{"product_id":"b-52swildp_2611-2","title":"B-52's, The - Wild Planet - Super Hot Stamper","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis recording, like the band’s first album, reminded me of a really good Donn Landee \/ Ted Templeman production, the kind you hear on JT or Simple Dreams or the better Doobie Brothers albums -- with a difference.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLike the above mentioned albums, everything is laid out clearly: there’s a space created for every part of the frequency spectrum from the lowest lows to the highest highs, with nothing crowding or interfering with anything else. The production is professional, clean, clear and \u003cu\u003ereal\u003c\/u\u003e sounding everywhere you look.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s rare for those albums to sound as PUNCHY and LIVELY as the better copies of Wild Planet do. The B-52’s first album has that sound in spades. The producers and engineers apparently knew a good thing when they found it and succeeded in leaving well enough alone here (at least on the better copies; the mediocre copies are always going to be missing some of the life of the music).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChris Blackwell of Island Records produced the album, taking the band down to Nassau to record it, with one of our favorite knob-twirlers, none other than \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22Rhett-Davies%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRhett Davies\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, on board as engineer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is one of the Best Sounding Albums of 1980.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRich, smooth, natural sound in the 80s? Not many have managed to pull it off, but these guys did.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Wild Planet Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe most Tubey Magic, without which you have \u003ci\u003ealmost\u003c\/i\u003e 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 \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221980%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1980\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTransparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. \u003ci\u003ePlaying the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above,\u003c\/i\u003e and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Wild Planet\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnergy\u003c\/strong\u003e for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen: \u003cstrong\u003epresence and immediacy\u003c\/strong\u003e. The vocals aren't \"back there\" somewhere, lost in the mix. They're front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would put them.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Big Sound\u003c\/strong\u003e comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen \u003cstrong\u003etransient information\u003c\/strong\u003e -- fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight punchy bass\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNext: \u003cstrong\u003etransparency\u003c\/strong\u003e -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eExtend the top and bottom\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003ci\u003evoila\u003c\/i\u003e, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eMore Of What To Listen For\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA big, solid, punchy kick drum. It’s prominent in the mix on the better copies and really drives the music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint 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.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of other 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 recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"B-52's, The","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":68115696976168,"sku":"b-52swildp","price":219.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/b-52swildp.jpg?v=1793553827","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/b-52swildp_2611-2","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}