Audiophile Vinyl

Van Halen
Fair Warning
Mobile Fidelity UD1S 2-035 (two 45rpm One-Step LPs)

Released in 1981, Van Halen’s fourth studio effort had a slightly confusing commercial life. It sold two million-plus copies but didn’t hit No 1 in the USA – that would happen five years later with a run of four chart-toppers in a row – while ‘So This Is Love?’, taken from this set, didn’t even crack Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. Despite this, critics were kind because Fair Warning was varied and in some ways more mature than its predecessors – by this time, David Lee Roth was showing his cartoony tendencies, but Eddie Van Halen was growing more experimental. Is it worth One-Step treatment? Absolutely, if hard rock, hot transient attack, rock-solid lower registers and visceral percussion float your boat. KK

Sound Quality: 90%

Christone Kingfish Ingram
Hard Road
Red Zero Records RZR-0001 (coloured vinyl)

Twenty-six-year-old Ingram, or ‘Kingfish’ for short, is the freshest, most inspirational of new-wave bluesmen, along with Anthony Gomes and others born long after the British revived the genre. This spectacular LP, Ingram’s fourth, preserves all the electric blues tropes, but seasons the mix with guitar-hero-level playing, smoothness that wouldn’t be out of place on a Marvin Gaye set and enough soul/funk elements to make you think it was recorded for Stax. The 11 original tracks are all winners, suggesting Ingram was immersed in the blues from birth. And the LP’s title? Consciously or not, it pays homage to John Mayall’s second album with the Bluesbreakers. Respect. KK

Sound Quality: 90%

Stone Temple Pilots
Tiny Music... Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop
Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-593 (two 45rpm LPs)

Grunge and indie – like thrash metal, punk and most rap/hip-hop albums – beg questions about sound quality. Yet STP’s third, from 1996, merits deluxe treatment because it departed just enough from pure grunge (is there such a thing?), the band seemingly delighting in the possibilities afforded by moving into new musical areas. This is a honey of an LP, especially for those who revel in neo-psychedelia, edgy pop, straight rock and others which eschew the low-fi trappings of grunge celebrated by the likes of Nirvana. If anything, this is a potpourri of styles which must have shocked fans of the earlier albums. Sound-wise? Far better than you might expect. KK

Sound Quality: 85%

Supertramp
Crime Of The Century/Crisis? What Crisis?
A&M 00602475450924/00602475456193 (180g vinyl)

Supertramp’s third and fourth LPs, from 1974/5, didn’t quite reach the can’t-avoid-it hi-fi show demo heights of 1979’s Breakfast In America, but both are of a similar level of audiophilic delight. This pair hasn’t just been pressed on 180g vinyl: the label has employed half-speed mastering, which seems to be back in vogue after a few decades in the wilderness (aside, that is, from the ‘Abbey Road’ series of reissues). Those old enough will recall instantly ‘Bloody Well Right’, ‘Dreamer’ and pretty much the entire track listings of both, and they remain exemplars of tight harmony, studio wizardry and the kind of detail that separates the wheat from the chaff. KK

Sound Quality: 90%