How 'bout great quality recordings?

markC · « **on:** 5 May 2003, 03:14 am »

A few that I feel are great quality recordings that I have are Steely- Dan Aja, Diana Krall- Stepping Out, The Knotting Hillbillies- Missing Presumed Having A Good Time, Dire Straits-Love Over Gold remaster, (except for that damn tape hiss). Any one else care to add to the list??

mgalusha · « **Reply #1 on:** 5 May 2003, 03:44 am »

Billie Holliday - Songs for Distingue Lovers. The classic records release on 45rpm vinyl is probably the best recorded sound I have ever heard. The kind of recording which produces goosebumps.

Mike

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #2 on:** 5 May 2003, 11:51 am »

Your mentioning of 45RPM records made me think of Holly Cole's "Romantically Helpless" which was re-issued on vinyl by Grooveland in a 2 LP package--one normal LP at 33 with all tracks from the CD and a 12" 45RPM disc with just selected tracks (2 per disc side).
I didn't really love the CD, but the sonics on the vinyl, esp. the 45 are enough to sway my affections.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #3 on:** 5 May 2003, 05:14 pm »

XTC's Apple Venus Volume 1 sounds fantastic, one of my sound sounding discs. Nora Jones' debut sounds superb, too, and an SACD version is on the way. Beck's Sea Change SACD is one of the best sounding albums I've ever heard, and I'd have to add Pink Floyd's new DSotM SACD to that list, too.

tmd · « **Reply #4 on:** 5 May 2003, 05:29 pm »

Nellie Furtados CD I think. Very dynamic anyway.
Triangle Audio released a kind of sampler of very well recorded music that I bought at an audio show a while back. Incredible.
Telarc 1812 SACD.

Carlman · « **Reply #5 on:** 6 May 2003, 06:56 pm »

Well-crafted recordings:

Bob Schneider's "Lonelyland" is great.
Dave Matthews with Tim Reynolds is good
Sting; pretty much all of them, live or studio
Phish; Farmhouse, and many others
Prince; later than the '1999' albums are all very clean and musical
Parliament on vinyl is surprisingly well recorded
Pearl Jam's last few studio albums
Suzanne Vega, latest studio album
Bjork, some of them, not all are very nicely done.
Neil Diamond, all of 'em sound at least good, some great.

The list could go on and on... I haven't even started with Jazz, et. al.

dogberry · « **Reply #6 on:** 6 May 2003, 07:53 pm »

One of the best sounding non-audiophile audiophile recordings is Sarah McLachlan's Surfacing.

Fantastic bass and clarity. So many reference tracks...and beautiful music.

markC · « **Reply #7 on:** 6 May 2003, 09:29 pm »

Carlman; do start with jazz, if you would. I must admit this topic is a little self-serving as I would like some new jazz recordings.

Another good one that I listened to last night is Holly Cole's Girl Talk. Recorded live up here in Keswick, On. Canada. A little laid back, but great "feel" for the auditorium.

LightninBoy · « **Reply #8 on:** 7 May 2003, 03:08 am »

A coworker loaned me Herbie Hancock's "Dis Is Da Drum".

The title track is awesome. Great reference track especially for checking out the low end response of a system.

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #9 on:** 7 May 2003, 11:23 am »

Quote from: markC

Carlman; do start with jazz, if you would. I must admit this topic is a little self-serving as I would like some new jazz recordings. Another good one that I listened to last night is Holly Cole's Girl Talk. Recorded live up here in Keswick, On. Canada. A little laid back, but great "feel" for the auditorium.

Two other Holly Cole works to get are "Temptation" and "It Happened One Night." I have "Temptation" in several forms--the Classic Records vinyl,
the domestic CD and a Japanese CD (which sounds better than the domestic and has bonus tracks).

"Happened One Night" is a live CD that includes songs from the "Temptation" period. It's also an enhanced CD with some concert footage.

BlackCat · « **Reply #10 on:** 7 May 2003, 07:58 pm »

I like the Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Sessions for a great recording.

azryan · « **Reply #11 on:** 9 May 2003, 12:40 am »

I agree w/ Dire Straits 'Love over Gold', Norah Jones, Diana Krall (though the latter two don't really test the range or dynamics of a system IMO), but my top two reference CD's are...

Jeff Buckley's 'Song from my Sweetheart the Drunk'.
and...
Tori Amos's 'Boys for Pele'

'Everybody Here Wants You' and 'Yard of Blonde Girls' off the Buckley CD and 'Caught a Light Sneeze' and 'Hey Jupiter' off the Amos CD are stunning.

markC · « **Reply #12 on:** 9 May 2003, 01:05 am »

Excuse my ignorance, but I don't believe that I have heard Buckley or Amos. What style/genre are they?

lylefan · « **Reply #13 on:** 9 May 2003, 12:22 pm »

I think Lyle Lovett's Joshua Judges Ruth (on CD) and Holly Cole's Temptation (on LP) are two of the most musical albums I have heard.

ZooDog · « **Reply #14 on:** 9 May 2003, 01:00 pm »

For a pop recording, Janet Jackson's "The Velvet Rope" sounds incredible. I don't know if anyone here is into electronic (ok techno, if you must call it that) music but Paul van Dyk's "Out There and Back" sounds very good compared with most electronic albums, and is a great album to buy if you want to start listening to electronic music.

Does anyone here have Disney's "Fantasia 2000" soundtrack? All of the tracks on it sound great but "Pomp and Circumstance" sounds unbelievable.

azryan · « **Reply #15 on:** 9 May 2003, 05:39 pm »

Mark,

Jeff Buckley's what I'd call 'mature rock'.
Sounds like a cross between Led Zep.'s later more mature/mellower stuff, and U2's more rock-like stuff. One of those 'it's hard to explain' type of things. But if you also like Sheryl Crow's deeper less pop stuff and say the band Coldplay Jeff' in that same area.

He had an incredible voice often compared to Robert Plant and the band is very tight and recorded really clean -'cept guitar distortion. He died swimming on the side of the road before this CD came out, so the sick thing is HE's never heard this CD! His first one 'Grace' is also great, but not the absolute ref. quality I'd call 'Songs From..."

Tori Amos...
She plays piano and harpsicord (sp?) and has one of the best voices of any female singer IMO. Diana Krall and Norah Jones are great, but the emotion and dynamics of what Tori does really puts them to shame IMO.

Each of the CD's are fairly diff. so it's hard to peg her 'style', but it's in the 'rock' area not Jazz or anything, and 'Boys for Pele' is moslty her and piano, unlike some other CD's that have a full rock backup band, plus a lot of wild electronic sounds, though the song I mentioned 'Caught a Light Sneeze' is like that.

Her lyrics are wild and often make damn little sense. Very trippy poetic wording. Sarah MacLauglan (I know that's spelled wrong) is a more mainstream version of Tori.

markC · « **Reply #16 on:** 9 May 2003, 08:26 pm »

Thanks Azryan, I do believe I will check out at least Tori's disc.

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #17 on:** 9 May 2003, 11:49 pm »

Quote from: azryan

.......Jeff Buckley's 'Song from my Sweetheart the Drunk'.

.

Actually, it's "Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk." As I remember, these weren't actually quite ready for the public, but Buckley's death and demand for more material promptd their availability.

"Grace," the first album, is the more fully realized album since it had received Buckley's stamp of approval as a finished product.

BTW, Jeff Buckley was the son of Tim Buckley (from 60's and 70's) with a similar high-pitched, other-worldy voice. Some of Tim's work now sounds dated, but his voice could be quite incredible.

Tonto Yoder · « **Reply #18 on:** 10 May 2003, 12:00 am »

Quote from: markC

Thanks Azryan, I do believe I will check out at least Tori's disc.

You might want to check out the first disc "Little Earthquakes."

For whatever my opinion's worth, Buckley's "Grace" is the more important album to at least check out.

azryan · « **Reply #19 on:** 10 May 2003, 08:20 am »

Doh'!

Yeah, ok Tonto it's called 'Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk'. I was writing too fast. Can't believe I made that mistake on my favorite CD!?!?

Jeff was going to call the CD 'My Sweetheart the Drunk', but since it was finished after he died they added the 'Sketches for-' in front of the title.

Tonto wrote, "-As I remember, these weren't actually quite ready for the public, but Buckley's death and demand for more material promptd their
availability."

It wasn't released 'because he died', it's was just plain and simple his follow up to 'Grace' and all of Jeff's parts were complete. The diff. was it was released as a 2 disc set.
The 2nd disc is more demo-ish and B-side stuff.

I'm only talking about the first discs in my 'reference quality' comments, and if you actually heard it, which it sounds like you haven't, I couldn't imagine you'd say that it 'wasn't ready for the public'.

(Sort of like great 'MotherLoveBone' debut CD. The CD was finished, but the singer O.D.ed before it came out so they just released everything the band did and broke up. Then two of the guys formed the band 'Pearl Jam'!)

I don't have a better sounding CD IMO and I have several already mentioned in this thread.

It's also much better than 'Grace' in song quality and recording quality as the whole band grew from what they did on 'Grace'.

I don't understand how 'Grace' is 'more important' or 'fully realized' either? Sounds like you're just going by something you read somewhere and not from actual knowlege. I've got both CD's... do you?

And why did you post 'You might want to check out the first disc "Little Earthquakes."?
Are you saying it's 'more important too than the one I mentioned?

You sound kinda like you're trying to 'one-up' people in many of your posts I've seen (not just this thread).

And just to get ya' back... "Little Earthquakes" isn't her first CD. Now we're even! hehe

I agree 'Little Earthquakes' is also a great disc to check out though. She's amazing -hence me mentioning her in the first place.

I own all of Tori's CD (except for her first CD which was before she found her 'style'), and would recommend them all for diff. reasons, but the thread was about reference quality recordings, and 'Little Earthquakes' -and all her other CD's really aren't recorded as well IMO as 'Boys for Pele'.