We're big fans of this album here at Better Records. It's the only thing Jennifer Warnes ever did that we would consider a Must Own recording or . In my humble opinion, it's clearly both.

This copy showed us the famous Blue Raincoat magic we know and love. The drums are big and punchy with plenty of WHOMP and the sound of skins being thwacked. Jennifer's voice is clear and breathy. If you know the record well you will surely be amazed at just how good this music can sound on a pressing as hot as this one.

What The Best Sides Of Famous Blue Raincoat Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear

• The biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space
• The most Tubey Magic, without which you have almost nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes even as late as
• Tight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low
• Natural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre
• Transparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space

No doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. Playing the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above, and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.

Key Test for Side One

Listen to the snare drum on "Bird on a Wire." On most copies, it sounds thin and bright, not very much like a real snare. Let's face it: most copies of this record are thin and bright, and that's just not our sound here at Better Records. If the snare on "Bird" sounds solid and meaty, at the very least you have a copy that is probably not too bright, and on this album that puts it well ahead of the pack.

While you're listening for the sound of that snare, notice the amazing drum work of Vinnie Colaiuta, session drummer extraordinaire. The guy's work on this track -- especially with the high hat -- is genius.

Key Test for Side Two

Listen to the sound of the piano on "Song of Bernadette." If it's rich and full-bodied with the weight of a real piano, you might just have yourself a winner. At the very least you won't have to suffer through the anemically thin sound of the average copy.

What To Listen For On Famous Blue Raincoat

Less grit -- smoother and sweeter sound, something that is not easy to come by on Famous Blue Raincoat.

A bigger presentation -- more size, more space, more room for all the instruments and voices to occupy. The bigger the speakers you have to play this record the better.

More bass and tighter bass. This is fundamentally a rock record. It needs weight down low to rock the way the artists, engineers and producers wanted it to.

Present, breathy vocals. A veiled midrange is the rule, not the exception.

Good top end extension to reproduce the harmonics of the instruments and details of the recording including the studio ambience.

Last but not least, balance. All the elements from top to bottom should be heard in harmony with each other. Take our word for it, assuming you haven't played a pile of these yourself, balance is not that easy to find.

Our best copies will have it though, of that there is no doubt.

Vinyl Condition

Mint Minus Minus is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)

Those of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of later pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic of these wonderful originals.

If you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.

Track Commentary

The Tracklist tab above will take you to a select song breakdown for each side, with plenty of What to Listen For advice.

Other records with track breakdowns can be found .

A Must Own Pop Record

We consider this Jennifer Warnes album her . It's a recording that should be part of any serious popular music collection.

Others that belong in that category can be found .

A Tough Record to Play

This album also ranks close to the top of our . Do not attempt to play it using anything other than the highest quality equipment.