Side two really ROCKS and rates A++, with tight punchy bass and a great top-end extension. It's open with a HUGE three-dimensional soundfield. It's not as rich as the best copies we heard so we think that A++ is the right grade.
Side one is a grade behind, but it's still far better than the average copy. It rates an A+. The bass is well defined and the guitars are wonderfully textured. It's rich but lacks the top end extension and presence you will hear on side two.
All in all both sides are musical and rock pretty hard. We played a copy that blew our minds -- you can read about it below -- but it took us close to two years to find it and we charged a lot of money for it, so for the price, this is one helluva good sounding straight ahead rock and roll album.
Condition Issues
Please click on the Sonic Grade tab above to read more about this copy's surfaces.
Our Hot Stamper Commentary
We just finished a shootout for this hard-rockin' album, our first since way back in January of '08, and what we were hearing this time around BLEW OUR MINDS. This record got a whole lot better over the course of the last twenty months or so. I'll go out on a limb here and say that the drum sound on this album is the most present, punchy and realistic I have ever heard on a record.
I saw a friend's band play recently in a small club and remember thinking how amazingly punchy the snare sounded (the sound coming from the live instrument itself and the club's speakers) and this record has that kind of drum sound!. There's nothing like live music -- everybody knows that -- but good copies of this album get you a whole lot closer than I ever expected to get.
It's a classic case of We Was Wrong. Last time around we wrote "I don't think you'll ever find a copy of this album that qualifies as a True Demo Disc, but make no mistake: on the right pressing there's magic in the grooves."
We was wrong: It is a true Demo Disc. (On our system anyway. Our stereo is all about playing records like this, and playing them at good loud levels as nature -- and the artists -- intended.) Next time we revamp our Top 100 List this sucker is going on it, right next to its older brother, the first Bad Company album.
What You Want
It's got exactly what you want from this brand of straight ahead rock and roll: presence in the vocals; solid, note-like bass; big punchy drums, and the kind of live-in-the-studio energetic, clean and clear sound that Bad Company (and Free before them) practically invented. (AC/DC is another band with that kind of live studio sound. With big speakers and the power to drive them YOU ARE THERE.)
Turn It Up and Rock Steady!
If you're playing this copy good and loud you'll feel like you're in the room with the boys as they kick out the jams. Feel Like Makin' Love rocks like you will not believe -- shocking clarity, tons of ambience, silky sweet highs, and a grungy guitar sound that will blow you away. Who gets better tone than Mick Ralphs? Half the sound of Bad Co. is his guitar and the other half is Paul Rodgers voice. Between the two of them they rocked FM radio in the '70s as good as any band of their time and far better than most. Check out the lineup on side one. Three out of four of those songs are serious Heavy Hitters that you probably know by heart. (If you listen to a Classic Rock station you definitely know these songs by heart.)
The Typical LP
We used to think that "the biggest problem with the average copy of this record was GRIT and GRAIN, no doubt caused mostly by the bad vinyl of the day. You have to suffer through a lot of dry, flat, grainy copies in order to find one that sounds like this."
That was not our experience this time around. Our Odyssey record cleaning machine, Walker fluids and tons of interim tweaks have taken most of that grain and grunge our of the sound of the records we played. (Uncleaned or improperly cleaned records are a main cause of Stone Age Audio sound. There is no real hi-fidelity without the use of these revolutionary cleaning methods.)
Newrx03-08-03-FRED081511
