Rolling Stones* – Tattoo You

Great sound and pressing is very good as well.
Might slightly beat an original 1981 copy, the mellower Side 2 especially benefits from the new mastering and cutting.
Must admit I never really liked Marcussen's masters, but he did a bonafide job on this one. Buy with confidence.

Very enjoyable listen jumps out of the speakers Charlie’s drums seem to have a great punch! Waiting on a Friend amazing ! My copy cleaned still has some surface noise in between tracks but hey that’s vinyl folks never know what you’re gonna get even in perfect conditions !

Superb mastering on this reissue. I have an OG US Pressing too, and on first run through this release sparkles and kicks with far more immediacy and far greater clarity. Nothing in the pressing presents me with any annoyances, but then I don't expect a perfect quiet between tracks on vinyl.

This, to me, was the last truly excellent Stones album released. What came after was mostly third-rate material compared to this or anything that came before it.

Unfortunately, the clear vinyl copy I received, and thoroughly cleaned on my Hannl RCM prior to first playing is noisy and has no-fill distortion present on both sides. This is not a quality pressing-- and I am not complaining at all about the audio quality-- which is about the best I've heard this album sound-- but as is so often the case with clear vinyl, the surface noise is present on almost every quiet passage of the album. For this kind of money the pressing should be far better than this. Returning it is a joke as shipping from the US back to the UK costs substantially more that just buying another copy-- which will most likely be no better.

A great reissue ruined by another very mediocre pressing job!

Sounds excellent. "Slave" particularly sounds amazing - great open sound stage..This song shows how the original mix for some of the other songs were somewhat lackluster from the start. It's clear they went in and polished up what were mostly outtakes and put them on an album collectively. Sort of like Let it Be - same deal where the recording dynamics vary track to track. Keith on the cover just makes this release all the better.

Don’t pay these flippers prices. They are still available on RollingStones.com. I got shipped to my house for $47.04.

I feel this needs to be stated since a fair bit of people are complaining about the sound quality. The Stones are not and never will be an audiophile band. Their recordings are raw, powerful, and do not lend themselves to audiophile qualities the majority of the time. There's an adjusted standard I use to review their releases, and I find this meets the bar, and even exceeds it in a couple of ways.

I used an original RL and the 2020 half-speed remaster for comparison. Right off the bat, the 2020 remaster needs to be thrown in the trash. It's extremely dull, flat, and lifeless. The RL cut is nice sounding, but has always left me feeling that this recording had just a little more to share with the world. Thankfully, this 2021 remaster proved that thought to be correct. This remaster packs a punch, but maintains enough control to have some decent dynamics on an otherwise loudly-recorded album to begin with. Where it really shines are softer songs like "Heaven" and "No Use in Crying" that allow the remaster to truly shine without being overpowered by the aggression with which the Stones recorded a lot of their material.

While I would never consider this a high quality demonstration pressing, I feel this is as good as the album will sound. The Stones aren't an audiophile group like Neil Young, Steely Dan, or Dire Straits. That being said, I find the 2021 remaster to be the best representation of the Stone's aggressive recording style. It doesn't let things get out of hand, or go the other extreme and suck all the life out of the recording in an attempt to tame it down.

My Setup:
Pro-Ject 6 Persepx SB Turntable
Hana ML Cartridge
McIntosh MP100 Preamplifier
Line Magnetic 216ia Power Amplifier
Klipsch R-820F Speakers