The all-purpose 2022/2023 Steely Dan thread

I guess I didn't pay much attention to the date, but while checking on the preorder status of some upcoming SACDs, I noticed that Universal released a 50th anniversary reissue of Steely Dan's first album, Can't Buy A Thrill.

Apparently you can buy a thrill as a high-res set of files from Universal, or a vinyl pressing. But given's Universal's propensity to, as the old saying goes, fark up a one-car funeral, I am a bit wary at the moment of trying one of their pressings.

I'm listening to the 24-bit/192kHz version on Qobuz and it's not as sharply defined as the version of the album I have on my server. However, the version I have on CD has been through noise reduction and other digital doctoring, apparently. I have no idea of the provenance of this new version, whether it was a transfer of the original analog tapes, or if it was further doctored in the studio. (I'm on my desktop system at the moment, so, I'll have to wait to spin it on the main system to see what's up.) It turns out the digital files were mastered by Bernie Grundman alongside the

50 years. I feel old. Older.

Anyway, I have mixed feelings about an upcoming series of reissues from Analogue Productions.

Chad Kassem worked out a deal where he could release audiophile versions of the first seven Steely Dan albums. The SACDs are already planned and available for preorder, and I will get those without a doubt. None have been released yet, but they will supposedly be released individually over the coming months.

But for pure analog goodness, the initial vinyl issues of these titles will be on their "UHQR" vinyl sets. Deluxe box set packaging with a wood spine, like other UHQRs, and offered only as a set of two 45-RPM records. Chad has hinted that there may be other editions down the road.

All the Dan records are essential listening for me and, with other artists I've followed since my teen years or earlier, very important in my own personal catalog of music. So it's a tough call if I buy later vinyl reissues from Analogue Productions. Thing is, to find clean copies of these records in preferred early pressings could end up costing me just as much, especially if I have to reject a handful due to groove burn (wear). For instance, I do have a somewhat clean early Aja pressing that has some minor but noticeable (read: annoying) groove burn on "Deacon Blues" and "Josie."

I may end up doing a shootout of various versions once I get the SACD reissues in my hands. I suspect Analogue Productions will be the better (best?) sounding of all digital versions. I'm told that they did an excellent job on the two most recent albums (Two Against Nature and Everything Must Go) especially on the former title, where they got rid of the digital harshness and made it a much more pleasant listen. The latter was actually recorded to analog multitrack and has a much smoother sound already.

For whatever reason, I had read that Steely Dan will no longer perform "Do It Again" in concert--can't recall if it was a mutual decision, or if Donald Fagen just didn't want to sing it. Regardless, it's one of the highlights on a solid debut album that included many fine compositions. A little of their jazz influence came through on this album, but would appear more on the follow-up, Countdown to Ecstasy. My own discovery of their catalog began when I read a good review of Fagen's first solo album, The Nightfly. Wanting more, I picked up budget reissues of Gaucho and Aja then worked my way back through the rest of their catalog (all were the MCA "Platinum Series" LPs).

Got any Steely Dan favorites or memories? This thread is the place! (Please take complaints, gripes, "I hates," etc. to a separate thread. )

50 years. Dang it...

 

[Michael Hagerty]

I found a recipe for what they call "triple-dipped chicken" where it's dipped in flour, batter, then flour again, then fried or baked. But since we've had to get on the gluten free train here, grilling it outdoors is about the only safe way to make it.

Speaking of food and changing tastes, I found this handy one-stop of the things we used to eat back when Steely Dan was trying to get a beer commercial:




Some of 'em are still a thing, but others....

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Hey, @Rudy ----June Christy says she wants "something cool":

 

[Rudy]

It's official.

I thought that the Analogue Productions UHQR sets would be released in chronological order, but the Acoustic Sounds site listed Aja as being the next UHQR title. Pretzel Logic was just released at the end of July on UHQR as well as the Geffen 180g digitally-sourced version.

So the release date for Aja is Sep 29, 2023, apparently both on the UHQR and the Geffen.

The rather pointless press release confirms it and makes it official:

Spoiler: Press Release

Los Angeles – August 8, 2023 – Steely Dan’s 1977 multi-platinum jazz-rock masterwork, Aja, has been remastered from analog and will be reissued on vinyl for the first time in more than four decades on September 29th via Geffen/UMe. Aja marks the latest release in Geffen/UMe’s extensive reissue program of Steely Dan’s classic ABC and MCA Records catalog, which returns the band’s first seven records to vinyl – most of which haven’t been available since their original release. Overseen by founding member Donald Fagen, the series launched in November 2022 with the group’s legendary 1972 debut, Can’t Buy A Thrill, followed by 1973’s Countdown To Ecstasy in May 2023. The band’s beloved third album, 1974’s Pretzel Logic, was just released last month.

Aja has been meticulously remastered by Bernie Grundman from an analog, non-EQ’d, tape copy and will be pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at 33 1/3 RPM. Additionally, Aja, like all the titles, is being released as a limited edition premium 45 RPM version on Ultra High-Quality Vinyl (UHQR) from Analogue Productions, the audiophile in-house reissue label of Acoustic Sounds. Analogue Productions is also releasing this series of titles on Super Audio CD (SACD). Visit here for more details and to order.

Pre-order Aja: Steely Dan Aja Vinyl

Additional titles rolling out over the next year include 1975’s swing-pop perfection Katy Lied (featuring “Black Friday,” “Bad Sneakers” and “Doctor Wu,” as well as the addition of Michael McDonald on vocals); 1976’s guitar-driven The Royal Scam (“Kid Charlemagne,” “The Fez”); and Steely Dan’s final album for MCA, and last for 20 years, 1980’s brilliant Gaucho (featuring “Hey Nineteen” and “Time Out Of Mind,” with Mark Knopfler on guitar).

All albums in the series are being mastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes except for Ajaand Gaucho, with the later being sourced from a 1980 analog tape copy originally EQ’d by Bob Ludwig (There’s no evidence the original tapes containing the flat mixes of Aja and Gaucho were delivered to the record label and it’s presumed the tapes no longer exist). Lacquers for UMe’s standard 33 1/3 RPM 180-gram version will be cut by Alex Abrash at his renowned AA Mastering studio from high-resolution digital files of Grundman’s new masters and pressed at Precision. They will be housed in reproductions of the original artwork.

The 45 RPM UHQR versions will be pressed at Analogue Productions’ Quality Record Pressings on 200-gram Clarity Vinyl, packaged in a deluxe box, and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a certificate of inspection. Each UHQR is pressed, using hand-selected vinyl, with attention paid to every single detail of every single record. All of the innovations introduced by QRP that have been generating such incredible critical acclaim are applied to each UHQR. The 200-gram records feature the same flat profile that helped to make the original UHQR so desirable.

Released in 1977, Aja (pronounced Asia) marked Steely Dan’s sixth album in just five years and cemented Donald Fagen and Walter Becker to be the musical visionaries their previous albums hinted at. Alongside longtime producer Gary Katz, Fagen and Becker recorded Aja, a heady and sophisticated seven-song statement that blended jazz with progressive pop and rock, over a year and a half in six different studios in Los Angeles and New York. The duo, retired from touring and now true songwriting partners, recruited dozens upon dozens of ace session players to help realize their singular vision. As creatures of the studio, they became sonic perfectionists, in search of the perfect sound and perfect take, scrutinizing every single note played by some of the best in the business, bringing in new musicians and sometimes even entirely new bands to try a different approach, only accepting exactly what they were looking for. In all, nearly forty musicians and vocalists played on the seven-track, forty-minute album including such greats as bassist Chuck Rainey, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, guitarists Dean Parks, Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Jay Graydon and Steve Khan, drummers Bernard Purdie, Ed Greene, Jim Keltner, Rick Marotta and Steve Gadd and Victor Feldman and Joe Sample on keys. Timothy B. Schmit and Michael McDonald both contributed backing vocals to several songs.

The hard work and obsessive attention to detail paid off and Aja became Steely Dan’s commercial and critical high point. The album became their fast seller to date and gave the band their first platinum record, eventually going on to double platinum. Bolstered by two Top 20 hits, “Peg,” which hit No. 11 and stayed on the charts for more than a year, and “Deacon Blues,” which climbed to No. 19, plus the Top 40 single, “Josie,” (No. 26), the album peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Top 200. UK’s New Music Express hailed it as “simply the finest and most sophisticated and intelligent rock album to be released this year” while Billboard called it the year’s “most polished album.” Aja won the GRAMMY for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical for its meticulous production and was also nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group.

Since its release 46 years ago, Steely Dan’s Aja has only continued to grow in stature. It remains their best selling album and is routinely referred to by audiophiles as one of the best sounding albums ever, as close to perfect as a record can be. Aja frequently appears on “greatest albums” lists, including Rolling Stone where it was voted #63 on their list of the “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.” Retrospective reviews continue to extoll its importance as a landmark record. Pitchfork awarded it a perfect 10 in their 2019 review, declaring “Aja is as bold as records get,” adding, “Steely Dan spent the 1970s getting progressively more esoteric: jazzier, groovier, weirder. Even now, mapping the album’s melodic and harmonic shifts is impossible to do with confidence. Its songs are sprawling and fussy, populated by oddball characters with inscrutable backstories, like ‘Josie,’ from the song of the same name (‘She’s the raw flame, the live wire/She prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire’) or ‘Peg,’ an aspiring actress headed who-knows-where, who’s ‘done up in blueprint blue.’” Ultimate Classic Rock called it “the artistic pinnacle of the ‘70s jazz-rock movement,” GQ a “masterpiece,” Variety praised it as “still among the most voluptuous-sounding recordings ever committed to tape” and “a thing of musical beauty with a hard-edged heart, and a consummate act of creative sleight-of-hand.” Spin exclaimed, “Today, Aja still stands as the crucial microcosm of Becker and Fagen’s artistry, and as one of the most inventive blockbuster rock albums of its decade.”

In 2003, Aja was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame and in 2010 it was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

Led by the songwriting and virtuoso musical duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan released an extraordinary run of seven albums on ABC Records and MCA Records from 1972 through 1980. Filled with topline musicianship, clever and subversive wordplay, ironic humor, genius arrangements, and pop hits that outshone the Top 40 of their day, Steely Dan’s records – which were as sophisticated and cerebral as they were inscrutable – were stylistically diverse, melding the band’s love of jazz with rock, blues, and impeccable pop songcraft.

Aja Track List (33 RPM Vinyl)

Side A

1. Black Cow

2. Aja

3. Deacon Blues

Side B

1. Peg

2. Home At Last

3. I Got The News

4. Josie

ABOUT STEELY DAN
Steely Dan helped define the soundtrack of the '70s with hits such as "Reeling in the Years,” "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," "Peg," "Deacon Blues," "Babylon Sisters," and "Hey Nineteen," culled from their seven platinum albums issued between 1972 and 1980 (including 1977's groundbreaking Aja). Both their sound and their notoriety survived the '80s despite Walter Becker and Donald Fagen occasionally surfacing for a solo project. They reunited as Steely Dan in the early '90s, touring successfully throughout the decade and releasing a live album in 1995 (Alive In America). In 2000, they released their multi-GRAMMY® winner, Two Against Nature, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

# # #

Analogue Productions is producing 25,000 of the UHQR set, the highest quantity of all the sets.

A small yet annoying detail is that Analogue Productions is known for their meticulous detail, even reproducing the original font on the jacket and the label if appropriate. So they usually have a period-correct label for the records. Yet for the first two UHQRs, they used the current Geffen label for the vinyl. I am going to bet that this was something Universal insisted on, rather than using the period-correct ABC labels. One thing I noticed with the press release is that they did bend a little towards nostalgia with the Aja label, at least getting the ABC "bullseye" colors of the original AA and AB pressings that are now coveted. Still irks me to see the Geffen logo though.

 

[Rudy]

BTW, to highlight this apart from the press release, I'm including it here. This is true for all of the new Geffen 180g reissues.

Lacquers for UMe’s standard 33 1/3 RPM 180-gram version will be cut by Alex Abrash at his renowned AA Mastering studio from high-resolution digital files of Grundman’s new masters and pressed at Precision. They will be housed in reproductions of the original artwork.​

As I believe I may have said earlier, the Geffens will get you 90% of the way to the 45 RPM UHQRs, sound-wise.

 

[AM Matt]

I wonder if Steely Dan or Donald Fagen found the REAL remasters of the songs "Black Cow" & the title track "Aja"???

 

[Michael Hagerty]

It's official.

I thought that the Analogue Productions UHQR sets would be released in chronological order, but the Acoustic Sounds site listed Aja as being the next UHQR title. Pretzel Logic was just released at the end of July on UHQR as well as the Geffen 180g digitally-sourced version.

So the release date for Aja is Sep 29, 2023, apparently both on the UHQR and the Geffen.

The rather pointless press release confirms it and makes it official:

Spoiler: Press Release

Los Angeles – August 8, 2023 – Steely Dan’s 1977 multi-platinum jazz-rock masterwork, Aja, has been remastered from analog and will be reissued on vinyl for the first time in more than four decades on September 29th via Geffen/UMe. Aja marks the latest release in Geffen/UMe’s extensive reissue program of Steely Dan’s classic ABC and MCA Records catalog, which returns the band’s first seven records to vinyl – most of which haven’t been available since their original release. Overseen by founding member Donald Fagen, the series launched in November 2022 with the group’s legendary 1972 debut, Can’t Buy A Thrill, followed by 1973’s Countdown To Ecstasy in May 2023. The band’s beloved third album, 1974’s Pretzel Logic, was just released last month.

Aja has been meticulously remastered by Bernie Grundman from an analog, non-EQ’d, tape copy and will be pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at 33 1/3 RPM. Additionally, Aja, like all the titles, is being released as a limited edition premium 45 RPM version on Ultra High-Quality Vinyl (UHQR) from Analogue Productions, the audiophile in-house reissue label of Acoustic Sounds. Analogue Productions is also releasing this series of titles on Super Audio CD (SACD). Visit here for more details and to order.

Pre-order Aja: Steely Dan Aja Vinyl

Additional titles rolling out over the next year include 1975’s swing-pop perfection Katy Lied (featuring “Black Friday,” “Bad Sneakers” and “Doctor Wu,” as well as the addition of Michael McDonald on vocals); 1976’s guitar-driven The Royal Scam (“Kid Charlemagne,” “The Fez”); and Steely Dan’s final album for MCA, and last for 20 years, 1980’s brilliant Gaucho (featuring “Hey Nineteen” and “Time Out Of Mind,” with Mark Knopfler on guitar).

All albums in the series are being mastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes except for Ajaand Gaucho, with the later being sourced from a 1980 analog tape copy originally EQ’d by Bob Ludwig (There’s no evidence the original tapes containing the flat mixes of Aja and Gaucho were delivered to the record label and it’s presumed the tapes no longer exist). Lacquers for UMe’s standard 33 1/3 RPM 180-gram version will be cut by Alex Abrash at his renowned AA Mastering studio from high-resolution digital files of Grundman’s new masters and pressed at Precision. They will be housed in reproductions of the original artwork.

The 45 RPM UHQR versions will be pressed at Analogue Productions’ Quality Record Pressings on 200-gram Clarity Vinyl, packaged in a deluxe box, and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a certificate of inspection. Each UHQR is pressed, using hand-selected vinyl, with attention paid to every single detail of every single record. All of the innovations introduced by QRP that have been generating such incredible critical acclaim are applied to each UHQR. The 200-gram records feature the same flat profile that helped to make the original UHQR so desirable.

Released in 1977, Aja (pronounced Asia) marked Steely Dan’s sixth album in just five years and cemented Donald Fagen and Walter Becker to be the musical visionaries their previous albums hinted at. Alongside longtime producer Gary Katz, Fagen and Becker recorded Aja, a heady and sophisticated seven-song statement that blended jazz with progressive pop and rock, over a year and a half in six different studios in Los Angeles and New York. The duo, retired from touring and now true songwriting partners, recruited dozens upon dozens of ace session players to help realize their singular vision. As creatures of the studio, they became sonic perfectionists, in search of the perfect sound and perfect take, scrutinizing every single note played by some of the best in the business, bringing in new musicians and sometimes even entirely new bands to try a different approach, only accepting exactly what they were looking for. In all, nearly forty musicians and vocalists played on the seven-track, forty-minute album including such greats as bassist Chuck Rainey, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, guitarists Dean Parks, Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Jay Graydon and Steve Khan, drummers Bernard Purdie, Ed Greene, Jim Keltner, Rick Marotta and Steve Gadd and Victor Feldman and Joe Sample on keys. Timothy B. Schmit and Michael McDonald both contributed backing vocals to several songs.

The hard work and obsessive attention to detail paid off and Aja became Steely Dan’s commercial and critical high point. The album became their fast seller to date and gave the band their first platinum record, eventually going on to double platinum. Bolstered by two Top 20 hits, “Peg,” which hit No. 11 and stayed on the charts for more than a year, and “Deacon Blues,” which climbed to No. 19, plus the Top 40 single, “Josie,” (No. 26), the album peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Top 200. UK’s New Music Express hailed it as “simply the finest and most sophisticated and intelligent rock album to be released this year” while Billboard called it the year’s “most polished album.” Aja won the GRAMMY for Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical for its meticulous production and was also nominated for Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group.

Since its release 46 years ago, Steely Dan’s Aja has only continued to grow in stature. It remains their best selling album and is routinely referred to by audiophiles as one of the best sounding albums ever, as close to perfect as a record can be. Aja frequently appears on “greatest albums” lists, including Rolling Stone where it was voted #63 on their list of the “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.” Retrospective reviews continue to extoll its importance as a landmark record. Pitchfork awarded it a perfect 10 in their 2019 review, declaring “Aja is as bold as records get,” adding, “Steely Dan spent the 1970s getting progressively more esoteric: jazzier, groovier, weirder. Even now, mapping the album’s melodic and harmonic shifts is impossible to do with confidence. Its songs are sprawling and fussy, populated by oddball characters with inscrutable backstories, like ‘Josie,’ from the song of the same name (‘She’s the raw flame, the live wire/She prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire’) or ‘Peg,’ an aspiring actress headed who-knows-where, who’s ‘done up in blueprint blue.’” Ultimate Classic Rock called it “the artistic pinnacle of the ‘70s jazz-rock movement,” GQ a “masterpiece,” Variety praised it as “still among the most voluptuous-sounding recordings ever committed to tape” and “a thing of musical beauty with a hard-edged heart, and a consummate act of creative sleight-of-hand.” Spin exclaimed, “Today, Aja still stands as the crucial microcosm of Becker and Fagen’s artistry, and as one of the most inventive blockbuster rock albums of its decade.”

In 2003, Aja was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame and in 2010 it was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

Led by the songwriting and virtuoso musical duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan released an extraordinary run of seven albums on ABC Records and MCA Records from 1972 through 1980. Filled with topline musicianship, clever and subversive wordplay, ironic humor, genius arrangements, and pop hits that outshone the Top 40 of their day, Steely Dan’s records – which were as sophisticated and cerebral as they were inscrutable – were stylistically diverse, melding the band’s love of jazz with rock, blues, and impeccable pop songcraft.

Aja Track List (33 RPM Vinyl)

Side A

1. Black Cow

2. Aja

3. Deacon Blues

Side B

1. Peg

2. Home At Last

3. I Got The News

4. Josie

ABOUT STEELY DAN
Steely Dan helped define the soundtrack of the '70s with hits such as "Reeling in the Years,” "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," "Peg," "Deacon Blues," "Babylon Sisters," and "Hey Nineteen," culled from their seven platinum albums issued between 1972 and 1980 (including 1977's groundbreaking Aja). Both their sound and their notoriety survived the '80s despite Walter Becker and Donald Fagen occasionally surfacing for a solo project. They reunited as Steely Dan in the early '90s, touring successfully throughout the decade and releasing a live album in 1995 (Alive In America). In 2000, they released their multi-GRAMMY® winner, Two Against Nature, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

# # #

Analogue Productions is producing 25,000 of the UHQR set, the highest quantity of all the sets.

A small yet annoying detail is that Analogue Productions is known for their meticulous detail, even reproducing the original font on the jacket and the label if appropriate. So they usually have a period-correct label for the records. Yet for the first two UHQRs, they used the current Geffen label for the vinyl. I am going to bet that this was something Universal insisted on, rather than using the period-correct ABC labels. One thing I noticed with the press release is that they did bend a little towards nostalgia with the Aja label, at least getting the ABC "bullseye" colors of the original AA and AB pressings that are now coveted. Still irks me to see the Geffen logo though.

Given that the ABC records logo includes the ABC Television Network logo, I wonder if Disney either wouldn't allow it or wanted big bucks for its use.

 

[Rudy]

Given that the ABC records logo includes the ABC Television Network logo, I wonder if Disney either wouldn't allow it or wanted big bucks for its use.

Who knows? I've seen some vinyl reissues of RCA titles. Many remove the Nipper/gramophone logo, while others keep it. Something to do with EMI in the UK. Analogue Productions always leans towards authenticity and never seems to have an issue with most other labels. I could find out next time I cross paths with Chad.

 

[AM Matt]

Also the short lived ABC Records ("Note") logo 1978 - 1979!!

 

[DeeInKY]

I’ll finally get to see them since they are appearing with the Eagles on the Long Goodbye tour and I have tickets.

 

[Rudy]

I’ll finally get to see them since they are appearing with the Eagles on the Long Goodbye tour and I have tickets.

This would be appropriate:

"Turn up the Eagles the neighbors are listening..."



(At 1:37....)

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Who knows? I've seen some vinyl reissues of RCA titles. Many remove the Nipper/gramophone logo, while others keep it. Something to do with EMI in the UK. Analogue Productions always leans towards authenticity and never seems to have an issue with most other labels. I could find out next time I cross paths with Chad.

Yeah, but in the ABC Records case, it's a trademarked logo that has never gone out of use:



The ABC Records logo of 1977.





ABC Television logo 1962-present.



Universal owns the Geffen trademark, but a direct competitor (Disney) owns the ABC. At the very least they'd have to ask permission, and what I know about Disney suggests they're unlikely to say "Steely Dan reissues? Cool! Use our logo for free!"

("M-I-C....see ya in court...K-E-Y....Why? Because we own the intellectual property! M-O-U-S-E")

 

[Rudy]

Yeah, but in the ABC Records case, it's the use of a trademarked logo that has never gone out of use:

Same with a lot of reissues, though---logos are still in use even after ownership (and even usage) has changed hands X number of times, and some of the bigger reissue labels have no problem getting permission to use them. It's either Universal insisting "Geffen all the Steely Dan things" (which IMHO is likely as their own 180g digital-sourced reissues are all Geffen-branded and they might insist on uniformity) but ABC's owner indeed might be the stick in the mud here as well. In addition, Universal holds the upper hand--if you don't bow to their wishes, you don't get the master tapes, and Steely Dan reissues are in extremely high demand since their catalog has been neglected or poorly reissued over the past few decades.

I'll find out for sure from AP next time I pay them a visit. Otherwise we're just guessing.

 

[Michael Hagerty]

Same with a lot of reissues, though---logos are still in use even after ownership (and even usage) has changed hands X number of times, and some of the bigger reissue labels have no problem getting permission to use them.

Right, because they promote the still-existant labels with those logos. Disney isn't in the record business. There's no upside to the use of the ABC Records logo for them apart from licensing.

It's Disney. It's Bob Iger. Nothing is free and not much is cheap.

I'll find out for sure from AP next time I pay them a visit. Otherwise we're just guessing.

 

[AM Matt]

This would be appropriate:

"Turn up the Eagles the neighbors are listening..."



(At 1:37....)

"Where did the bastard run"???

 

[Electroliner]

I’m on tap for the Hybrid SACD Aja release. However, I’m thinking I may purchase the Vinyl as well.

 

[Rudy]

I’m on tap for the Hybrid SACD Aja release. However, I’m thinking I may purchase the Vinyl as well.

That is the one title I'll preorder on vinyl, as I'm betting it will be the first to sell out. Latest note on the Acoustic Sounds site is that there are 25,000 of Aja being pressed with the others being 20,000, so they're anticipating more demand for the title.

Bit of a disclaimer though. They press a fair number more than what they specify, but they reject a number of them for even small things like a flaw on the label. (When I visited in May, they were running disc 2 of Preztel Logic on one of the presses and the operator discarded one for a scratched label.) They have a few quality assurance stages after the records are pressed also, even during packaging, so everyone is watching for visible defects along the way.

The only issue I've encountered with the UHQRs was that Can't Buy A Thrill had a "whistling" on disc one. I'd asked my pal about it and he said, "Oh, you got one of those." Bernie recut the record and it's all taken care of, but the guess was that the screw on the lathe that moves the cutting head needed lubrication, and that faint squealing sound made it onto the lacquer.

A less probable cause would have been the cutting head "losing chip," meaning the curls and chips of the vinyl were not caught by the vacuum and a small chunk of one adhered to the hot cutting stylus. (Although in my experience, this second issue causes more of a problem with bad sibilance, which is what most likely made Herb Alpert's Spanish Moon vinyl sound so bad.)

As for Can't Buy a Thrill, that's one case where a test pressing inadvertently passed through quality control without detecting the noise. It's faint, but audible between tracks and during the runout.

I'll eventually get the SACDs down the road a bit. Vinyl sells out quickly but they usually have these SACDs around for a while longer.

 

[Rudy]

I’m on tap for the Hybrid SACD Aja release. However, I’m thinking I may purchase the Vinyl as well.

A week and a half until the vinyl is released (9/29). I'm debating paying the shipping and getting it directly from Acoustic Sounds, or waiting the 2-4 weeks for it to arrive at Music Direct or The In Groove, both of whom cover the free shipping. (Acoustic Sounds keeps an exclusive window on their releases.) I only want to jump on Aja in case it sells out. I doubt it will, but there hasn't been an audiophile release of this since the Cisco pressing and there will be a lot of demand for it. Of all the titles, this is the one they are pressing the most copies of.

Aja on SACD will probably arrive in December, as they seem to lag about three months behind the vinyl. But I did a quick comparison of the old Hoffman-mastered MCA CD and an existing SACD version and they are close. It will be interesting to see if Universal's high-res release of Aja sounds on par with those. I compared both Can't Buy a Thrill and Countdown to Ecstasy on the new SACD releases to Universal's high-res releases and they are so close that in my case, I wonder if the SACD is worth it. (I guess it depends on whether Bernie mastered the SACDs directly from the analog tapes, which I'm sure Chad would insist on since he never wants a digital source for his products. Yet Bernie also mastered the high-res digital versions that Geffen is using for the high-res download/streaming versions as well as cutting the vinyl from.)

I've seen a few reviews saying that the UHQR Pretzel Logic doesn't sound so great. I gave the high-res a listen last night and it's not bad. (Geffen released their vinyl and digital high-res versions the same day as the UHQR.)

I'll have more time this coming weekend to compare digital versions I have on hand.

And yeah, it won't be a pleasant month with the UHQR Aja and the Phil Collins Face Value (in the Atlantic 75 series) arriving the following week.

 

[Harry]

Herb Alpert's Spanish Moon vinyl sound so bad

We've had this conversation in multiple places, and today I just dug out the vinyl for UNDER A SPANISH MOON. You know, playing it today, it sounded pretty decent most of the way through side one. "Ancient Source" has Lani's vocals and there are a couple of instances of sibilance, but heck, I'm so used to sibilance on Lani's own 80s LPs that it's second nature to me.

My thought is that if all of the pressed vinyl LPs are the same way, I wouldn't toss it - just learn to live with it for the few times you'll play it. And the CDs are OK with me anyway.

 

[Rudy]

Both of my copies are really bad. But now that I know what the issue probably was, it was a defect that happened during vinyl cutting and nobody did any quality control with a test pressing to notice the issue.

 

[Rudy]

From the Tracking Angle site...



Michael Fremer's initial impression is that Analogue Productions knocked this out of the park.

Gonna go preorder it before it sells out. It's one of those records where, if I had the extra cash, I'd stockpile a dozen copies and double my money reselling them when they go out of print. The pressing run is 30,000 copies.

 

[GDBY2LV]

So you’re getting the UHQR version of this album?
Expensive, but it will be huge if so.

 

[Rudy]

So you’re getting the UHQR version of this album?
Expensive, but it will be huge if so.

It's one of the few must-have recordings in my collection and if this version finally makes it sound its best, I'm all for it. To hear all the subtle work of Steve Gadd's drumming on the title track will be a treat.

The Geffen LP is also out on the 29th, and I believe the high-res version will be as well. I have a handful of versions here so far but only two on vinyl.

And Face Value the following week... (At least it's not a UHQR. But, it will probably be mastered better than Atlantic's current version.)

 

[GDBY2LV]

We played Aja & Gaucho to death in the record store Can’t But A Thrill Too . A favorite of most all the employees. Worth the money if you’ll play it often. I got mine from The In Groove. They say 9/29, free shipping. I can wait a couple of weeks if they run late. Hoping it’s amazing as they’re promising.

 

[Rudy]

Other retail stores likely won't get it for a few weeks after 9/29 so it might run a little late. But as I say with everything these days--I went all my life not having it. What's a few more days.

One reason I want to get it ASAP is that I may have two road trips coming up in October and I don't want it to sit outside if nobody is here. And not knowing how fast it will sell, I don't want to wait until November to order it. (Aja's pressing run is 30,000 copies; all the others are 20,000.) It sucks that Acoustic Sounds charges shipping on it. I could possibly phone in the order for pickup (I usually stop to visit a friend of mine who works there if I pass through Salina KS) but I'm not sure which route I would be taking yet.

Gaucho is next and arrives Dec. 1.

BTW, Mobile Fidelity had released The Nightfly in their OneStep series back in 2017 and I believe it sold out rather quickly. On Discogs, the cheapest used copy available is $300, and the cheapest sealed copy is $465, with the most expensive by some nutjob who thinks he can get $2,000 for it.

The 2007 Cisco pressing of Aja which was probably $25-$30 new, now starts at $195 used and $389 sealed, the most expensive being €919.04 from a seller in Australia.

So yeah...Aja could similarly become a part of someone's retirement investments.

 

[Rudy]

FWIW, speaking of completely unrelated lost opportunities...

The day the Nintendo Switch came out, I visited a handful of stores starting around 9:30am and all were sold out. I stopped at a store I frequented for groceries (they also have clothing, automotive items like fluids/filters/wipers/cleaning supplies, some home, hardware, and garden supplies, and an electronics department among other things) and come to find out, they had ten of them in stock. Needless to say I grabbed one immediately, but had second thoughts right after I left the store--I could have grabbed three more, sold them for a big profit, and that would have paid for my own with some money left over. It took quite a while for production to catch up since it became insanely popular.