Music Albums with great sound

HTG

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So almost a year ago my uncle passed and left me his amplifier. This beautiful black machine has changed the way I listen to music and caused me to become even more of a snob than I have been before. I am now searching for great albums that have better sound than the average stuff out there. So far I have found Kraftwerk, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Daft Punk and Nine Inch Nails to have the best sound quality.
But my snobbish sound addiction is screaming out for more. So you all need to help me.
What are the best sounding albums out there?
 
Biased because I was there… Daft Punk - Alive 2007 is incredible. Outside of the Grateful Dead shows, I don’t think a better live recording exists. The better your setup, the better it sounds. Recording the crowd properly as a seperate track and going in with the intent to produce a full length of their best ever performance was a master stroke.

It’s phenomenal with a regular pair of cans but solid home set ups elevate it. It’s a masterpiece.
 
What kind of sound?

Guitar tone? Multi-track layering? Quadrophonics?

Anyway, I'd suggest Stevie Wonder's Talking Book.
 
Focusing on post-punk/new wave to start with, these were all favorites from my youth and the sound/production was revelatory for a kid who had been listening to a lot of Oasis to that point!

The two Joy Division albums
Echo & the Bunnymen - Crocodiles (some prefer Ocean Rain but it's too polished for my tastes)
Bloc Party's debut Silent Alarm
Interpol's debut Turn on the Bright Lights
 
'Ooh, I'm such a snob, I only like music that sounds good'

Yeah, cause the rest of us choose ours by fecking smell. Wanker.
 
HTG said:
So almost a year ago my uncle passed and left me his amplifier. This beautiful black machine has changed the way I listen to music and caused me to become even more of a snob than I have been before. I am now searching for great albums that have better sound than the average stuff out there. So far I have found Kraftwerk, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Daft Punk and Nine Inch Nails to have the best sound quality.
But my snobbish sound addiction is screaming out for more. So you all need to help me.
What are the best sounding albums out there?
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Alan Parsons Project usually has impeccable sound - see the orchestral section of Silence and I on the Eye in the Sky album for instance. Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds is pretty strong as well in this area, and I also particularly like Marillion's Fugazi, Peter Gabriel's Up, Sting's The Soul Cages, and Talk Talk's The Colour of Spring.

Outside the artsy stuff, I quite like the sound of albums like Depeche Mode's Playing the Angel, Bloc Party's A Weekend in the City, Bad Religion's The Empire Strikes First, Gojira's Magma, Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygène 7-14, and Oceansize's Effloresce - to give you a bit of range of genres.

Of course, I don't know how they might stand up on a real high-quality system.
 
Leftfield - Leftism
 
MBV - Loveless - play it loud!
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Bjork - Vespertine
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
 
MY favourite album is WhoMadeWho - Synchronicity
 
Basically every decent album.

Once you listen on a decent setup, they completely change. Songs you've heard 400 times, sound different.
 
Cheimoon said:
Alan Parsons Project usually has impeccable sound - see the orchestral section of Silence and I on the Eye in the Sky album for instance. Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds is pretty strong as well in this area, and I also particularly like Marillion's Fugazi, Peter Gabriel's Up, Sting's The Soul Cages, and Talk Talk's The Colour of Spring.

Outside the artsy stuff, I quite like the sound of albums like Depeche Mode's Playing the Angel, Bloc Party's A Weekend in the City, Bad Religion's The Empire Strikes First, Gojira's Magma, Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygène 7-14, and Oceansize's Effloresce - to give you a bit of range of genres.

Of course, I don't know how they might stand up on a real high-quality system.
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The Alan Parsons Project is great and can definitely stand up to the rest. Tried Tales of Mystery and Imagination and it sounded beautiful. With Peter Gabriel I'm actually waiting for his third album to arrive. Mostly because of Biko. Tried it on vinyl before. But as it was an old one from my mother and used quite a bit, the sound wasn't that great anymore. So the CD should arrive soon. That song deserves the best of quality.
Depeche Mode sound great, too. But almost a bit too clean for my taste. Oxygene 7 - 14 sounds obvious now that you wrote it. Must check that one out.
There's quite a few solid recommendations in your post. Going to try some of them out. Thanks for that.
 
One Night Only said:
Basically every decent album.

Once you listen on a decent setup, they completely change. Songs you've heard 400 times, sound different.
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I know what you mean. Once I listened to Wish You Were Here properly for the first time, I found new respect for Nick Mason's drumming. Never noticed it before. Dave Grohl once talked about his job at Nirvana, saying how it was all about serving the song for him. Mason did that so well, I never even really noticed he was there. I think it's mostly because of this and also because all set ups I had before were rather cheap. Those tend to go all in on the bass for the easy effect. But drums tend to receive a rather neglectful treatment.
 
Eckers99 said:
MBV - Loveless - play it loud!
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Bjork - Vespertine
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
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This was the first album that popped into my head.
 
Never mind by Nirvana, it’s really well produced. And Back in Black AC/DC, same, was the first polished album of theirs even though I prefer the album before- Highway to Hell.
 
Boards of Canada - Music has the right to children
 
HTG said:
The Alan Parsons Project is great and can definitely stand up to the rest. Tried Tales of Mystery and Imagination and it sounded beautiful. With Peter Gabriel I'm actually waiting for his third album to arrive. Mostly because of Biko. Tried it on vinyl before. But as it was an old one from my mother and used quite a bit, the sound wasn't that great anymore. So the CD should arrive soon. That song deserves the best of quality.
Depeche Mode sound great, too. But almost a bit too clean for my taste. Oxygene 7 - 14 sounds obvious now that you wrote it. Must check that one out.
There's quite a few solid recommendations in your post. Going to try some of them out. Thanks for that.
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Yeah, APP is mostly excellent throughout. I just highlighted Silence and I because I always thought it's quite amazing how 'transparent' the orchestral section is (many parts playing simulaneously yet all still distinguishable), but that applies to pretty much any of their albums. Genesis 1.32 (from I Robot) is another standout in that regard.

It's not always easy to recognize which albums really stand up in a high-quality sound environment. I love the sound of Pure Reason Revolution's The Dark Third, but play it loud and it just gets annoyingly loud; it doesn't become this sort of immersive sound experience that you get from really well produced albums. In that sense, I love Gabriel's III (very unique with its total lack of cymbals, too), but I have no idea how it will stand up. And I'm not sure about the Bloc Party and Oceansize albums I mentioned in that regard either, to be honest. Marillion's Brave is supposed to be like that though, although it never really did it for me.

Come to think of it, Elbow's Leaders of the Free World might also be good. And probably XTC's Skylarking and Nonsuch. I would also think Steely Dan probably has good albums for this, but I don't follow them myself.

Oh, since you mention Pink Floyd, have you tried Roger Waters's Amused To Death?
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
Nirvana - In Utero
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First one that came to mind. The sound is so...jagged(?) and violent. It's like adding a Dimebag Darrell's level of guitar tone quality (not the same tone mind, just the...violence of it) to an alt-rock band plus a heavy-hitter on the drums.

@Eckers99 In Rainbows is a good shout; as is most anything with Jonny Greenwood's guiding hand. As is Vespertine.

If I had to come up with something of my own, I guess it'd be my usual Flaming Lips circa Soft Bulletin or Yoshimi, or maybe Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion & Panda Bear - Person Pitch.
 
Organic Potatoes said:
First one that came to mind. The sound is so...jagged(?) and violent. It's like adding a Dimebag Darrell's level of guitar tone quality (not the same tone mind, just the...violence of it) to an alt-rock band plus a heavy-hitter on the drums.
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I agree, and the production of it is just so unpolished, but it still sounds huge, which is typical of most things recorded by Steve Albini. I'm a big fan of his drums-are-the-lead-instrument approach to record producing.
 
The War on Drugs live album maybe? "Live drugs" I think.
 
Even though I don't care that much for Robyn's music I remember thinking "Honey" had great sound.
 
Organic Potatoes said:
First one that came to mind. The sound is so...jagged(?) and violent. It's like adding a Dimebag Darrell's level of guitar tone quality (not the same tone mind, just the...violence of it) to an alt-rock band plus a heavy-hitter on the drums.

@Eckers99 In Rainbows is a good shout; as is most anything with Jonny Greenwood's guiding hand. As is Vespertine.

If I had to come up with something of my own, I guess it'd be my usual Flaming Lips circa Soft Bulletin or Yoshimi, or maybe Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion & Panda Bear - Person Pitch.
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Great shouts - hadn't thought about Animal Collective. That's a great album and well worth revisiting. My Girls is such a tune.
 
I don't know if you care much for hip hop, but one that always comes to mind is Dr. Dre - 2001, which has some really good sound quality to it. I'm also trying to remember if The Roots - The Tipping Point was recorded using a lot of live instrumentation
 
Fleetwood Mac's Rumours!?
Probably some Nick Cave stuff.

When a friend of mine got some really expensive speakers we tried a bunch of his vinyls and while most things sounded pretty great, but some worn out Beethoven/Karajan recording he joinked off his father was on a wholly different level.
 
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