the most expensive album ever bought..

Certif1ed wrote: "First Utterance" has been re-released on vinyl before - beware, the first re-issue is awful!   The deal with First pressings is that they are the very closest you can get to the original sound, as they came from the original mix on the original master tape - the trick with an audiophile collector like me is to find an early pressing with the earliest stamper numbers on;   If you understand the vinyl LP manufacturing process, then you'll realise that the first stampers are going to sound better than later stampers, due to wear on the mothers.   That rather fine-detail aside, later runs (2nd pressings and so on) are invariably packaged more cheaply and made with cheaper materials - the vinyl is typically thinner, and thinner vinyl means less up and down movement of the stylus, which equates to a thinner, less detailed sound.   Late 1970s/oil crisis pressings are worst of all.   Recently there has been a trend for 180g pressings and so on. This is all laudable, but other details need to be taken into consideration, such as the quality of the vinyl itself, and the original source of the music.   The very best re-issues are re-mastered at half speed from the original master tapes - some of these can actually be better than first pressings (but only if the first presing was on inferior vinyl).   So it depends, really...

MikeEnRegalia wrote: ^ what's the deal with these "first pressings" ... do they sound better, or is it just a collectors thing?BTW: First Utterance was recently re-released on vinyl ... I might even buy it!

Depends on the album.

COURTYARD MUSIC GROUP, for instance, has never been reissued and was only a 100 copies pressing, so it owes its value to both extreme scarcity and musical excellence.

The TUDOR LODGE album, in contrast, owes its value (anything up to £400) solely to the fact that it was on Vertigo and came with a stunning 36" x 36" fold-out die-cut poster cover. Had it been on a mainstream record label and issued in a standard sleeve, it would sell for a fraction of the price, as it is musically very unremarkable (and has been reissued several times).

Despite its presence on this site, TUDOR LODGE has nothing whatever to do with progressive rock or progressive folk. It' a collection of fey, orchestrated folk/pop songs about lovely days out at Kew Gardens and the likes, and is very much a product of the late hippie era. Two tracks stand out: "Willow Tree", which has an acid-folk feel, and "The Lady's Changing Home", which is an excellent melodic rocker in late BEATLES vein (with electric guitar leads and without any strings, which sets it apart from the rest of the album).

55 $

Atheist - Unquestionable Presence

Bought it on ebay several years ago, two years before the reissues.