Category Archives: Reviews

Review: Fleetwood Mac “Rumours” on 180-gram 45 RPM Vinyl

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RumoursGo back maybe 10 or 15 years.  Classic rock radio was still seemingly churning out the same dozen or so songs every hour.  Millions of owned the Rumours album on the original LP, bought it on CD, and a few even indulged in the DVD-Audio disc when it was briefly available.  Sufficient to say, just about everyone had burned out on Fleetwood Mac’s most popular album.

So tell me, why can’t I get this 45-RPM 180-gram pressing of Rumours off of my turntable??

It’s the sound.  I know the original CDs extolled the virtues of “perfect sound forever,” only to find out that CDs followed the same mantra as any other digital medium:  garbage in, garbage out.  Any pas release of Rumours has been good, but not something that is almost breathtaking at times.  Songs like “The Chain” make you turn up the volume quite a bit; you are hearing the picks on the guitars, the windings of the bass strings coming through McVie’s pickups, the snap of a snare drum…it’s all there, fresh off the tape.  “Dreams” has a low end that will make any subwoofer superfluous; McVie’s bass fills the room, and Fleetwood’s bass drum again snaps the woofers to attention.  “Never Goin’ Back Again” is all about fretboards, picks, and a very pure guitar sound.  With these and the other tracks, you’d think you were a witness to the studio recording.

One might argue that it is easy to give “detail” by boosting the high end and fleshing out the low end with an EQ boost, but this is not what it’s all about.  There is detail here that can only come from going back to an original two-track master tape, massaging it, and committing it to lacquer with a lot of care and attention.  Hats off to the team of Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray for the stunning sound on this release, and to Warner/Rhino for offering this in both 33-1/3 and 45 RPM versions.  If there is one must-own version, this has to be it.  Caveat: be sure to seek out the US edition of this release, as the European version was mastered elsewhere.  Highly recommended!  Yes, even if you are as burned out on this album as most of us already were…

Review: Reverend Organdrum Hi-Fi Stereo

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Hi-Fi StereoGuitarist Jim Heath is a formidable guitarist in his chosen style of music (roots rock, rockabilly, country, blues), but even more interesting is Heath’s deep appreciation for music of all kinds.  In an interview we watched, Heath mentioned listening to Henry Mancini!  It should come as no surprise that Heath would record an album with not one, but two Mancini songs, among a handful of others that touch on movie and TV themes (“Route 66″, ‘Hang ’em High”, “James Bond Theme”), jazz swing (songs by Roland Kirk and Duke Ellington), nightclub schmaltz (a cover of Dean Martin’s “Ain’t That A Kick In The Head”) along with some blues and 60s soul.  What should be surprising is this album, Hi-Fi Stereo, is the product of a musician and songwriter better known as the righteous Reverend Horton Heat.

Yep, that Reverend Horton Heat.  The same one who gave us wiggle sticks, bales of cocaine, and a theme song for the Daytona 500.

This album features the good Reverend in a trio configuration with organist Tim Alexander and drummer Todd Soesbe, running down an assortment of tunes listed above.  The end result of this album: fun!  Not silly, boisterous, “party!…get naked!…buy us beer!” fun, but a swingin’ and swayin’ musical good time.  “C Jam Blues” is spinning as I write this, and it’s a perfect example of how this group works well together.  Alexander’s organ and Heath’s guitar trade off leads and solos, rather than having either hog the spotlight.  And yet while the trio has a tight rapport, there is enough of a sloppy looseness that gives it an easygoing feeling that is good, clean, contageous fun.

The song selection for this set is inspired also.  A few familiar nuggets dot the playlist, but rather than pick a common Mancini tune, the Reverend does a nice job on “Shot In The Dark,” and also digs out the lesser known theme to the Blake Edwards thriller “Experiment In Terror.”  Major points in my book right there!  “I Got A Woman” also gets a jazzy workout, with some nice soloing from the Reverend and Tim Alexander.   The whole set has that “groovy” retro feel to it, and it is a treat to hear Heath get a chance to stretch out and play something other than what the press has labeled “psychobilly.”  Even the cover is retro, with that classic 60s “Blue Note” feel to the cover art.

This apparently is a one-off project at this point, but I’m all for a second installment…and a tour.  Bring it, Reverend: we’ll all be there!  As for this recording, grab it now. You won’t regret it!

Review: Prince’s Purple Rain on 180g Vinyl

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Purple Rain [180 Gram Vinyl]It took me by surprise but then again, I never expected it:  Purple Rain was reissued on vinyl awhile ago, and I totally missed it!  OK, so I fell off the clue wagon on this one.  I had heard that Warner was reissuing Dirty Mind, Controversy and my personal favorite, 1999 on 180g vinyl this coming May, and managed to pick up Purple Rain to give it a spin.  Seeing that Prince has never had his early catalog remastered, all we have had are lackluster early-release CDs and our aging vinyl.  Is the new 180 gram version any improvement?

The reissue of Purple Rain, cut by Bernie Grundman Mastering, is very good indeed!  Anything is better than the CD currently out there, and one thing I noticed about this 180g version is that there is more clarity to the music.  I’ve discovered in these later years that one of my favorite tracks is “Take Me With U” which has a killer production to it; you can really hear the acoustic guitar through the mix on the vinyl.  The distortion at the end of “Let’s Go Crazy” (on the original vinyl cut) is also removed, so it plays back much cleaner.  (It is comparable to the 12″ single version, in fact.)

The vinyl itself is fairly quiet, but not as quiet as the Van Morrison Moondance I reviewed a short while ago.  Some minor ticks are about the extent of it.  The only other flaw is that mine has some minor dish warp to it, but that is nothing a good record clamp can’t fix. A nice touch is having a reprint of the original inner sleeve, plus reproductions of the original LP labels on both sides.  Definitely recommended for fans of Prince, and I am anxiously awaiting the reissue of the three earlier albums.

Van Morrison’s Moondance on 180g LP

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Moondance [Vinyl]Stunning!  In a word, that describes the sound of this meticulously produced 180 gram LP reissue of Van Morrison’s Moondance from the folks at Rhino (Warner Brothers).  I need not go into the album itself, which is already a popular music classic.  But to hear this release is proof positive that analog LPs can sound every bit as good as digital, and even surpass it.  I played this for a friend who was not in tune with the differences between digital and analog–even she was impressed!  When I tried to pin down her observations, it boiled down to this:  it sounds more “real” than digital.

A real treat, also, is how quiet the vinyl is.  My copy is just about perfect.  On the first play, I went through my usual ritual–put the LP on the turntable, queue up the lead-in groove, then kick up the volume to a predetermined level of background noise.  A few seconds later, you nearly had to peel me off of the back wall of the room–the vinyl is just about as quiet as a CD, and the beginning of “And It Stoned Me” really gave my ol’ ticker a jump start!  The best words I can use to describe the sound of this masterpiece:  warm, fluid and spacious.  The sound is so clean, yet very warm and lifelike.  Highly recommended:  5 stars +!  View the album on Amazon.