Albert King – Born Under A Bad Sign

"Born Under A Bad Sign" is a great signature track. Respectively, both King and members of the M.G.s are doing their best work. But King's voice is on the softer, higher side, and it feels a bit stark against the Staxy funk of Booker T. and the band. It's a strong Electric Blues album regardless, but I'm more obsessed with what this album inspired in the blues rock genre than what is found in this landmark album itself. But there's a lot of variety here and it's all extremely pleasant throughout. This early reissue sounds great! The Stax sound is protected and respected here.

File Name | Format | SR | Word Length | Max. TPL | LUFSi | DR (PMF) |

01-01 Born Under A Bad Sign | .aiff | 44.1k | 16 | +0.05 | -14.31 | 13 |
01-02 Crosscut Saw | .aiff | 44.1k | 16 | +0.02 | -15.58 | 13 |
01-03 Kansas City | .aiff | 44.1k | 16 | +0.08 | -16.84 | 15 |
01-04 Oh, Pretty Woman | .aiff | 44.1k | 16 | +0.06 | -15.59 | 14 |
01-05 Down Don't Bother Me | .aiff | 44.1k | 16 | +2.31 | -18.22 | 16 |
01-06 The Hunter | .aiff | 44.1k | 16 | +0.03 | -14.86 | 13 |
01-07 I Almost Lost My Mind | .aiff | 44.1k | 16 | +0.02 | -17.99 | 15 |
01-08 Personal Manager | .aiff | 44.1k | 16 | +0.02 | -17.54 | 13 |
01-09 Laundromat Blues | .aiff | 44.1k | 16 | +0.05 | -17.26 | 15 |
01-10 As The Years Go Passing By | .aiff | 44.1k | 16 | +0.08 | -19.06 | 16 |
01-11 The Very Thought Of You | .aiff | 44.1k | 16 | +0.02 | -18.47 | 14 |

Number of EP/Album Files: 11
Official EP/Album DR: 14

Not a bad pressing at all. As another reviewer said, not bad, but not great. Happy to have it in the collection and will definitely continue listening to it for years to come. No issues with warping/noise/etc. It’s an old ass album. It’s not gonna sound fantastically incredible regardless.

Pressing: 7.5/10

Based on information at this site: https://www.cvinyl.com/labelguides/atlantic.php this label matches records pressed in 1974/75

Not bad but not great… Doesn’t scream analog, I wonder if there was a digital pass to remove tape noise/hiss. It sounds a bit too compressed to my ears. I wonder if the Speaker Corner version is better, can’t compare unfortunately. My copy came with lots of debris on the surface. US cleaning took care of it and it’s mostly silent. Apart from that, nice heavy press that’s perfectly flat. 3/5

Unfortunately my copy has a terrible "woosh" throughout, especially noticable during quiet passages and during blank spaces between songs.

Also, the overall recording level is low, compounding the issue.

Having said that, it is free of snap, crackle, pops. Albert King's voice is buried behind the instruments.

Good to have for nostalgia, but I am not impressed with this reissue. YMMV.

After seeing the reviews of this EU pressing of this excellent Craft reissue I have no complaints over the pressing quality of this album.I just played my copy and it is excellent and I would say it sounds better than the cd version of it.Enough said!

Excellent. Perfectly flat, great sound. I appreciate that it came in an archival anti-static inner sleeve!

Flat, quiet, dynamic, sounds great. No more needs to be said. Excellent music and performance.!

A terrific pressing of this classic. My copy is perfect, flat and noise free, it sounds great.