{"product_id":"roxymforyo_2508_10_1_3x__","title":"Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure - Super Hot Stamper","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a mark that plays 11 times at a moderate level at the start of track 3 on side 1, \"Strictly Confidential.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpacious, dynamic, present, with \u003cu\u003ehuge\u003c\/u\u003e \u003cu\u003emeaty\u003c\/u\u003e \u003cu\u003ebass\u003c\/u\u003e and tons of energy, the sound is every bit as good as the music. (At least on this copy it is. That's precisely what Hot Stampers are all about.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStrictly in terms of recording quality, For Your Pleasure is on the same plane as the other best sounding record the band ever made, their self-titled debut.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSiren, Avalon and Country Life are all musically sublime, but the first album and this one are the only two with the kind of dynamic, energetic, powerful sound that Roxy's other records simply cannot show us (with the exception of Country Life, which is powerful but a bit too aggressive).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe super-tubey keyboards that anchor practically every song on the first two albums are only found there. If you want to know what Tubey Magic sounds like in 1972-73, play one of our better Hot Stamper Roxy albums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI love the band's later albums, but none of them sound like these two. The closest one can get is Stranded, their third, but it's still a bit of a step down.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of For Your Pleasure 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 in \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221973%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1973\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 space of the studio\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\u003eChris Thomas and John Punter\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith all the latest technological advances in playback, I can tell you that this record sounds a whole lot better than I ever thought it could. What an amazing recording. \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22chris-thomas%22%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris Thomas\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e produced side one; he produced the rest of their albums (and engineered The Beatles and Badfinger, and mixed Dark Side of the Moon, and on and on).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album has many of his trademark qualities: an enormous, 3-dimensional soundstage; tons of bass; tremendous dynamics; and energy to rival anything around. \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22john-punter%22%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn Punter\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e's engineering is superb in all respects -- virtually faultless.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On For Your Pleasure\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 common to most LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight, note-like bass with clear fingering\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, as well as 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 players.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen: \u003cstrong\u003epresence and immediacy\u003c\/strong\u003e. The musicians aren't \"back there\" somewhere, way behind the speakers. They're front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt -- John Middleton in the case -- would have put them.\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\u003eEvolution\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAMG calls Roxy Music the \"most adventurous rock band of the early 70s\" and I'm inclined to agree with them. Roxy are certainly one of the most influential and important bands in my growth as a listener and audiophile, along with the likes of Supertramp, Ambrosia, 10cc, Steely Dan, Yes, Bowie and others, musicians dedicated to exploring and exploding the conventions of popular music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy equipment was forced to evolve in order to be able to play the scores of challenging recordings issued by these groups in the 70s. You could say that the albums of Roxy Music and others informed not only my taste in music but the actual stereo I play that music on. I've had large scale dynamic speakers for the last thirty-five years, precisely in order to play records like this one, the kind of record I fell in love with back then.\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 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":"Roxy Music","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51565759103272,"sku":"roxymforyo","price":129.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/roxymforyour_14ca5268-e52c-49df-8e7f-9fec4c7497ed.jpg?v=1706743191","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/roxymforyo_2508_10_1_3x__","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}