{"product_id":"collihello_2610","title":"Collins, Phil - Hello, I Must Be Going! - White Hot Stamper (With Issues)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a thud that plays lightly once at the very beginning of track 1 on side 1, \"I Don't Care Anymore.\" There is also a bubble in the vinyl that plays as 10 light thuds during the fade out to track 3, \"Like China.\" This same bubble plays as 6 lightly thuds during the intro to track 4, \"Do You Know, Do You Care?\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFortunately, the recording quality of this album is still analog and can be excellent, thanks to hugely talented engineer and producer \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22hugh-padgham%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHugh Padgham\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e (Peter Gabriel, Genesis, The Police, Yes, Emerson, Lake \u0026amp; Palmer, etc.).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePhil's third album, 1985's No Jacket Required, sounds digital and ridiculously processed. I suppose not many albums from 1985 weren't, but it's still an unfortunate development for us audiophile types who may have wanted to enjoy these albums but are just not able to get past the bad sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Hello, I Must Be Going! 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:%221982%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1982\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\u003eTransparency Is Key\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePhil's lead and harmony vocals are both breathy and present on the better copies, with natural, not hyped-up, texture, and harmonics. This is especially important for the love songs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe many ballads on the album don't work unless the sound is intimate and immediate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnly the better pressings have the kind of high-resolution, full-bodied sound that allows both the rockers and the ballads to sound their best.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Hello, I Must Be Going!\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\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":"Collins, Phil","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67826382274856,"sku":"collihello","price":299.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/products\/collihello.jpg?v=1739294530","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/collihello_2610","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}