tak1 ... as the Recording Industry moved from tube equipment to solid state ... say from late 60’s to late 70’s, it took almost a decade for sound engineers to get "the bugs" out of the ss equipment which is why recordings from the 80’s generally sound better than those from the 70’s ... There were some exceptions however in the 70’ ... but there are many LPs from that decade that were just horrible ... love Jethro Tull’s Agualung, but that album along with say, what Boston (another great group) put out .... terrible .... seem to be representative generally .... so much mush.
I think you’re mistaken. There have always been badly made records. After all, it’s much easier to get it wrong than it is to get it right. In general, I think what you may be noticing is record pressing quality, which in the ’70s was affected by oil embargoes. There was a lot of bad vinyl at that time - some of it recycled, and sometimes with flecks of record labels in the mix - and I still have some examples of it.
In particular, your mention of the Boston album rather proves my point. That is an extraordinarily well recorded and produced LP, but most pressings don’t really reveal it. CBS Mastersound released a half-speed pressing of that LP that is a sonic masterpiece.
