Waka / Jawaka is a good sounding Zappa record.
Tim from University of Vinyl on YouTube does a good job of delving into finding the best pressings of classic titles on vinyl.
Revisiting Old Albums
My old friend willed me his 60s, 70s, 80s albums. They are in very good condition. Some have the "Last" coating.
I nor he were big Zappa fans. Just listened to his radio play songs in a rare moment.
So FZ's Apostrophie ( see what I did there, lol) is in the collection. For old time sake I gave it a spin. Now I have a very respectable Mid Fi system. Brings out the best or worst of recordings. This was 1st time I heard this lp on a good system and I was like wow, this is a good recording. I got a whole new appreciation for Zappa. Great rock guitar riffs fused with crazy jazz along with twisted and or funny lyrics.
This was a gem in the collection though. Alot of the recordings from that era are just ok at best. Seems to be hit or miss. No particular band or label that stand out. A few other goodies are ZZ Tops El Loco, Billy Joel The Stranger, Phil Collins Face Value.
Sadly the whole Zepplin collection not so good, Asia Asia, Eric Clapton Layla, Utopia Utopia are terrible recordings. Maybe there are some MoFi versions out there that give these great songs new life.
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I ll have to try streamed versions of Zappa. Unfortunately alot of streamed old music doesnt sound great either. I dont want to buy 50 year old albums that are most likely in fair condition at best, but Ill keep an eye out next time I go to a used record shop for a nice clean copy of one of the recommended lps. As I mentioned, my old friends records were very well kept , but alot of so so quality recordings. |
@grinnell For sure, there is alot of range on that album. Ive always been intrigued on the Montana song how deep and clear his voice is. Never heard a vocal like that on any recording before. Far from Zappa, I did an A,B,C compare lastnight to test my new tube DAC. Used Stan Getz/Asturd Gilerto's Girl from Iapanema. I have the MoFi 200 gram 44rpm vinyl, standard cd and Qobuz stream. I was pleasently surprised how extremely close all 3 sound now.
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