a reasonably priced copy. Some sellers on Discogs need to have their heads examined, their prices are so high. What else is new? I know what I'm doing next. I'm pouring a fresh cup of coffee and going back for a spin of "Rudy" on MFSL 1-005. There is that sweet spot just shy of the amp clipping...
HA! Maybe not obsession per se but I'm definitely the type not afraid to dive into the more expensive pressings for my favorite albums. The Speakers Corner is fantastic. It's a solid pressing done really really well. I've had two copies. One was bought in NM condition and one bought completely new when it first came out, sealed. In both cases, there was some minor crackling at the very end of the sides. I reiterate that it was very minor but definitely there. Strangely, SC typically has their LPs pressed by Pallas so it was a bit strange to hear that but again, 99% of people wouldn't be bothered by it because it's soooo minor and only in the very last few moments of each side was it ever present. Nevertheless, I wanted to mention that. It's dynamic and solid with good bass. Now, the UHQR is a complicated thing. I recently discovered there were two cuts of it, something not mentioned anywhere. One has a wide dead wax while the other has a narrow dead wax area. And yes, there is a MAJOR difference in SQ between the two, something I was unprepared for but wanted to absolutely test. This experience cost me a few hundred dollars but it was worth it. Firstly, the narrow dead wax pressing is only for pressings up to #1000. All others beyond that will have the wide dead wax. The wide dead wax sounds great. It easily rivals the SC and even bests it in some areas, namely how quiet the vinyl is. It also sounds a little more refined which may or may not be pleasing depending on who you ask. The narrow dead wax pressing sounds way WAY better and easily dethrones absolutely anything I've ever heard. Not the type of difference where you need to figuratively squint to notice but with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Everything sounds so much more open and it's not because of some artificial high-end EQ boost. It's jaw-dropping how much better it is but these pressings appear very very rarely on the market and the number is only mentioned inside the box so it's impossible to know which sealed ones would be numbered below 1000. I recently saw a NM one, #78, on eBay which went for a "reasonable" (I say that lightly) $200-odd as the box was missing. For those who don't care about this sort of thing, it's quite a deal! Having done a shootout between the SC and the two UHQRs, the narrow dead wax UHQR was overwhelmingly and effortlessly the winner by an enormous margin. If you have the patience to find a pre-1000 narrow dead wax pressing and have the coin for it, that's the one to get.
I thought is was brilliant when I was 19 and it made my 'cheap' system sound great but I suspect all of us have had that 'I've moved on' experience. So now I'm not able to assess how good it is, I don't even have it.
@Strat-Mangler and I have discussed this issue at length. My UHQR is #839 and a narrow dead wax version. I've never listened to the other master he has discovered. In fact, you are reading original research in that last post. I'm not sure he's ever put it up on the internet before in such detail. He deserves as many likes as we can give him for his discovery. This revelation is his and his alone. Do they have a Pulitzer Prize for record mastering research? He deserves it. He literally has paid his dues. My only qualifier is he knows of no copies with a serial number of over 1,000 that have the narrow dead wax. The sample size is small. I'd feel a lot better about making that assertion if we had looked at 20 UHQR copies and they all followed that rule. Fat chance of that ever happening. The serial number is certainly a positive indicator but just look at the dead wax. It will tell you everything you need to know.
Great info. Crime of the Century is probably #2 on my UHQR wishlist--#1 on my UHQR wishlist is Dark Side of the Moon. But since the DSOTM UHQRs cost so much (and given that I already own pretty much every other relevant pressing of this album) I may end up with Crime of the Century first.
Fool's Overture...Oh man. I had NO IDEA what it was about as a child but there are no words to describe the way it made me feel back then.It just shook me up in a big way, big time. It was unsettling (what were these apocalyptic ambience sounds about?) breathtaking, scary, dramatic, sad, menacing but also EPIC and celebratory. Just overwhelming to a kid not knowing a word of English. It was pure sensation.There was a sense of loss in that song. Roger's voice is a drama in itself. ("I know! I know! I knoooooooooooooow......").It sounded like nothing else, and I grew up listening to prog epics. I still get shivers down my spine at various points of "Fools Overture" - starting with the opening piano. Powerful piece of music. I understand it better now for sure, but that's a serious, unique piece of work. I love how they let it breathe between the different sections.
Hi! I bought it last week for 12,99€ new. I think it is very good with great dynamics. I do also have a 1st canadian pressing but it is warped so I bought this one. But I don't have the MFSL or the Speakers Corner to compare to. Bye Andrea
"Crime of the Century" is the first album that made me wonder what remastering meant. My cousin had the old AM+ CD that was stolen, and she got the 90s remaster. Of course, on a boombox, we couldn't tell any difference... (I would have to play it now. I wonder if it's compressed much).
Though it's true I haven't owned 20 copies, I have extensively looked at all available images on eBay auctions of the present and the past, as well as all Google Images I could get a hold of that would give me that level of detail and that is the pattern. I'd estimate I've looked at over 50 copies over the span of a few weeks and have not found one which contradicts that pattern. Having said that, a number is just a number so it's always possible there could be a random one with a number like 1754 which has the narrow dead wax. Always best to ask for pictures if the number is all that is mentioned in an ad (e.g. Discogs).
That hype sticker is amazing! I never saw this album with a hypesticker and I know it for almost 40 years now!
I originally didn't get into this album, not until I had a pair of full range speakers that could really capture that deep bass and huge impacts. What I originally thought was "poppish" suddenly became a lot darker with more menace. I've owned three copies on vinyl: some nth American pressing, the MOFI, and an original British pressing that I picked up for $3. Out of all of them, I preferred the British - not quite as dynamic as the American or MOFI, but warmer.
(Sticks neck out) - The first, self-titled, 'Supertramp' album is prog - (Sticks neck back in)... Not only that but it's a fantastic record - quite unlike anything else they ever did and I love it!
Oh I love it. It is so typical of a certain early pastoral hazy folky British prog, I could totally see it being on the Harvest label. I know "Indelibly Stamped" always gets a lot of flak but I love its rawer "garage" feel here and there. "Potter" is almost proto grunge. And Hodgson already knew how to craft a song. This is lovely, very Paul Simon IMO, and I mean it as a compliment. Thank you. Hats off to THEM!
Sales are not everything. Sometimes, bands are so ubiquitous that they are not really analyzed or revered like some more cult classics are. It's a strange phenomenon, as if the fact that a band is so huge only made them "background music" for the masses. I know what people mean when they say "Supertramp is underrated", and it doesn't matter if they sold a billion. I haven't read much regarding their songwriting skills, their musical evolution etc. They're not that classic rock staple rock writers write about often, for example. And, whether people like them or not, there would be a lot to say about Supertramp, really.
Let me put it like this, in 2020 Supertramp is definitely underappreciated by younger music buyers. A friend has a record store and some of his all time topsellers include "Rumours" and "Toto IV". Which are being picked up by hipsters as well as regular people. Why Supertramp don't belong to that circle of bands can only be speculated. Maybe the definitive line up broke up too early, maybe their image wasn't cool enough, I have no idea! But I remember that as early as "It's Raining Again" - 1983 - the people that were too young to listen to music in the 70's didn't listen to Supertramp. Then Rodger left. And in 1984/5 neither his debut nor the new Supertramp album were regarded as hip or cool. So maybe this is a band somehow trapped in the 70's? At least to the average listener?
Funnily enough, Supertramp became influential in french chanson/pop quite quickly. This is from 1976, and undoubtedly written after repeated spins of "Crime of the Century" Oh man. I was floored when hipsters went all Fleetwood Mac. I love them but thought they would be terminally outdated "mom and pop" music/muzak. But no. Some hip bands mentioned Fleetwood Mac and they went back in style. I couldn't believe it! Toto is even more surprising. But hipsters can be all into that self irony of the self irony bullcrap, with something "bad" becoming "good" etc. Supertramp is more seen like a Coldplay of the day, I think - this huge stadium/radio pop band with vaguely arty tendencies, but that was never cool, never did anything good. Some people would rather die than give "Viva la Vida" a spin, to see if there's anything good on it, to "listen without prejudice" as George Michael would have put it. But maybe Supertramp will have their shot. Hipster culture is quite something, it shifts very fast and they will need new ammunition.
I know. After Supertramp became more or less inactive, he also played on the Excalibur project. (Interestingly enough, Scott Page, who also played on Floyd's Momentary Lapse album and tour, played flute on "Brother Where You Bound"!) But what I meant was sax players who play well-known sax parts on hit records, but aren't actual band members. Because a lot of rock bands simply don't have the need for a full-time woodwind player (and even John stuck to playing keyboards or doing backing vocals on some Supertramp songs). Something else that just popped into my mind, slightly related, was that I heard an Elton John song that sounded very much like songs from Crime of the Century. I sadly don't remember the title but I wonder who came first. And yes, I'm aware there was a brief collaboration between Elton and Roger in pre-Tramp days.
I saw Roger Hodgson live in concert last year and he still plays almost all his songs from CotC. With a very good band and decent voice it was fantastic to hear those songs from the man who created them.
