Sold Date: April 23, 2023
Start Date: April 18, 2023
Final Price: $98.00 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 335
Buyer Feedback: 0

Here's the thing about Loaded: it's one of the recordings you really need to own ON VINYL and not in the reissue either. The original record mastering is so much more dynamic and beautiful than anything you can hear on streaming or anywhere in the digital domain. This isn't always true, and isn't even true of the first two VU albums, but this one is exceptional and you may cry. I mean you may not, it all depends on you.

Some of the old school record cutters (the geezers who took the original master tape, copied it to an LP master adding the RIAA curve and maybe secretly a little more EQ here and there depending on the ears of the engineer, and then hit Play as they lowered a cutting lathe onto a blank disc) were real artists. Watching the grooves appear through a scope, while dealing with the thread of discarded wax coming off the surface, they adjusted the width and density of the grooves MANUALLY, by ear, based on the most dynamic sound they could get, but always knowing when to pull back so the punters' GE phonographs wouldn't be thrown out of the groove. All this is done by a rather simple computer program now, but...some of these humans were geniuses. Very little appreciated, but proud enough of their work to sign their initials to the run-out groove. This cut looks like it's initialled GS. Whoever GS was, we have to thank them. This disc sounds so great.

As for the condition, the vinyl is glossy, with a short and minor scratch that creates a light tick on some of "Train Round the Bend." There's also some light inaudible scuff. VG+

The sleeve shows a little rough patch on the back, and a split at the top that I only just noticed while photographing. Also a bit of wear on the bottom edge, nothing much. VG+

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