{"product_id":"john_selft_2608","title":"John, Elton - Self-Titled - White Hot Stamper","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e The last track on side 2, \"The King Must Die,\" plays a little noisier than Mint Minus Minus for approx. the first 60 seconds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFolks, if you're looking for classic popular music that still appeals to sophisticated adults fifty-plus years after it came out, this is the album for you. It's one of the four classic Elton John records (five if you count GYBR) that belong in every right-thinking audiophile's collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e(The others are, in order of quality: #1) Tumbleweed Connection, #2) Honky Chateau, #3) Goodbye Yellow Brick Road , and #4) Madman Across the Water.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's full of analog Tubey Magic -- the richness, sweetness, and warmth are nothing short of stunning. The transparency, clarity, texture, dynamics, energy, spaciousness, and three-dimensionality of this recording are really something to be heard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe piano has real weight, the vocals are breathy and full, and the string tone is some of the best we have ever heard on a pop album.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDrop the needle on \"Border Song.\" When it hits the big \u003ci\u003eHoly Moses\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22choruses%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003echorus\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, you can pick out and follow all the different voices. What sounds like a harp on \"Sixty Years On\" is actually a Spanish Guitar. Whatever it is, it's positively sublime on the better pressings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis vintage DJM import pressing has the kind of Tubey Magical Midrange that modern records rarely even BEGIN to reproduce. Folks, that sound is gone and it sure isn't showing signs of coming back. If you love hearing INTO a recording, actually being able to \"see\" the performers, and feeling as if you are sitting in the studio with Elton and the band, this is the record for you. It's what vintage all analog recordings are known for -- \u003ci\u003ethis sound\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you exclusively play modern repressings of vintage recordings, I can say without fear of contradiction that you have never heard this kind of sound on vinyl. Old records have it -- not often, and certainly not always -- but maybe one out of a hundred new records do, and those are some pretty long odds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Elton John 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\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\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 in \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221970%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1970\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\u003eThe Strings Are Key\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat's especially remarkable about this album is the quality of \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22paul-buckmaster%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Buckmaster\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e's string arrangements. I don't know of another pop record that uses strings better or has better string tone. Strings are \u003ci\u003eall over\u003c\/i\u003e this record, not only adding uniquely interesting qualities to the backgrounds of the arrangements but actually taking the foreground on some of the songs, most notably \"Sixty Years On.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen the strings give in to a lovely Spanish guitar in the left channel (which sounds like a harp) just before Elton starts singing, the effect is positively glorious. It's the nexus where amazing Tubey Magical sound meets the best in popular music suffused with brilliant orchestral instrumentation. Who did it better than The Beatles and Elton John? They stand alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe string tone is key to the better sounding copies. The arrangements are often subtle, so only the most transparent copies can provide a window into the backgrounds of the songs that reproduce the texture of the strings. Without extension on the top, the strings sound shrill and hard, a common problem with many pressings and one that positively ruins any musical enjoyment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWithout a good solid bottom end the rockers (\"Take Me to the Pilot\") don't work either of course, but you can even hear problems in the lower strings when the bass is lightweight. String tone on a pop record is a tough nut to crack, even more so on a record like this where the strings play such a prominent role. It's the rare copy that allows you to forget the recording and lets you just enjoy the music. For that you really need a Hot Stamper!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Elton's Sophomore Release\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\u003eExtraordinary Engineering\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are three amazing-sounding Elton John records on our \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.better-records.com\/pages\/top-100\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTop 100 list\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, one of them engineered by the estimable \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22robin-geoffrey-cable%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRobin Geoffrey Cable\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, Trident Studios’ house engineer in 1972. His work on this album and Tumbleweed Connection marks him as one of the all-time greats in my book. Madman, the album to follow, seems to be a more difficult recording to master properly. That said, the best copies -- we call them White Hot Stampers -- are very nearly as good sounding as the two titles mentioned above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus 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 later 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 that is a key part of the appeal of these wonderful originals.\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\u003eClassic Elton John\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a recording that should be part of any serious popular music collection. Others 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\n\u003ch3\u003eA Tough Record to Play\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eElton John's self-titled LP is a \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22difficulty-of-reproduction%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003edifficult record to reproduce\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. Do not attempt to play it using anything other than the highest quality equipment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnless your system is firing on all cylinders, even our hottest Hot Stamper copies -- the Super Hot and White Hot pressings with the biggest, most dynamic, clearest, and least distorted sound -- can have problems. Your system should be thoroughly warmed up, your electricity should be clean and cooking, you've got to be using the right room treatments, and we also highly recommend using a demagnetizer such as the Walker Talisman on the record, your cables (power, interconnect and speaker) as well as the individual drivers of your speakers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a record that's going to demand a lot from the listener, and we want to make sure that you feel you're up to the challenge. If you don't mind putting in a little hard work, here's a record that will reward your time and effort many times over, and probably teach you a thing or two about tweaking your gear in the process (especially your VTA adjustment, just to pick an obvious area many audiophiles neglect).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"John, Elton","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52275231359272,"sku":"john_selft","price":999.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/john_selft.jpg?v=1755017358","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/john_selft_2608","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}