{"product_id":"talkimores_2605-2xx","title":"Talking Heads - More Songs About Building and Food - Hot Stamper (With Issues)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a stitch that plays 25 times lightly at the start of track 1 on side 2, \"Artists Only.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eTop Notch 70s Art Rock\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI don't think these guys ever put together a better group of songs. The ultimate pressings of Little Creatures go a step further sonically, but the better copies of this one can sound incredible, if not quite Demo Disc worthy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe're huge fans of late 70s \/ early 80s Art Rock and New Wave music, and these guys are obviously some of the best in the biz. I'd be hard pressed to name another act from the era who put out so many good records.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlong with this album, More Songs About Buildings And Food, Fear Of Music, and Little Creatures are all works of genius. 77 is full of good ideas but it doesn't sound like a fully realized work of art the way the next four albums did.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of More Songs About Building and Food 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:%221978%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1978\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\u003eKey Test Tracks\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"With Our Love\" turned out to be one of the better tests for side one. The picking of the rhythmic guitar in the intro told us just about everything we needed to know about smear, veiling and resolution. On most copies the instrument is simply blurry, the notes mashed together. When you get a copy with its transients intact, resolving properly and clearly right there in front of you, you have the makings of a Hot Stamper side one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy other test track for side one was \"Warning Signs.\" This is a great track for evaluating transparency and bass. On the average copy you'd never know how much ambience exists around the drums. Hint: it's a lot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur favorite copies have a fair amount of \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22WHOMP%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWHOMP\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e down low, giving the bass guitar that rich, beefy sound that we're simply crazy for here at Better Records. Once you've heard a copy with well-defined, note-like bass, nothing less will do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eArtists Only\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA great test track for side two is \"Artists Only.\" The guitars in the intro section are almost unbearable to listen to on most copies. I recognize that I am somewhat sensitive to harsh high frequencies, but I'm literally in pain when I listen to an overly compressed, overly midrangy copy. There's got to be a better way!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWait, there is. Find a copy that actually has a sweet top end. It makes all the difference.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On More Songs About Buildings and Food\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 -- \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22rhett-davies%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRhett Davies\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e in this case -- 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\u003eTake Me to the River\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the best-sounding tracks on the album is the awesome cover of Al Green's \"Take Me to the River.\" Most copies are very skimpy with the amount of bottom-end information you get.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePay attention to the opening before the keys start. The better pressings give you texture on the bass that you won't find on most. When everything's working right you'll also hear ambience around the organ that's nowhere to be found on the average pressing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe bass should be tight, punchy, and fairly deep. We wouldn't mind if some of the tracks were mixed with a bit more punch to the bottom end, but far be it from us to tell Brian Eno and Rhett Davies how to do their jobs. At least on some copies the bass has the kind of power that brings a song like Take Me To the River to heights you probably never imagined it could go.\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 Art Rock Record\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis recording is a \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22rock-masterpiece%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMasterpiece\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e that should be part of any serious rock music collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOthers that belong in that category can be found \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22core-rock-collection%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ehere\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e ","brand":"Talking Heads","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51800496701736,"sku":"talkimores","price":149.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/talking-heads_33bdc183-c835-464f-b961-a80ea7a4c9e9.jpg?v=1703273359","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/talkimores_2605-2xx","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}