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Fleetwood Mac-45RPM Vinyl Review
Fleetwood Mac 45RPM 180gram vinyl – Released April 2012
Vinyl surface noise: 5 (not pops and clicks)
Dynamic Range: 4+
Stereo Imaging: 4+
Image depth/perspective: 4
Overall frequency response: 4+
Side One
- Monday Morning
- Warm Ways
- Blue Letter
Side Two
- Rhiannon
- Over My Head
- Crystal
Side Three
- Say you Love Me
- Landslide
- World Turning
Side Four
- Sugar Daddy
- I’m So Afraid
This album was originally released on the Reprise Record label and recorded and mixed in 1975 at Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, Los Angeles. It was Fleetwood Mac’s tenth release and first chart topping album, spawning the release of three top twenty singles; Rhiannon, Over My Head, and Say You Love Me. It has been re-released numerous times and went Platinum seven. This version was remastered by Bernie Grundman Studios as a 45RPM, limited edition, double album using the original master tapes. It was pressed by Pallas on 180gram vinyl and released in April 2012.
This classic rock album has stood the test of time, as have many of Fleetwood Macs albums. Did the improved mastering and pressing provide this album with a new lease on life?
Musician Line Up:
Lindsey Buckingham – Guitars, Vocals
Christine McVie – Keyboards, Vocals
Stevie Nicks – Vocals
John McVie – Bass
Mick Fleetwood – Drums, Percussion
There isn’t much to say musically about this album that hasn’t been said before, so I will concentrate my comments on the sound quality and engineering. Musically the album is a little ‘rough around the edges’, but the musicianship is tight, the vocals occasionally ‘edgy’, with the overall sound very much a studio recording. It is a good mix of tracks, from slow bluesy to chart pop, with plenty of solos from each member of the group.
Despite being a child of the sixties and owning many of Fleetwood Macs albums, I do not own this one, so I cannot compare this pressing to anything concrete. Based upon what I remember of my time in the studio business during the 70’s and 80’s this album sounds just about ‘par for the course’. With only two or three tracks per side I am sure that during this mastering process every last bit of dynamics and frequency response was extracted from the old analog masters. The resulting dynamics are clean and good, but certainly not reference.
Most pop studio recordings rarely provide significant image depth, this recording is no different. The imaging was good for all instruments, solo and backing vocals, with the kit taking its rightful place behind the vocal lines. Several guitar and keyboard riffs provided an improved depth perspective having additional reverb and level refinement. Some of the track tail outs are quite extraordinary in their length, and clarity, thanks to the low vinyl noise. However, I did notice on at least two tracks, S2T1 & S4T1, that during the tail out there was what sounded to be distortion in the decaying vocal and guitar levels.
The vinyl was very quite on lead ins and between all tracks, with only S4 providing a very low level of discernible rumble and ‘whooshing’ that was only evident after track 2 finished. The most notable issue on my system was that I found the mid and upper mid range often too prominent making vocals occasionally hard and causing the snare and hi-hat to move to the front of the mix. I even re-listened to several tracks again using my custom 10dB roll-off from 20Hz to 20KHz but that just seemed to make the sound thicker and more muffled, still leaving the vocal mid-range, in particular, prominent and hard compared to the rest of the mix.
Overall the sound was very open with the vocals having great presence and clarity due to their excessive mid range, almost pushing them into my room and providing a very forceful center image. Reverb was very apparent throughout the mix providing detailed decays on both instruments and vocals alike. The kit was well clustered between my speakers with a well damped kick drum, little beater sound, and provided good slam and punch on several tracks, S2T2 and the S3T3 solo. The electric bass was clean and detailed with little coloration, being well integrated with the kick drum. The snare and hi-hat were well detailed but often too forward, with the snare drum often seeming like all snare and no drum. Cymbals were clean, bright and detailed while all the toms provided tight short decays. Other percussion instruments included tambourine and congas on several tracks. The congas being very crisp with little ringing and the tambourine having a well detailed HF.
This album, despite its new mastering, high grade pressing and 45RPM is clearly not in the same class as many of my Direct To Disc recordings. However, it sounds like Bernie Grundman Studios got everything they could off the tape and into the vinyl. As audiophile pressings go, this is a very good pressing with good dynamics, frequency response and low surface noise. However, while it is musically a pleasure to listen to, it is let down on my system by the hard mid-range resulting in a recording that is not demonstration material – YMMV.
If you already own one of the many other releases of this album I am not too sure that you need to add this to your collection. If you are looking to add an audiophile version of Fleetwood Mac to your vinyl stash then this version is probably as good as it gets.
Available on vinyl and CD from Discogs.
