Best sounding recent albums

[Burto]

I am looking for opinions on best current popular music releases. - stuff that sounds well produced and does your system proud.

Agree Floyd and Brothers in arms sound fantastic but new music ?

Few I have found decent -

Ben Howard

London Grammar

Lykke li

Post your thoughts

 

[MaxD]

I am looking for opinions on best current popular music releases. - stuff that sounds well produced and does your system proud.

Tons of great sounding albums, just avoid over compressed radio friendly records. Limiters, widely used in recording studios this days, kill the music, it is a Replay Gain like technology that makes all the songs and the record to sound the same, to accimplish radio airplay, and this IMHO kill the quality of any recordings.

Some 2014 great albums and recordings:

Jack White - Lazzaretto (overall vintage produced sound, the vinyl version definitely superb)

G Love and Special Sauce - Sugar (2014) - Stellar lineup for this return of the venerable G Love, his best album to date, the sound (made by producer T Bone Burnett, a well known musician and producer, been in the Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, is totally made on analog audio consoles and with a very limited use of limiter. I own the CD and it sounds stellar to my ears.

Led Zeppelin II Deluxe edition and remaster by Jimmy Page (also I and III are very good works, then I do prefer this) 2014. A true classic album like you never heard it. This is the only version I own that sound better than the original 1970 vinyl. I bought the 96K version from HDTracks.com and it blows my mind: the sound is very open, the soundstage is accurtate and the punping sound is totally uncompressed. It is quietly a new record from the original one.

The Oscillations - Cable Street Session This is a psych cd in the style of the venerable Bevis Frond, mixing some old Quicksilver Messanger Service guitar ride and some Sonic Youth noise. It sound great to me technically too.

Kasabian - Eez-He. This new record is more electronic compared to the fine old work and it sound great on cd. To me the sound is compressed from the source and not using limiters on the mixing desk. This makes the sound more vivid even with electronic samples. Very good to test speakers crossovers considering the impact this mid range frequency got on them.

Just some ideas for some creative hi-fi listening, then I count many more interesting albums just only in the last week.

 

[cannibal_ox77]

Although they're not brand new on the scene, sonically one of the best albums I've heard recently is "Lost in the Dream" by The War on Drugs.

There's a number of albums that immediately spring to my mind that sound especially great on the system, from the past couple of years at least. A few off the dome...

Polica - Shulamith

Chvrches - The bones of what you believe

Twenty One Pilots - Vessel

Frank Ocean - Channel Orange

Austin Wintory - Journey

Four Tet - Beautiful Rewind

James Blake - Overgrown

 

[BigH]

Lorde

boards of canada

john hopkins

 

[spockfish]

Kate Bush

Steven Wilson

NIN

 

[Macspur]

First Aid Kit, The Lions roar

Passenger, All the little lights

Nick Mulvey, First mind

Emma Louise, Versus head, versus heart

Mac

www.macsmusic.blogbubble.net

 

[james_LR90]

Kate Bush

Steven Wilson

NIN

+1 for NIN. Hesitation Marks sounds fantastic.

 

[BigH]

Also Sigur Ros seem pretty good.

Dead Can Dance but last studio lp is too compressed for me.

Shelby Lynne are quite good as are many Lost Highway albums.

Many jazz are still good, check out ECM catalogue.

Yes agree with Steven Wilson, First Aid Kit. Try also Angus and Julia Stone.

Melody Gardot are very good.

Malia - Black Orchid

Eric Bibb's albums are very well produced.

Try Diamond Mine - King Creosote & Jon Hopkins