Joel, Billy - An Innocent Man - White Hot Stamper

Joel, Billy - An Innocent Man - White Hot StamperBoth of these sides have the huge soundstage and startling clarity and immediacy that characterizes this album, but they also add an ingredient missing from most of what we heard a full, rich, musical midrange! On many pressings, the vocals can get hard and harsh on the uptempo tracks ("Uptown Girl" is a notable offender, and never sounds quite as good as the rest of the album), but this copy manages to fix that problem (mostly) without sacrificing

We consider this Jobim album a Masterpiece

The title of the album is the key to the sound

are clearly exceptions to the rule

Some copies of the album just sound small -- they don’t extend all the way to the outside edges of the speakers

and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find pressings that sound as good as these three do

Some of the more common problems we ran into during our shootouts were slightly veiled

What The Best Sides Of The Mysterious Film World Of Bernard Herrmann Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear

plain and simple

The two former leaders of The Turtles (aka Flo and Eddie) variously play groupies (What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are) and members of the band

The Classic is tonally correct

almost all of them are taken at a slower pace

TAS list or no TAS list