(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.) Mint 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. Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing - an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.Next: transparency - the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.Tight punchy bass - which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.Then transient information - fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.The Big Sound comes next - wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.They’re front and center where any recording engineer worth his salt would put them. The vocals aren’t “back there” somewhere, lost in the mix. What could be more important than the life of the music? Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, 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. No doubt there’s more but we hope that should do for now. Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space.Natural tonality in the midrange - with all the instruments having the correct timbre.Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low.Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in 1971 The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing.The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space.What the Best Sides of Anticipation Have to Offer Is Not Hard to Hear That’s not to say that we’d put this recording on the same level with those audiophile knockouts, but the richness and the sweetness of the midrange on the best copies is exactly what you’d expect from the team of Samwell-Smith and Carly Simon. You’ll hear his signature sound all over this album, particularly on the track I’ve Got To Have You. Paul Samwell-Smith, who handles the same duties on Tea For The Tillerman and Teaser And The Firecat. When you hear the incredibly lush, highly detailed acoustic guitars on this record, you won’t be surprised to find out that the album was produced by Mr. The one word that comes to mind is BIG - this record gives you The Big Sound that Carly was no doubt going for. The overall sound is open and transparent, with real depth to the soundfield and lots of separation between the instruments. We went through plenty to find this one, I can tell you that.ĭrop the needle on Legend In Your Own Time for some of the best sound and music on the album. I don’t think you could find a much better sounding copy of this album no matter how hard you tried. The tonality from top to bottom is Right On The Money. The vocals are breathy and full-bodied with extraordinary immediacy. The acoustic guitars sound particularly good on this copy, with just the right balance of pluck and body. “Carly Simon’s second album found her extending the gutsy persona she had established on her debut album… a frankly passionate person whose vulnerability was a source of strength, not weakness, a valuable feminist trait and one Simon would pursue in her later work.”.Brimming with favorites such as Anticipation, Legend In Your Own Time and I’ve Got To Have You, this is clearly one of her most consistent albums.Paul Samwell-Smith and engineered by Mike Bobak, the same team that worked their magic on this classic, Anticipation blends Carly’s lilting vocals with lush, harmonically detailed acoustic guitars and BIG punchy drums This outstanding early pressing boasts solid sound from start to finish.

Anticipation carly simon