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Great Recordings, Sonically Speaking - and Why.

I think many of us would accept that artists such as Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, and Dire Straits have consistently put out music that was at least originally recorded to a high technical standard. [I'm not too sure what the loudness wars may have done to subsequent reissues, but even so, the tone and timbre thankfully tends to remain intact.]

However there must be plenty of lesser known recordings out there that could be said to be of a high sonic standard.

One such recording that I like to put on in the background whilst I'm doing other things is a piano recording that features wonderfully lush timbre and some delightful tunes.

This one is The Disney Piano Collection by Hirohashi Makiko and to me it makes a lot of other piano recordings sound a little washed out.
cd318

Showing 3 responses by shooter41

shooter41
68 posts
 
John Mayer, the later the better. Even his first album was pretty good considering his circumstances, but his latest "The Search For Everything" is a fantastic recording of some pretty fine music (imo). He's got a new one coming out in a few days and I'll be shocked if it's not very good as well. Also, Fourplay's "Best of" album is an excellent recording, especially now that it's available in hi-res. I know Steely Dan's been mentioned but Donald Fagen's solo stuff is also pretty great.
shooter41
68 posts
 
Several mentions of Dire Straits but solo Mark Knopfler is a better bet for recording quality. "Sailing To Philadelphia", "Shangri-La", and "Get Lucky" are all really good. I'm sure others are as well but those are the ones I'm most familiar with. To me, Mark is like further distilled Dire Straits. His voice is just one of the best ever with amazing presence and gravitas. He's a pretty decent guitar picker, too. (That's a joke, he's incredible)
shooter41
68 posts
 
Just re-read the OP and realized he’s asking for lesser-known stuff. I’ve got a sleeper for sure. Ben Rogers "Wildfire" album is one of those recordings that make you wonder, "man, how much great music is out there that almost no one will ever know about?" Very well recorded, too.

Going to the other extreme, pretty much everyone’s familiar with Darius Rucker, but have you heard his only album in the R&B genre? "back to then" from ’02 is fantastic and the recording quality is excellent.

George Michael almost always delivered on quality, as well. If you’re only aware of his radio hits I would encourage you to dig deeper.

Gregory Porter is a wonderfully pure vocalist that is always presented well. Josh Groban is much more well-known but also consistently delivers quality.

Here’s one that was a bit of a shocker for me. Rascal Flatts. Not my usual cup of tea at all but my wife has one of their cds titled "Rewind" and I popped it in one day. I was very impressed with what I heard. Again, not so much the content (though I’ll admit a lot of it is pretty "catchy") as much as the presentation. I ripped it onto my music server in AIFF and listened to it with my dedicated headphone rig and it still stood up. Goes to show how we’ve got to keep our minds open...

Once again swinging the pendulum to the complete other extreme is Rage Against The Machine’s debut self-titled album. The music itself may or may not be up your alley (and it’s very NSFW) but the quality is unassailable. I have it in hi-res now but even the cd is really good.
Sade "gets it" when it comes to quality. And if you ever want to test your low-end with something that’s still very musical "Slave Song" from the album "Lovers Rock" will undoubtedly do the trick.
Weezer can be a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to recording quality, but their latest "Van Weezer" is pretty fantastic. Really fun album, too.
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