Soul Station Blue Note Classic Series

You probably already know this is a great album. The fantastic mastering on the Blue Note Classic reissue brings out incredible detail and beauty in the original recording.Problem is, a lot of the first pressing appears to be defective: scuffs, scratches, and lots of farty surface noise on the last track. I got 2 bad ones before I found a good one, and it was well worth the effort. Absolutely beautiful sound. Even my third copy has a tiny bit of crackle on that last track, but not enough to detract from the overall sound.

Love the saxophone sound on this record..... This pressing is dynamic with very little surface noise. Great sounding record. Blue Note Tone Poet series strikes again!

Any version of this album that may be superior, is prohibitively expensive.The following opinions go for the entire Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series.These are some of the most highly regarded jazz albums ever. Every one deserves to be in your collection.Although the quality of the jackets is less than spectacular, they are providing great pressings for the masses. The sound is as good or better than the boutique pressings costing three to four times as much.

This pressing is gorgeous and much better than the 75th edition. But it's the fifth time in less than a year that I receive records from Amazon with seam splits. This shows a tremendous lack of care in handling. This month they managed to send me Moanin' AND Soul Station, BOTH with seam splits. I'm just about giving up on ordering from Amazon, since in this case returning is not even possible as the record is sold out.

I love this album and as a beginner vinyl collector, it was disappointing for me to see that even though this is considered an “audiophile” pressing, the vinyl came scuffed despite having a poly lined paper sleeved that they changed from the regular paper sleeves they were doing on the earlier titles. There was also some bending/creasing on the jacket and a seam split at the top due to poor packaging. The sound quality, however, is great, especially for the price!

Scratched/scuffed, and record jacket badly creased. On TWO separate orders of the same record. And the recent Blakey too. read the Hoffman forums. A TON o people with same issues. Also non-fill/audible pressing defect on last track of Side 2.TOTALLY unacceptable

My copy was flawless, but beware that there are many reports in the music forums of micro scratches and dirty pressings. Obviously good ones are out there and it's worth trying to get one. Very impressive sound, one of the better Classic series releases so far.

Hank recorded many records for Blue Note, but pound for pound, this is right at the top IMHO. A Quartet record with a swingin' rhythm section of Blakey, Chambers, and Kelly- Hank blows great over this and he gives them some space to solo too. A FABULOUS edition to the BN Classic Vinyl Series...

Excellent pressing: perfectly flat and perfectly free of noise. And, top audio quality to boot. All of the 2020/21 Blue Note vinyls pressed in Europe that I have purchased so far have been of very good to excellent quality (indeed, I haven’t yet had to return a single one) but I think this latest issue might just pass as being flawless, as good as any LP I have ever purchased over the last 50 years. Not to mention the actual music ... !Anyway, well done Blue Note for making up for the generally dismal to appalling Blue Note 75 pressings.Keep reading!Subsequent to writing this review there is a but. Reading other reviews it is very disappointing to find that the experiences of others does not match mine. If what I have received has proven to be the very best of Blue Note’s recent pressings and yet what some people have received is felt by them to be amongst the worst, quality control obviously remains an issue which needs to be addressed. The justifiably negative reviews submitted on this basis fill me with a certain foreboding. I already have Cool Struttin’ and Back At The Chicken Shack on pre-order, based on my previous positive experiences, but the pleasure of anticipation is somewhat dampened by what I have read of other people’s continuing disappointments. £20 may not be very much money theses days but it is still enough for a purchaser of a vinyl record to expect to get the quality of product that I received on each and every purchase, particularly when an experience such as mine proves that there is evidently no obstacle to inhibit a manufacturer from achieving this high quality outcome. Amazon make the return process very easy and I would encourage anyone who receives a below par pressing to return it and not accept something that is even merely “tolerable”, let alone unacceptably faulty. I certainly don’t want to see a repeat of the Blue Note 75 line’s quality issues, and Blue Note need to see things in the same light (even if it isn’t directly Blue Note’s fault but an issue with the pressing plant they use). Such poor quality control harms their corporate reputation and shouldn’t be tolerated.27 June 2021. Received Cool Struttin’ and Back At The Chicken Shack yesterday. Both are almost perfect: two light clicks on the final track of the Jimmy Smith and a brief, slight sound early on in the first track of the Stanley Clarke, but these are both extremely trivial flaws. Phew!20 August 2021. Received Midnight Blue and Idle Moments today. After a great run of near flawless Blue Note Classic pressings, both of these suffer from surface noise issues. Fingers crossed on the replacements, which I have immediately requested (using Amazon’s UK customer service telephone number). Unfortunately, two faulty discs arriving simultaneously does fill me with a certain dread.

Firstly I'm pleased Blue note have listened to the criticism of the paper sleeves provided on previous releases and are offering poly lined sleeves on this release . Vinyl is nice and flat with no obvious imperfections, however under a bright light there are a number of fine visible scuffs marks on both sides - the mastering is excellent but the vinyl suffers from too many clicks and pops, which maybe due to the surface scuffs - I had no such issues with the Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter releases. Returning for a replacement

This isn't a review of the music, or indeed the outstanding mastering by Kevin Gray on these Blue Note reissues. I have bought several and they all sound amazing, well worth the money if you can get a copy without any pressing defects.Unfortunately this reissue series has been dogged by well documented quality control issues at the Optimal pressing plant in Germany.I have had to return this copy due to a large audible scratch across track 1 on side 1.This is totally unacceptable on a factory sealed record. Its clearly a failing of quality control at the pressing plant and outwith Amazons control. So this is being returned and hopefully I will have better luck with the replacement.On a positive, Amazon make it easy to return/replace faulty items.

Well it took a while but eventually I received a 'fit for purpose' copy of this Blue Note Classic. Initially purchased this in a brick & mortar store, got it home and discovered there was horrible distortion throughout side 2 caused by very small white lines (a pressing defect known as 'non-fill' as I later discovered). Returned the LP to the shop for a replacement and lo and behold, that one was the same. Returned that and the shopkeeper let me open a further 2 copies in the shop (so 4 in total now!) and they were all the same! I then gave up and accepted a credit note. When I saw Soul Station was back in stock at Amazon I decided to order it, as I still wanted the album and its easier to return if the pressing was bad again (the brick & mortar shop is a 30 minute drive from me so is quite a hassle to keep returning vinyl there!) - thankfully the Amazon copy arrived today (my 5th copy!) and its absolutely perfect. I know Blue Note have had words with Optimal about the poor pressings so I'm thinking this one could be from a new batch with better QC. Anyway, if you're willing to gamble and play Blue Note 'roulette' with these I hope you get a perfect copy, it's a great album and I'm glad I persevered!

This item was bought as a gift and although there is no obvious external damage it arrive in just a brown paper package without even a "Fragile" notice!!A delicate vinyl record should always be dispatched in a secure solid cardboard box for protection. We now do not know if the record is warped and if it is in a good enough condition to give as a gift.