ABBA - Gold: Greatest Hits (Re-Release; 1992, [Re] 2014)

Alright, ladies and gentlemen, as weird as this may sound ... I like ABBA. This album is what actually got me into ABBA in the first place, when my mother had bought this CD back in 2000-2002 (I cannot for the life of me remember when she had purchased it).

And I took a huge chance ordering this record.

First, let me just say that I actually cannot find the version I ordered from Amazon.ca. The above photo is from the Back To Black series as we previously talked about with the BTB re-release of Dire Straits' claim-to-fame record "Brothers In Arms", and the notes listed here on Discogs.com gives me clearer indication of when around this record was repressed and re-released. I won't go into too much detail on why I know I have some sort of uncharted copy, but regardless I think it's the same deal.

At least, the records feel like 180g ... but it could be less. (Also, the frustrating fact that it's brand new vinyl, which simply taking the vinyl out of the sleeve causes static electricity, kind of makes me wonder if it's not even virgin. My "Brothers In Arms" record still does that to this day.)

Okay, anyway. Let's break it down, shall we? Here's the tracklisting:

• A1: Dancing Queen
• A2: Knowing Me, Knowing You
• A3: Take A Chance On Me
• A4: Mamma Mia
• A5: Lay All Your Love On Me
• B1: Super Trouper
• B2: I Have A Dream
• B3: The Winner Takes It All
• B4: Money, Money, Money
• B5: S.O.S.
• C1: Chiquitita
• C2: Fernando
• C3: Voulez-Vous
• C4: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
• D1: Does Your Mother Know
• D2: One Of Us
• D3: The Name Of The Game
• D4: Thank You For The Music
• D5: Waterloo

[I am not including the times of the songs due to the length of the tracklist.]

Right, so. That's the tracklist. Pretty much it includes all of the bands' biggest hits of their career as musicians. We pretty much know all of these songs (probably by heart, for the die-hards) especially from Mamma Mia! The Musical, and the movie based on the same Broadway show. The band was highly successful in the 70s and the 80s but due to rising complications within the band, they disbanded in the early 80s. The entire band claimed, though at this time working on solo projects, they would come back together for another album, yet one never transpired. Apparently, with everything that happened during the band's peak times, I don't blame them for not getting back together. Agnetha had a pretty solid, though slightly unsuccessful, solo career and still records album today, and Frida (the other 'A' in ABBA, her real name being Anni-Frid) had only one solo hit. Benny & Bjorn continued to make smash hits for other artists and rose to fame once again with the revival of ABBA's music with Mamma Mia! The Musical. Frida supported the show financially.

Cool.

So! That being said, and I'm sure you ALL know of ABBA's history already, let's get to the actual grading of this re-release of ABBA's greatest hits.

I remember listening to this CD back when my mother bought it. I was blown away by the sounds the band was able to produce, the melodies, the sound effects, the percussion... It opened up a whole new world for me in music. I do remember, specifically, the sound quality, which was pretty damn sweet. Surprisingly enough, the vinyl is actually able to compare quite easily to the CD release, which is awesome. I love it when vinyl quality and CD quality matches.

Now, let me just say that audiophiles will argue endlessly on which audio medium has the best sound quality. Mind you, I'm kind of jumping right into the middle of this by creating this blog and I just want to say that I am stating my own opinions. In no way am I a master of determining audio quality. If I like what I hear, then I'll post about it. If I have issues with it, I'm going to say something about it. It's kind of like friends helping each other out when the help is necessary. A small community of record collectors, new or old, should at least have someone say something about vinyl quality, right?

Okay. Now that that's out of the way, I have to say the vinyl quality of "Gold: Greatest Hits" is pretty amazing. The only issue I have is the reverb on the tracks. The vocals sound almost oddly distant, like someone moved the microphone away from the gals and turned up the echo on the vocals in post-production. I've had similar experiences with vocal tracks before on cassette tapes in certain car stereos (and for some reason, Reba McEntire and LeAnn Rimes' vocals are the worst for 80s - 90s car stereos). I felt like I was back in my mom's old '84 or '86 (can't remember which year) Ford Grand Marquis. The reverb I speak of is quite noticeable, so if you're not a fan of that, beware.

I just can't remember if the original CD sounded the same way, too. And of course I don't even have it on me at this moment in time. Damn. (Though I do have the CD ripped to my iTunes Library -- not nearly as noticeable as the vinyl, but it could be just iTunes and the bitrate I'm playing the music at.)

Anyway, that's all I really have to say that's bad with this record. It is quite a fantastic record and the fact that it's a 2-LP makes me feel kind of special. Discogs.com does feature this album on just one LP, allegedly released in Colombia, which makes it look kind of cool.

So! Here come the points and the conclusion:

• Sound Quality: 4.75 out of 5.
• Mastering: 4.25 out of 5.
• I just personally feel that the record could have been mastered better, and the reverb issue could have easily been avoided.
• Overall: 4.75 out of 5.

Once again, the Discogs.com listing is here.
You can purchase this vinyl record from Amazon.ca & Amazon.com.

Adele - 21 (Original Press, 2011)

Ahh, who doesn't love a little Adele in their lives? This artist came up virtually out of nowhere when Rolling In The Deep was first released as a single in 2010, and the play counts on radio were unbelievably high. This album charted at #1 and stayed within the top 3 albums for 23 weeks. As of July 2014, the album has sold over 10 million copies. Bravo, Adele, and congratulations!

The greatest thing about this album: it's been pressed on vinyl. So let's review the sound quality, shall we?

When I first bought this record from a widely known record shop, I was pretty stoked on it. It took me a while to get into Adele, but when I did I fell pretty hard for her voice and the blues-y tracks she produced. Something about her voice, man, sends chills down my spine. I can also closely relate to her music, just like the other 10-million-plus people who have bought this album I'm sure.

Anyway! Let's break it down. The tracklisting is as follows:

• A1: Rolling In The Deep (3.49)
• A2: Rumour Has It (3.43)
• A3: Turning Tables (4.10)
• A4: Don't You Remember (4.03)
• A5: Set Fire To The Rain (4.01)
• A6: He Won't Go (4.38)
• B1: Take It All (3.48)
• B2: I'll Be Waiting (4.01)
• B3: One And Only (5.48)
• B4: Lovesong (5.16)
• B5: Someone Like You (4.47)

The record features all the songs we've come to love, with the exact same versions we've heard millions of times before (by now, I'm sure). So, how does it play on a turntable?

The first four tracks go by smoothly. The longer the needle skims over the grooves, I'm impressed with what I hear. You have to understand to all those new to vinyl: to turn an audio recording that was mastered and recorded digitally onto vinyl is complicated. Sometimes, the final product isn't always so pleasant (aka trebles are terrible, bass sounds flat, etc.). I find it funny, however, that XL Recordings, the record label Adele is signed to, makes it seem like everything had been recorded onto vinyl first, THEN translated into a digital file. C'mon guys, some of us aren't so stupid! We know how this works.

Okay. Getting slightly off-track. Back to the sound. Yes.

The sound quality is pretty good for a digital-to-vinyl release, I'm not gunna lie. The bass is there, definitely (and thank God for that!), the trebles are just at the right level, and the dynamics are fantastic. Slightly quiet, but again, digital to vinyl. It was bound to happen. The pressing, however, makes for weird sound warbles while the music plays.

Let me explain what I mean. "Warbles" indicates when a turntable's needle is being pushed awkwardly, and the sound coming out of the turntable sounds slightly flat. It's not quite pleasant. This happens if, when a record is playing, someone applies pressure on the tip of the stylus of the tonearm. It apparently, as I've learned, happens if the pressing isn't up-to-snuff and is off-center.

Yes. This pressing experiences warbles. Very slight, and if I hadn't trained my ears years ago to different tones in music, I probably wouldn't have picked up on it. But I did, which worried me. I for sure thought it had something to do with my turntable. I mean, it can't be the record's fault, right? But apparently it is -- every other record I own with properly centered pressings do not warble. Oh, by pressings I mean those rings of grooves you see on the record is pressed onto vinyl and we record collectors call them pressings. :)

I find that this happens especially on the first side. I mean, six tracks with grooves tightly pressed... I can see how that would cause some issues. They had it mastered in the 80s, though! So, because of that, the last-half of Set Fire to the Rain and the entirety of He Won't Go experiences awkward warbles in places where notes are held for longer than two beats. For some reason, that grates on my nerves.

Flip the record and begin playing again ... ah, fresh and sounds good again! On my pressing, it's a little more centered than the first side and results in more even tones. Everything sounds great until, what?! My favorite Adele track, Someone Like You?!

Let me just vent a little. The track before, which is just as beautiful as Don't You Remember, sounds just as great as the rest of the record. Lovesong is a beautifully-built song that sings of how even in the typical troubles of relationships, love still gives us those butterflies and slightly crazy. Okay, cool. But Someone Like You was my anthem of 2011/2012 and I even tried to master singing it (not a good idea, by the way, and no, no audio recordings of a cover shall appear on this blog). On the record pressing though, it sounds slightly muddy. Like how an MP3 would sound at any bitrate lower than 320kbps. Which is odd for vinyl to sound -- vinyl usually sounds clearer. But it's honestly so slight that a regular listener wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Alright, so, here's your conclusion for this record pressing of Adele's highly-popular album "21": 

• Sound Quality: 4.25 out of 5.
• This scoring is due to the two things mentioned above.
• Mastering: 4.5 out of 5.
• Overall: 4.5 out of 5.

Link to Discogs.com listing here.
You can buy this vinyl record from CDUniverse.com, Amazon.ca & Amazon.com.