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SONIC GRADE: (?) |
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| Side one: |
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| Side two: |
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VINYL PLAYGRADE:(?) |
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| Side one: |
Mint Minus to Mint Minus Minus |
| Side two: |
Mint Minus to Mint Minus Minus |
This outstanding copy conveys the ENERGY and POWER of the music, and that makes it a very unusual pressing indeed. Most copies of this album are either thin, shrill and aggressive -- like most U2 albums -- or thick and veiled. This one is smooth and natural sounding, with the added benefit of some deep punchy bass!
What the best sides have to offer is not hard to hear:
The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes even as late as 1987
Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
Natural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments (and effects!) having the correct timbre
Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space
No doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is, of course, the only way to hear all of the above
The recordings of the Eighties are often tricky when it comes to their sound, and U2 is not a band we have ever associated with audiophile-quality sonics. We've been through a number of their albums now, including this title, War and October, and while Demo Quality Sound may never be in the cards for these guys, we have at least found pressings that do a much better job communicating the music than others.
Bottom line? While this may not be a record that's going to blow anyone's mind, it does do a very good job of bringing this music to life in a way that most copies, the CD, and of course any Heavy Vinyl pressing cannot begin to.
If you're a fan of U2, we guarantee you simply cannot find a better sounding copy than this (unless you trade up to one of our even hotter stampers).
By the way, the British copies we played were awful. Perhaps there are good ones out there but we sure didn't hear any.
One More Thing
If you have the time and like the album I recommend you watch the DVD on the making of The Joshua Tree. It's not only entertaining but, if you're like me, you'll come away with a whole new appreciation for the effort that went into the recording of it. There is a lot going on in these mixes and it would have to be a very special stereo indeed that could manage to bring even half of what's on the tape out into the open where it could actually be heard and appreciated.
Vinyl Condition
Mint Minus Minus and maybe a bit better is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)
Those of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of later pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic of these wonderful originals.
If you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.
