Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - In Step (1989), hybrid SACD, Mobile Fidelity UDSACD 2077

 

I've never paid $50 for a CD, or in this case SACD, until now, so this addition to the collection will require a lot of justification. Unfortunately, I didn't acquire my first SACD player until late last year, by which time this limited-edition release had already sold out. As with most Mobile Fidelity releases, whether SACD or vinyl, the price began to climb due to scarcity. I already owned a standard CD release of this album, which is perhaps my favorite of SRV (though I have yet to hear Soul to Soul), so when I saw a used copy come up for sale on Dusty Groove, I pondered. I would never have paid $50 straight up for this or any other SACD, but after checking prices elsewhere and seeing that they were higher, and then selling Dusty Groove a stack of CDs I had already upgraded to audiophile vinyl or SACD, or simply didn't want any more (like the best of Shelley Fabares), I had enough store credit to afford this title. Figuring that I probably would never find this release any cheaper, I used the store credit to add this to a collection that already includes three other SRV Mofi SACDs (Texas Flood, Couldn't Stand the Weather, and The Sky Is Crying) all of which I was able to purchase at list price. The other SRV SACDs sound leagues better than their standard CD counterparts, and this one is definitely a step or two up, though I don't know if it is as big an improvement as the others. Still, as mentioned above, this is a favorite of mine, Vaughan's last studio record before his tragic early death, with a playlist that has quite a bit of variety--rockers like "The House Is Rockin'" and "Scratch-n-Sniff," traditional blues on "Leave My Girl Alone" and "Love Me Darlin'," and sharp instrumentals like the smoky jazz of "Riviera Paradise" and the virtuoso Lonnie Mack-style picking of "Travis Walk." So I still feel it was worth the somewhat exorbitant cost since it wasn't really money out of pocket.

The only question remaining is, Is this the ultimate version of this album? Perhaps not, since the one included in the Analogue Productions Texas Hurrican box set was remastered by Ryan K. Smith and at least one reviewer on the Acoustic Sounds web site says the AP version beats the Mofi. But that box set sells for $280 for only 6 discs, more than $45 a pop. And though I paid more than that for this one title, I paid far less for the rest. Besides, $280 is a big chunk of change for me to part with in one fell swoop. So I still feel satisfied with this acquisition. Of course, if I win the lottery, that could change.

Do I Really Need This record?  SRV's music is legendary, and as stated before, this is probably my favorite album of his, so I really needed an upgrade from the mediocre audio of the standard CD I already owned. On top of that, my wife really digs his music, so that made the hefty price feel a little less painful.

 

Johnny Hartman - I Just Dropped by to Say Hello (1963), CD, Impulse IMPD-176

 

Known most for the album that preceded this one, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, this is Hartman's second of three LPs for Impulse which finds him continuing to use his beautifully deep and rich baritone on a number of familiar ballad standards mixed with a few lesser-known numbers, such as the coy title track and the three tracks that end the disc. Hartman's remarkable vocals are backed by top-flight jazz accompanists who may not be John Coltrane but are still pretty darn great: Hank Jones on piano, Milt Hinton on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums augmented by guitarists Kenny Burrell on three tracks and Jim Hall on two others. But the real stand-out is tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet, who appears on five tracks, backing Hartman's already sumptuous voice with buttery, decadent accents that give the whole affair a late-night romantic atmosphere. I could quibble with the slightly cheesy choice of leading the set off with the theme from Charade or with the Truman Capote & Harold Arlen standard "A Sleepin' Bee," never a favorite of mine, but it's also hard to complain about anything Hartman sings, especially with such stellar backing. Like Lou Rawls, Hartman's voice gives everything he tackles a touch of class. Despite a career that spanned from the 1940s through the 1970s, Hartman was not a prolific recording artist, his first album not appearing until 1955 and having a 5-year gap before the Coltrane collaboration suddenly made him a hot property. And despite the fact that allmusic.com gives that Coltrane album its highest rating of 5 stars, it picks this one, at 4½ stars, as his career best. But why pick between the two when you can have both?

Originally recorded by the legendary Rudy Van Gelder, this CD was remastered by Erick Labson using 20-bit super mapping for this 1995 reissue. While Labson's work has mixed reviews on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums, I did not give it a super-close listen but, as mentioned above, the Jacquet solos lept out as particularly rich and rewarding. Knowing that Analogue Productions is preparing an all-analog 180g vinyl reissue of John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman remastered by the always great Ryan K. Smith due out on December 10 of this year, it would be nice if they would also add this title to their Verve/Impulse reissue series. I could go for that.

Do I Really Need This record?  The best, or perhaps second-best, album by one of the best male ballad singers of the 20th century? No brainer--I had to add this title to my collection, especially for only $6 used.

 

Lord Huron - Long Lost (2021), CD, Republic B0033477-02

 

It's been a long time since I went out and bought an album after hearing it on the radio, but after hearing this album's latest single, "Mine Forever," I decided to investigate further and decided that I liked the sound of what I heard and thus took the plunge. And I was not disappointed. This is the fourth album by this L.A.-based quartet, and as the many reviews that have been published since its release in May of this year will tell you, front man, vocalist, and songwriter Ben Schneider is originally from Michigan, and thus the group's name is based in part on one of the Great Lakes that surround Michigan, Lake Huron. But the sound on this album will not call to mind either California or Michigan because it is planted firmly in the desert southwest or big sky country--long vistas of loneliness that engulfs each of the proper songs here, with the exception of the Hawaiian/exotica-flavored "At Sea." The rest of the cuts are literally drowning in reverb, big Duane Eddy-style guitar twang, and sometimes a string section that hearkens back to the early 1960s and Roy Orbison's tales of heartache. Schneider is no Orbison when it comes to vocal chops; in fact, one reviewer likened his style to Ricky Nelson, who was not particularly gifted but didn't try to sing beyond his abilities, maintaining an understated minimalist approach that allowed the backing arrangements and instrumentalists provide the heft. There is also a similarity here to early Chris Isaak, an Orbison devotee who specialized in songs of desire and disappointment with lots of reverb. But it all works wonderfully, the high lonesome sound conjures a desolate loneliness borne by lost love, failure, and diminished prospects, particularly explored on the last vocal track "What Do It Mean." The proper songs are interspersed with short audio snippets that attempt to give the effect of hearing the singer introduced at various live events, which didn't really do anything for me, but at least they're short. The same can't be said for the closing, 14-minute instrumental track, "Time's Blur," which honestly I haven't listened to in its entirety yet after reading many unfavorable descriptions about it in the various reviews. The beginning portion I did hear sounded a bit like a Brian Eno ambient soundscape, completely out of left field compared with the rest of the disc. But all of that aside, the main songs here are strong, full of sorrow, and wonderfully arranged and performed.

I bought this release on CD in part because the double vinyl version was long sold out, but even if it were available I probably wouldn't have bought it because my recent experience with current-artist vinyl is not good. Good-sounding vinyl depends on how the music was recorded, who mastered it, and where the vinyl is pressed. It's usually impossible to find out information about recording or vinyl pressing for new releases, and most of the mastering engineers I am not familiar with, so even knowing who they are doesn't help. A few years ago I bought vinyl copies of new releases that I really liked by Nicki Bluhm and Olden Yolk, and in both cases the vinyl was disappointing, certainly not an improvement over the CD. I also considered buying Kacey Musgraves' Golden Hour on vinyl, but after reading the many negative reviews about how noisy the vinyl was, I decided against it. The only recent vinyl release that I was satisfied with was Moving Panoramas second album In Two, which was pressed here in Austin at Gold Rush Vinyl. It's the only thing I've heard from Gold Rush, so I don't yet know if their pressings are consistently good, or if Moving Panoramas' shoegaze dream pop hides any deficiencies in the pressing. In any case, I am not in any hurry to rush out and buy vinyl copies from current artists unless I know more about how and where they are sourced.

Do I Really Need This record?  In order to avoid being typecast as an old fogie who only listens to music from his childhood, I have to occasionally add new music to the collection. Fortunately, this release has a very retro sound that pleases my throwback sensibilities, allowing me to give the appearance of being open to the new while still firmly clutching to the old. How could I refuse?

 

Rick Wakeman - Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974), A&M SP 3621, Pitman pressing

 

I have been a big fan of Rick Wakeman-era Yes since I first bought a vinyl copy of Close to the Edge around the time it came out, after which I quickly added Fragile and, when it was released the next year, Wakeman's first proper solo LP, The Six Wives of Henry VIII. And I still enjoy all three of those albums very much, but when I then added Wakeman's next solo effort, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, in 1974, I stopped buying anything he put out. My vague impression was that I was not that thrilled with it, and thus did not continue with the next King Arthur-themed LP and all that followed it. So I decided to give this LP a relisten since my 1970s section is a bit tight and at some point something is going to have to go when I get my next new purchase. And it didn't take long for me to confirm that I am not a fan of this LP, at all. In fact, I listened only to the first side because by then I had had enough. If it's not already clear from the cover photo, this is a grandiose production with the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Choir, spoken narration by actor David Hemmings, and two not very pleasing vocalists. In other words, there's a lot on this record that is not Rick Wakeman noodling on his synthesizers, and that's a bad thing because I rather like his solo excursions on the above-mentioned Yes albums and that's all you get on The Six Wives of Henry VIII, which is what makes it so good. The orchestral sections of this record sound very much like a movie soundtrack, and, in fact, I was reminded of the opening pieces of the soundtrack to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, only here no humor is intended or delivered. And I also find the attempt to retell the Jules Verne story by mixing spoken narration with more atmospheric interpretations of the plot to be rather ineffective. Add to this that the sung portions of the story-telling have poorly written, hackneyed lyrics (by comparison, while Jon Anderson's lyrics for Yes can sometimes be obtuse, they thankfully aren't dull and leaden), and the entire production has a bombastic, hack feel to it only occasionally broken up by some nice keyboard work from Wakeman. And as I mentioned previously, there isn't enough of the latter to make up for all the deficiencies of the former. It verges on a poorly executed attempt at being The Alan Parsons Project without the nicer pop tendencies. Strangely, the reviewer of this LP for allmusic.com considers it a crowning achievement in the history of progressive rock. I think not. Fragile, Close to the Edge, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery are far better achievements than this bloated construction. In fact, it is records like this one that inspired the creation of the punk movement only a couple of years later.

Do I Really Need This record?  As should be obvious from the review above, this one is going into the For Sale pile.

 

The Mamas & the Papas - 16 of Their Greatest Hits (1986), CD, MCAD-5701/JVC-436

 

I was prompted to reassess this longstanding item in my collection when I received a notice from Real Gone Music that they had restocked their 2 x LP Complete Singles 50th Anniversary Collection, which I am tempted to consider buying. I also already own the group's first 3 LPs on vinyl in Sundazed reissues, but the audio quality of these is pretty underwhelming, rather dull, and lacking the "live-in-the-room" presence that makes listening to well-mastered and -pressed vinyl a transcendent experience. And while the track lists for the Real Gone 2-LP set does not match that of the 3 Sundazed LPs, both contain all the big hits plus a myriad of B-sides or LP-only tracks to round things out. The Real Gone set is mastered by Aaron Kannowski, whose work I am not familiar with, but who seems to have a generally favorable reputation on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums, though there are not really enough detailed reviews of his work to make me certain that he is of the same caliber as the top mastering engineers. Also, his only works listed on discogs.com are Real Gone releases, the majority of them CD-only releases. Still, if I were merely considering vinyl, the Real Gone set would likely be an upgrade.

But then I also have this somewhat greatest hits CD, titled 16 of Their Greatest Hits (as opposed to the 16 absolutely greatest hits), which is mastered by Steve Hoffman, who generally has a good reputation as a mastering engineer (some people worship him, some loathe him). So I gave the CD a relisten, and was generally impressed, as much as one can be for a standard redbook CD. Worth noting--the CD is all stereo mixes, whereas the Real Gone vinyl set uses the mono mixes, so if you're a mono maniac, the vinyl set is the way to go. But the CD certainly beats the dull Sundazed vinyl LPs in my collection as far as sound quality and lifelike reproduction, which makes it a keeper for now, even if there are some songs I wish were on it, like "Somebody Groovy" and "Straight Shooter," that are included on the Real Gone vinyl set. The only song on the CD not included on the Real Gone set is the group's cover of the Beatles' "I Call Your Name" (taken from the debut LP If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears), which is OK but nothing special. I'm also not a fan of the group's attempted humorous goofing, a la "Monkees-shines," at the end of "Dancing in the Street" and "Midnight Voyage," but I am guessing the mono single versions of those tracks have the same drawback since the running times are about the same. Also of note, the 2-CD version of the Real Gone set adds another 22 tracks of singles released by individual members Cass Elliott, John Phillips, and Denny Doherty.

Do I Really Need This record?  As noted above, this CD has the best-sounding versions of the Mamas and the Papas biggest hits, albeit in stereo, currently in my collection, so it needs to stay. In one way, it lessens the temptation to fork over the $30 for the Real Gone vinyl singles collection, but if I were to finally succumb to that lessened but not nonexistent temptation, this CD would become superfluous.