What are the best sounding albums in your opinion?

[hibidy]

No love for AAMB.

[gnu23]

My vote for best goes to Yes - The Yes Album, Fragile and Close to the Edge. It is amazing to me how good these sound - if I could come close to this in my own recordings I would be thrilled.

My vote for worst goes to Husker Du - Candy Apple Grey, Warehouse and Flip Your Wig. One of my favorite bands of all time, but God the mixes on these albums are terrible.

Can't argue those at all. Eddie Offord did a great job on all three. It's harder to tell now that they've all been re-mastered, but the originals were very good for the tech available at the time.

And I'd have to tip my hat to George Martin's work with The Beatles while I'm here. Abbey Road really stands out in my mind.

Damn - that's the problem with these subjects..I think of three, then someone reminds me of another three...

[monopoli]

Reading this thread-title somehow Tinderbox by Siouxsi & the Banshees popped into my head, which is odd since I haven't listened to it in years. I remember I was very impressed at the time with the spacious cinematic sound while at the same time it sounded like a band in a room.

I agree - except I think that they sound like they are in some idealized "other" space.

Yes, you could say that too. I listened to it again and looked up where it was recorded; Hansa Studio in Berlin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansa_Tonstudio) so that might have something to do with it.

[ENV1]

A few i found to be of exceptional good quality:

(Vinyl)

Kraftwerk - TEE

Kraftwerk - Die Mensch-Maschine / Man Machine

Kraftwerk - Computerwelt / Computer World

Kraftwerk - Electric Cafe

Newcleus - Jam-On Revenge

ACϟDC - The Atlantic pressings of Dirty Deeds to Highway to Hell

(In other words all Bon Scott Albums.)



These just off the top of my head...

[vivo]

Seal (his first album and maybe his second too, produced by Trevor Horn).

[olepro]

Wow! I've got that Philip Bailey album - It's really good! (Didn't expect to see it on this forum

I have it too, and you're absolutely right; This type of music doesn't seem to catch much attention on KVR. I usually use specialist forum when discussing soul/jazz/funk music. As for the sound, I never really noticed - and my Hi-Fi setup is rather good even.

Wow
How can you NOT notice the sound on this album !!
This is one of the best recordings/productions i have ever heard.
It's like the bass player is picking directly on the bass cones on the speakers... all instruments is so detailed it's insane...

[olepro]

YELLO


A masterpiece in production and sound !

[kbaccki]

+1 Seal's second album (from 1994)...

Also, K.D. Lang's "Ingenue"... layed back stuff, but excellent, clean sound...

[robogone]

Earthbound by King Crimson.

Derided for it's poor quality recording:

"captured live on an Ampex stereo cassette fed from a Kelsey Morris custom built mixer ... in the rain from the back of a Volkswagen truck."

But hell, it just wouldn't be the album it is without that recording limitation. Noisy, low-fidelity recording but there's some great improvisations on this that just don't exist on any other KC recording. The sound of the album is what it is, and IMO it adds to the appeal of the album.

[MickGael]

Far too many great sounding records to list (and many have been mentioned here), but I will throw in a favorite of mine that is not likely to be mentioned:

Roy Wood - Boulders.

Criminally overlooked set of songs, played with great skill and personality (mostly by Roy). The sound is intimate, unusually warm and inviting.

[Alfa Romeo]

Maxwell - Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite: Very silky easygoing sound
Marvin Gaye - Here My Dear: Very ''warm'' sounding

+1 D'Angelo - Voodoo

David Sylvian - Dead Bees On A Cake (Love the strings on the first song, very ''majestic'' (or whatever) sounding)

Lewis Taylor - Lucky (so many things happening)

Crosby Stills & Nash - Crosby, Stills & Nash: also a very pleasant warm sound

It's hard to ditinguish between personal favorites and the sound of an album...

[MIDICH1]

Two soundtracks come to mind: John Barry's Diamonds Are Forever
http://www.amazon.com/Diamonds-Forever- ... re+forever

and Ennio Morricone's Duck You Sucker
http://www.importcds.com/music/1910130/ ... QgodZU8AaA

Both with Robert McGinnis artwork!



PFM's first two records are impressive:
http://www.amazon.com/Per-Un-Amico-Pfm/ ... ywords=PFM

and

http://www.amazon.com/Storia-Di-Un-Minu ... s_ep_dpi_2

[GaryG]

My vote for worst goes to Husker Du - Candy Apple Grey, Warehouse and Flip Your Wig. One of my favorite bands of all time, but God the mixes on these albums are terrible.

I think all of their recordings are pretty badly mixed; for a 'punk' album Zen Arcade is pretty good and then New Day Rising is just fizz city but it works well for the material. I don't think Warehouse is that bad, the vinyl is certainly a lot better than the CD (probably the same master). Candy is ok, could have done with an extra bit of 'sparkle', sounds more like demos. But yes, Flip... is just drenched in bad reverb and delay (spesh the drums). Shame becuase some of their best songs.

Bigger shame that they all seem to have no interest in dealing with the others and so remixes are out of the question.


I realise it's a far from perfect mix (over compressed yada yada) but have always loved the sound of Portisheads 'Dummy'. Beths voice is just served up so intimately it's almost overwhealmingly intimate.

[CS80]

"Black Sheets of Rain" by Bob Mould

[mellotronaut]

Earthbound by King Crimson.

Derided for it's poor quality recording:

"captured live on an Ampex stereo cassette fed from a Kelsey Morris custom built mixer ... in the rain from the back of a Volkswagen truck."

But hell, it just wouldn't be the album it is without that recording limitation. Noisy, low-fidelity recording but there's some great improvisations on this that just don't exist on any other KC recording. The sound of the album is what it is, and IMO it adds to the appeal of the album.

can't agree more: there is a raw power in it, incredible! my father hated it even more than 'Never Mind The Bollocks'.