Album Reviews

Seven years ago (2014) Sony/Legacy reissued for Record Store Day a swell version of Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years, mastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed at RTI. It was positively reviewed on this site.

Re-visiting the album, which won two 1975 Grammys for Album of the Year and Male Pop Vocal, now makes clear a few things: the first is the connection between the title track and Simon's "Saturday Night Live" relationship. As I wrote in that review, Michael Brecker's title tune sax solo essentially became Lenny Pickett's finale music and the song has the SNL vibe. The additional years also makes clear that while the production is less fussy than on There Goes Rhymin' Simon, it still has a studio gloss that unsurprisingly makes it sound more like a piano-centric Billy Joel album than one from Paul Simon. The Phil Ramone connection makes that so. With his marital break-up fresh, Simon was at low ebb and some of the songs reflect that. There are hints of Jackson Browne in the writing that I'd not previously picked up on, nor had I fully appreciated how full-throated and powerful was Simon's singing on the album.

So, how good is Mobile Fidelity's 45rpm "one step" mastering and RTI pressing? Compared to the original and the 2014 RSD edition? Rather than me telling you, you tell me! Below are 1 minute and change excerpts from all three versions you get to listen to "blind". As an additional bonus, you get to hear them played back on the $500,000 Air Force Zero turntable fitted with the SAT CF1-09 arm and Lyra's Atlas SL Lambda cartridge feeding CH Precision's P1/X1 phono preamp, the total cost of which is in excess of $600,000. All 3 versions should sound to you pretty damn good! The output of the darTzeel NHB-18NS preamp fed the Lynx HiLo A/D converter at 96/24 resolution.

I'm not here to tell you the digitized version sounds as good as "live", but since all 3 were digitized, it's a pretty fair test. The levels were not all identical and I made to attempt to normalize levels so that's up to you.If you hear a slight hum, remember I'm still waiting for my electricity and grounding upgrade. It's getting closer but that shouldn't affect your listen. Please comment and after a while I'll reveal the file identities.

File "1"

File "2"

File "3"

P.S.: I could find no mention of this album on the Music Direct website so either it's already sold out of it's limited edition pressing run, or it's not yet up for sale.