Billy Joel – The Stranger

Ok, I am somewhat of a newbie with a med to low end system. It sounds ok to me. But I do find myself throughout the listen of adjusting me treble and bass here and there to try to find the right sound.

The mastering is actually quite decent. The pressing is poor quality... flat but scruffy and noisy with tics and rips even after wash cleaning. I wish i had returned it when i bought it years ago!

Having the Mofi 2xLP and SACD renders this even more worthless.

This versions sounds excellent to me. Nice flat pressing. Better than I ed it. Quite good for reg price.

This is a rarity for legacy because they usually rock but I’m not really digging this pressing. Comparing it to my OG us, the US press just sounds much more punchy and full and dynamic

This was $25, my OG US was $7

I’m fortunate it seems. My copy, purchased on Amazon for $20 new sounds very nice. Flat as a pancake and absolutely no problem with distracting crackles or pops. Wonderful album. Hopefully others will also abound the apparent glut of poorer copies of this marvelous record. Not mentioned anywhere on this listing is that my copy is 180g.

Scratches and pops all over my copy. It’s almost unbearable. Sad part is that on the clean portions it sounds amazing. Hoping a repress or reissue comes sooner than later

There must have been a bad batch of these. Fortunately for me, I got a good copy.

Wondering what the hell happened to some of the copies that other s here got. This pressing sounds fantastic through my setup. No noise at all. vocals sound good, highs and lows both sound good. One of my favorite records in my collection.

Every artist has that one album where everything just comes together. The Stranger is that album for Billy Joel. His fifth record, Joel was in danger of being dropped by Columbia following his previous release Turnstiles, which despite having strong songs, did not sell as well as expected. Joel initially turned to Beatles producer George Martin, but talks broke down when Joel insisted on using his touring band as his studio musicians to try and capture some of the magic of his live shows. Instead, Phil Ramone came aboard as producer (following a meeting at the namesake Italian Restaurant), and the recording sessions turned out to be "a blast" and created some of the best songs in Joel's entire catalog. In fact, following the release of The Stranger, George Martin wrote Joel and itted that he was wrong. The album revitalized Joel's career and he became one of the biggest artists of the 80s and early 90s. The Stranger is an album that deserves to be played straight through, an enjoyable music journey through New York through the music of Billy Joel. I personally found this release to sound much better than many of my fellow reviewers. It has good dynamics and balance and the instrumentation has excellent separation. I do have a complaint similar to others that despite washings, it is still a bit noisy, but the songs more than make up for it.

I have to disagree with some of the comments here. No question about some cracks and pops sometimes are anyoing so the quality of the pressing is not the best. But mastering I consider is very good, dynamic, punchy, nice separation and great soundstage.

I will do a deep wet clean and I'm sure many of that surface noise will disappear

By they way I consider I have a pretty decent system:

Transrotor Jupiter TT
Hana SL cart
Goldnote PH10 phono
Synthesis Soprano Amp
Chario Lynx Speakers

IG: @vinylytics