{"product_id":"youngcomes_2606","title":"Young, Neil - Comes A Time - White Hot Stamper (Quiet Vinyl)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a superficial mark in the middle of track 2 on side 1, \"Comes a Time,\" that does not play and cannot be heard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere's a copy of Comes A Time that actually delivers the kind of Tubey Analog Magic you get from the good pressings of his earlier albums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis superb Demo Disc has been overlooked by the audiophile press for almost 50 years. The best-sounding Neil Young records -- just look in our Hot Stamper listings to find them -- have Demo Disc sound to beat the band. I defy anyone to play me a better sounding record than Zuma or Gold Rush. Analog doesn't get any more magical.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the better copies, all the Demo Disc qualities are here: breathy vocals with solid body; huge amounts of ambience; super-transparency; dynamics; note-like punchy bass -- the list goes on and on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22tubey-magical-acoustic-guitars%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTubey Magical acoustic guitar\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e reproduction is superb on the better copies of this recording. Simply phenomenal amounts of Tubey Magic can be heard on every strum, along with richness, body and harmonic coherency that have all but disappeared from modern recordings (and especially from modern remasterings).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe AllMusic Guide is right on the money with their four and a half star assessment. We also wholeheartedly agree that this is the true euccessor to Harvest, and would add that it's the only Neil Young album to merit that distinction. To be blunt about it, Harvest Moon is no Comes A Time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Comes A Time 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%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\u003eMellow Magic\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere's one very special quality that this recording has that few of Neil's others do: lovely female vocal harmonies. Nicolette Larson is all over this record, adding an extra layer of mellow magic to the proceedings. Maybe it's the woman's touch that makes this album so relaxed and heartfelt. Neil is completely and utterly in the zone here, so whatever put him in that special state of mind is fine by me. (To quote Mr. Young himself, A Man Needs a Maid.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs for the music, all of side one is wonderful from start to finish; I wouldn't change a note. Side two is not as strong musically, but in our experience, the sound can be every bit as good if you've got the right pressing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut the right pressing is an elusive commodity. So many copies we played just sounded kind of flat, with dull guitars and hard vocals. Some made Neil sound like he was singing from the back of the studio. Still, others noticeably lacked leading-edge transients of any kind, blunting the attack of the various stringed instruments. Believe me, a Neil Young record with dull guitars is not worth playing, owning or writing about. You won't find one on our site.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Comes A Time\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 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 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","brand":"Young, Neil","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51886739456296,"sku":"youngcomes","price":699.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/youngcomes.jpg?v=1780419521","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/youngcomes_2606","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}