{"product_id":"jacksnight_2605","title":"Jackson, Joe - Night and Day - Super Hot Stamper (Quiet Vinyl)","description":"\u003cp\u003eYou'll want to turn this one up good and loud to get the full effect because the music really swings on a copy that sounds as good as this one does. It not only swings, it \u003ci\u003erocks\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom that opening big drum on \"Another World\" you know you're in for some wonderful sound: big, spacious, transparent, dynamic -- you name it, this record pretty much has it all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNight and Day is Joe Jackson's Masterpiece. It's simply wonderful from start to finish. This is adult popular music that belongs in any serious thinking person's record collection. Not many records from the 80s sound as natural as this one. It's analog, that's for damn sure.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Night and Day 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\u003cp\u003eCopies with \u003cstrong\u003erich lower mids and nice extension up top\u003c\/strong\u003e did the best in our shootout, assuming they weren't veiled or smeary of course. So many things can go wrong on a record. We know, we've heard them all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTop end extension\u003c\/strong\u003e is critical to the sound of the best copies. Lots of old records (and new ones) have no real top end; consequently, the studio or stage will be missing much of its natural air and space, and instruments will lack their full complement of harmonic information.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTube smear\u003c\/strong\u003e is common to most vintage pressings. The copies that tend to do the best in a shootout will have the least (or none), yet are full-bodied, tubey and rich.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eBalancing Night and Day\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are basically four elements that go into the making of Night and Day: vocals; keyboards (mostly the piano); percussion (in the mids and highs) and rhythm (drums and bass).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo two copies will get all of these elements to sound their best. The trick to finding the hotter of the Hot Stamper pressings is to find copies of the album that reproduce these four elements clearly and correctly, in balance, and reveals their placement in a large, three-dimensional studio space.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt may sound easy but I assure you it is not. With this many instruments in the mix it's a lot to get right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVocals\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePop records live and die by the quality of their vocals and Night and Day is no different in that respect. The vocals have to be front and center. Veiling in the midrange costs a fair number of points. They should also be smooth, not thin or edgy. I would rather have slightly veiled vocals relative to thin and edgy ones, but some copies manage to give you full, clear, present vocals, and those are the ones we tend to like the best.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKeyboards\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen the sound is thin in the lower midrange and upper bass the piano will lose its weight and solidity. In the denser mixes it can easily get washed out, and nobody wants a washed out piano.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no guitar on this record. The piano carries much of the structural energy of the music. You need to be able to hear the piano clearly and hear that it is both full-bodied and percussive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePercussion\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe list of percussion instruments played on this record is long indeed, with congas, bongos, timbales, bells and let us not forget the all-import xylophone. (See the Musicians and Instruments tab above.) Most copies don't have the extension on the top end to reproduce the harmonics of most of the higher-frequency instruments, but the few that do can show you a world of sound that the other pressings barely hint at.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe percussion also drives the rhythmic energy and fills out the studio space above the vocals. The energy level drops when these instruments aren't heard properly, and the space of the music shrinks in proportion as well.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe big drum and other percussion instruments that lead off Another World on side one -- and by percussion instruments I am also referring to the piano -- tell you most everything you need to know. The timbre of that big drum is very pronounced on the better copies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRhythm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnother critically important element in a pop\/rock record, and especially important to this one. The thinner, somewhat leaned-out copies emphasize the mids and upper-mids too much. They tend to be harsher and more unpleasant. The ones with clear, tight bass and solid drums to anchor the arrangements naturally work the best.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Night and Day\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\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\u003eReissues\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost reissues are clearly made from sub-generation tapes. They sound smeared and dead and are guaranteed to bore you to tears. With the right originals, the sound is \u003ci\u003emagic\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLesser original copies can be grainy, irritating, flat and lifeless. Nothing new there, right? You have to work to find a good Night and Day -- or buy one from us because we've already done the work!\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\n\u003ch3\u003eA Must Own Pop Record\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe consider this Joe Jackson album his \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22pop-masterpiece%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMasterpiece\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. It's a recording that should be part of any serious popular music collection.\u003c\/p\u003e \n\u003cp\u003eOthers that belong in that category can be found \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22core-pop-collection%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ehere\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jackson, Joe","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51862054535464,"sku":"jacksnight","price":149.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/jacksnight.jpg?v=1754409083","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/jacksnight_2605","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}