Natalie Cole Unforgettable With Love 1991 Elektrarar Top |best|
The Vinyl Renaissance Grail: Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable... with Love and the Mystery of the 1991 “Elektrarar” Top Tier
In the pantheon of great vocal albums of the 1990s, few records carry the emotional weight, technical brilliance, and commercial audacity of Natalie Cole’s 1991 masterpiece, Unforgettable... with Love. While the album is widely celebrated for its posthumous duet with her father, Nat King Cole, a specific, almost mythical version of this record has become the holy grail for audiophiles and collectors: the 1991 Elektrarar top-tier pressing.
The "Target" Design
Early 1990s Elektra CDs (often called "Target CDs") featured a distinct red, black, and white label design on the disc itself resembling a bullseye. These pressings, particularly from the JVC pressings in Japan or PDO in Germany, are famous for superior glass mastering and reflective layers. A "Top" rating in collector circles means the disc has zero bronzing, zero disc rot, and retains the original dynamic range. natalie cole unforgettable with love 1991 elektrarar top
The album was a risk. Cole had spent the 80s as a pop and R&B star, but this was a return to jazz and orchestral pop. The result was nothing short of seismic. The album went to number one on the Billboard 200, won seven Grammy Awards (including Album of the Year), and sold over 14 million copies worldwide. The Vinyl Renaissance Grail: Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable
The rain in Minneapolis was a relentless drumbeat against the roof of "Neon Grooves," a record shop tucked away in a forgotten corner of the city. It was 1991, and the music world was shifting. Grunge was bubbling up from the underground, and hip-hop was dominating the streets. But inside the shop, Arthur, the store’s fastidious owner, was lost in a different era. Dead-quiet vinyl (using high-quality virgin vinyl)
- Dead-quiet vinyl (using high-quality virgin vinyl).
- Obi strips (the small paper wrap-around).
- Insert sheets (lyrics and Japanese liner notes).
- Superior mastering — less compression, wider soundstage.
"Elektrarar" is not a standard word. However, in collector forums (Discogs, Steve Hoffman Music Forums, eBay), this is likely a concatenated search tag meaning: "Elektra - Rare."
The album's lush arrangements were guided by legendary producers David Foster Tommy LiPuma André Fischer . It was a massive commercial and critical success: