"Famous Blue Raincoat"..


...what's all the praise about?

I have a mint US Cypress copy, (I'm trying to remember if this one or the Canadian issue was praised the most). I listened to some of it today. While it is "clean & clear", it has that digital, uninvolving edge that kind of turns me off.

Being Thanksgiving and all, and since I always pull out Suzanne Vega's "Solitude Standing" this time of year, ("Fancy Poultry Parts"), I thought I'd make a comparison. They are both from the digital recording age. (SV from 87' - JW from 86').

Playing the JW, I was thinking, very critically, not really enjoying the listen, the experience, the music.

SV, now, this is a totally different listening experience! It sounds great! Nothing edgy, nothing sterile, nothing out of the ordinary. It is in fact an lp I hold in the highest regard, still.

The SV should really be the lp commanding the high prices. Thankfully it is available to us, the ones who love music, for a reasonable price.
slaw

Showing 2 responses by dayglow

Jennifer Warnes voice and style of music is much more comparable to Linda Ronstadt then Suzanne Vega. As for the sound quality of "FBR" it has to be in the top 5% of the close to 1000 recordings I own. It's not a warm hazy/lazy analog type of recording but even with it's slight "sharpness" the content of the music is not diminished.
Frogman great post(6-14)! Analog vs. digital is NOT as simple as good vs. evil. I really enjoy many early digital recordings made on the 32-track 3M system. The Nightfly and Swing of Delight(Carlos Santana) are perfect examples. Are these perfect recordings... NO! IMO the weakness with early digital recordings is in the frequency extremes. The bass is soft(restricting dynamics) and the treble is sharp, but the midrange can have a real(human)texture even if it's a bit "glassy". FWIW most early digital recording are near awful but there are many exceptions with FBR being one of them.