More new vinyl
Three new albums. Listened to 2 of them last night. AT 440 still in the phaser.
First: “The Band” a re-issue of the brown album from the 70′s. Two 180 gram yadda yadda. Weird that it was cut at 45 rpm. Found that out when I started it and it s-o-u-n-d-e-d s-o s-l-o-w. Not a single note or label or mention anywhere on the package. The mastering was done by one of the best in the business and the pressing was gorgeous. 45 cutting is a standard audiophile trick. So that announced that this is an audiophile lp.
Often first plays have mold release gumming them up. This sounded fine. I will clean the stylus soon.
This was recorded in a large shed for the most part. They were looking for the sound of the famous “basement tapes” they did with Dylan. I guess there still used good tape decks as it is a clean and solid recording with few if any studio effects. Funny my wife never heard of “The Band” too young for Dylan or too busy being a figure skater. She knew most of the songs though. They wrote that? Yes.
It is a clean and accurate LP of what went down on tape. I only wish it was more like a greatest hits as I hoped for a couple other songs. But what was there was really good. Again insert rant about studio multi-miked mixes. At least the mix is simple. Clear vocals remarkable metal in the percussion. Clear transients in the strings of guitar and mandolin. All the usual nice things to say.
Second: A live recording from Sting’s 2019 tour. Two disks with only a few songs each side. Not 45 rpm, but cut wide if you know what I mean. He is now more Jazz than rock. So listening to him it was a Jazz type experience. No rocking out for that old man. Very clear recording but Sting mumbles his words so that leaves the lead vocal mumbly. Everything else was nice. Not really a demo type of LP, but it is high quality.
Third: Leonard Cohen’s last album “Thanks for the Dance”. I did not play it as my wife thinks his stuff is depressing. I have to wait for her to be busy or visiting someone.
I closed out the session with an old Columbia Masterworks of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #2 with Bernstein and Graffman. Perfectly fine recording, very good performance. Decent illusion of an orchestra and actually the piano sounded very good. It is worth getting if you can. Sometimes you just gotta listen to the music.
