This is a partial record review and reviewing the experience of buying a record on Amazon.
I heard an album I liked on Pandora. It’s easy to press a few buttons on my phone, look it up, press a button, and it shows up at my door. It’s great to go to a record store, but they don’t always have the specific thing you want.
Two weeks later…it showed up. A slight warp, but otherwise good. Three of the four records I’ve bought on Amazon, have shown up warped. They weren’t bad enough to return, but that’s the risk you take. Maybe don’t buy in the hot summer. That being said, the first 180 Gram brand new record I ever bought, John Coltrane’s “Ballads”, was quite warped and had a few large pops. But it was too far to return it to the record store. Even at a record store, you can’t check new records, so it’s always a gamble.
Anyhow, the recent album “The Poll Winners” with Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne and Ray Brown was in decent shape. The sound quality was good, however, it has that to me, annoying mix with the guitar on one side and drums and bass on the other. There’s no center image, so your speakers don’t disappear at all. I think in this case a mono mix would be better. But the quality of the recording is nice, all very clear. The playing with the all star lineup is great. I heard the same rhythm section with Oscar Peterson recently at Don Naples house, and was blown away by how clear the bass sound was. Same on this record.
So should you buy records on Amazon? I’m not advocating that, support your local record store. However, I tend to buy used records at record stores which only supports the record store owner. That is fine though because we want more record stores. However, buying a brand-new album supports the artist as well wherever you buy it, Amazon or a record store. Therefore try to buy new whenever you can. Your welcome Mr. Bezos, I expect a check in the mail.