Billy Joel – 52nd Street

Is it me or does this lack bass? Compared to the blue swirl Billy at 50 pressing its better in every respect but lacks low end body. Then theres the MoFi SACD which has alot more bottom end and gets close in other respects. Neither one of the above ticks all my boxes annoyingly.

Found this one digging in the bins at my local shop for 12 bucks, in the shrink with hype in EX condition. Sounds AMAZING. I just gotta give it a nice cleaning to get rid of a little dust hiding in the grooves. The first 3 tracks are dynamite. You can't go wrong with 52nd St!

The opening trio of songs on 52ND STREET sums up Billy Joel in a nutshell...the attempt to be a rocker ("Big Shot"), the killer piano ballad ("Honesty"), and the catchy pop tune ("My Life"). And they're all great songs, as is the Spector-esque "Until The Night". This 1978 Keel pressing sounds mighty fine, with solid range from top to bottom, a lot of detail to the instrumentation and vocals, and a wide, cinematic soundstage. My copy is in beautiful shape, very clean and quiet, save for a wisp of faint surface noise at the beginning of each side.

Blows the MOFI 45 out of the water. Perfectly EQ'd. Dynamics and punch. Hell yes. Buy one if you can. Worth any price if this is your jam.

I've a "mystery to me" matrix copy.
Side one: PXTAL 35609 1A (scratch out A?) 7 STERLING TJ
Side 2: oTI BL 35609 IAB STERLING TJ

I've listed it as "Terra Haute" for now.

Carson
Any assistance is appreciated.

An amazing sounding pressing, quiet pressing and very dynamic. not as good as the first Japanese pressing I have, but sooo close. A great sounding reissue you can get for less than £8.

Happened upon this and needed research due to the "apex" pressing. Excellent record, really big sound.

Mastering is good, surface noise is not. Overall it is still a good listen but quieter ages can be very noisy.

Absolutely flawless in every single way. Massive soundstage, tremendous detail — you can even hear the vocal grain in Billy’s voice track. Simply sublime, and has been in constant rotation ever since I purchased it. Buy it while people are selling it for less than $150.

The best pressing I have heard. Kevin Gray (a.k.a Dr Groove) weaves his magic. Beats my original pressing and the Mofi that I sold on due to lacklustre sound.