Name 3 songs where audio quality and song quality completely align


Lately I’ve found myself alternating between music I love (but sounds mediocre) and music I don’t know well or only like (but sounds incredible).

Occasionally, I stumble across a track where the song could both serve as a great show off piece for my gear and I love the music.

If you can, name up to 3 songs where the audio and song quality take you over the moon with pleasure.

128x128hilde45

Anything performed/written by Pennywise, though it won’t take you over the moon. 

Hey @hilde45 

Rather surprised that you don't think that SD albums don't have top shelve recording, mixing and mastering.  They certainly don't sound forward or harsh on my system, rather pin-point accurate.

I say this partially due to the fact that I've been to Masterdisk and sat in the mastering chair and listened to Two Against Nature in several forms. My home system (in my opinion) sounds better than the mastering system.  Which could very easily mean "less accurate".  Mastering systems are for mastering.

Regards,

barts

All on Vinyl;

Humble Daisy - XTC from Nonsuch entire album

John Abercrombie - Timeless, entire album 

David Grisman - Quintet '80, entire album

Talk Talk, The Colour Of Spring

Here Today, ST - Grisman, Gill, Petersen, Gordy, Jr., Buchanan

Twilight Zone The Movie - OST 

Vertigo - 2019 vinyl pressing of the soundtrack  B.Herrmann

Bill Frisell - Guitar In The Space Age!

Sonny Rollins - Way Out West

Art Pepper - Meets The Rhythm Section

Kraftwerk - Computer World

 

 

A few not already mentioned:

Pat Metheny Group (the plain white album)

Dire Straits  - Love Over Gold

Linda Ronstadt - What's New

Sonny Rollins - Way Out West

I have some other choices of more very high quality sound and music. I recommend Steve Miller Band (Born to be Blue) Jazz classics here. Listen to Filthy Mc Nasty! Next I recommend for Percussion etc the First self titled Album by Hiroshima! 3rd track . And my last one is Clair Marlo, Album titled Let it Go! Track 2 or 3 can't remember! This is a Sheffield Direct to Disc! Whole Album is Great! Enjoy

These three songs are ideal for showing off your system and you will love each one of them…

Al Di Meola, Joann McLaughlin, Paco DeLucia - Splendido Sundance (the 2022 reissued version)

Melody Gardot - If You Love Me

Big Thief - Change

Miles Davis. You’re Under Arrest. Tracks:Human Nature

Stimulators. New Years Eve On the Waterfront 

Beatles. Abby Road. Oh Darlin 

Nils Lofgren “Keith don’t go” from Nil’s Acoustic Live album. An amazingly good recording of a live concert. 

Level 42 Physical Presence is one of the best live performances and recordings. This live performance by Level 42 was recorded just prior to the band becoming a huge commercial success. Level 42 was originally a jazz funk band with extremely talented musicians and this live performance captured the band at their prime.

The more I’m thinking, the longer the list gets.

Remembering Art Dudley,,  bad sounding bad music vs good sounding bad music vs bad sounding good music vs good sounding good music.  

Too many.  I have a large music library, listen to all genres,  and a pretty good setup to listen.  I’d estimate approximately 40%  of all things I listen to check all the boxes ie very satisfying in both regards.  Cut out pop music genre and the number jumps greatly.   Life is good!

Jimi Hendrix Band of Gypsies, Rainy Day

Go Back Home, Stephen Stills

Cowboy Movie, David Crosby

 

Too many to rank, but it’s fun to search for hidden gems amongst other’s choices. Here’s a few "perfect" songs with great audio...

Too Much Rope - Roger Waters

Your Own Sweet Way - Notting Hillbillies

Brother Where You Bound - Supertramp

Dark Eyed Cajun Woman - Doobie Brothers

It’ll Shine When It Shines -Ozark Mountain Daredevils

Madman Across The Water -Elton John (why does Yellow Brick sound so terrible compared to this? Mystery.)

 

Si tu me laisses - Nicolas Michaux

Booth Love - Umphrey's McGee

Mumbo Jumbo - Brent Lewis 

All I'm going to say is that people like you are the reason audiophiles get stereotyped as being all about the equipment.  Stop purchasing audiophile rated music and buy what you like.  You're saying that you can't do that?  Sheesh!

The Bros. Landreth, How Deep Is Your Love, from the Paul Yee-mixed album Undercover Bros. One of my favorite tracks and a great demo and test track.

Available on Tidal - the one with the blue cover.

Amber Rubarth, Losing My Religion, from the album Scribbled Folk Symphonies. Available on Tidal. A great rendition and wonderful sonics - huge open space, accompanying instruments very 3D. The definition increases and the space becomes clearer and more open with every system improvement.

Dave's True Story, Like a Rock, from the album Dave's True Story [Version 2002] available on Tidal. Great song and performance, with incredible open and 3D sound stage; all sounds seem very real (how about those fingersnaps!).

 

@mrmb Well, I don't have 18 TB of music but 28,500 LPs and 11,000 CDs.  I could not pick just 3.  However, for non-vocal/instrumental works, I have titles which I keep in my main listening room for musical and sonic blockbuster enjoyment.   

I'll through out 3 choral vocals anyway from the same CD, the Alamo 

Varèse Sarabande – VSD-5224

Tennessee Babe (Oh Lisa)

The Green Leaves Of Summer

Finale

Thanks all for the great lists to check out!  I'll share:

---Lyle Lovett:  If I Had a Boat

---Radiohead:  Subterranean Homesick Alien

---Kraftwerk: Tour de France

I agree most Pink Floyd is well recorded but unfortunately not (IMHO) their best work, Animals. I still haven't popped in the recent remix  -still in package...

One track comes immediately to mind:

Steve Cardenas/ / Ben Allison / Ted Nash’s "Healing Power" from the recording of the same name. The music is poignant, performance inspired, and Ben Allison’s mix techniques put you in the room with them. There’s one section where guitar / bass duet is joined by saxophone; the sax is so immediate, so real, that I jump every time even though I know it’s coming. (BTW, it’s on Bandcamp)

Had to think a little about the other two:
Elise Einarsdotter’s "I Know a Lovely Rose" from the CD Summer Night. Solo piano improvisation, beautifully recorded. When first entering the studio, Elise sat down at the piano and began to improvise, to get a feel for the instrument, without knowing she was being recorded. One take, no questions. Superb.

Weather Report "Birdland" from Heavy Weather. Maybe a little compressed. Maybe too many multitrack artifacts, but boy this track hangs together well. The air around the percussion, the slap of the bass all come through. An audiophile system might pick apart the mix, but maybe that’s what great systems do.

Gaja - James Taylor - Can’t beat those kettle drum rolls…

Build me up from bones - Sara Jarosz 

The Weight - Cassandra Wilson - Nothing beats the original Band version, but this cover is so sonically interesting.

All good fun and thanks to all for the fantastic list of songs... more of these posts please!

@vitussl101 

Stop purchasing audiophile rated music and buy what you like. 

You're saying that you can't do that?  Sheesh!

 

Ah, but that's the great Catch 22 of audio!

The more money you pour into this hobby the more better you expect your music to sound.

Unfortunately most recordings do not scale up accordingly.

So you pour even more money in as you swap and upgrade.

Eventually you may succumb to the gravitation towards to audiophile recordings. The kind that we see everywhere from dealers demo material, to the musical fare at most shows, to online reviews and reviewers reference recordings in magazines.

With average or poor recordings sonic differences tend to scale down disappointingly.

As you suggest, we should disembark from our neverending search for sonic perfection but as the song said,

"We are all just prisoners here

Of our own device"

"We are programmed to receive

You can check out any time you like

But you can never leave"

Post removed 

May I suggest three - albums, not tunes.
Two you might know and one you most likely don’t.

1. Frank Sinatra & Jobim - Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim
Beautiful songs masterfully performed and recorded.
A masterpiece, Sinatra at his mature peak.

2. Ralph McTell - Streets. The brilliant British singer-songwriter and first rate acoustic guitar player in a collection of his best tunes, all with great arrangements and high-end worthy sound. You’ll want to hear more of him after you listen to this album.

3. Al Stewart - Year of the Cat. Again, an ear-pleasing combination of great pop tunes, dynamic arrangements, and brilliant engineering.

Check out my Pure silver interconnects at silversolids.com.
Reviewers keep buying them.

Great responses! Played some music yesterday for friends visiting from UK and Finland. Played mixture of pop and other genres. Amazing how varied the quality can be. Amazed at how bad ABBA sounded, even in a recent re-release. We wondered if some music just wasn't well-recorded, initially or whether they just don't bother to release better sounding mixes (market too small for that trouble and expense)?

In no particular order and something for everyone:

Van Morrison - "Into the Mystic" from "Moondance" on Direct Disk Labs

Muddy Waters - "Long Distance" from "Folk Singer" on MFSL UltraDisc

Dire Straights - "It Never Rains" from "Love Over Gold" on Warner Bros or MFSL

Atlanta Symphony & Chorus, Robert Shaw, cond. - "O Fortuna" from "Carmina Burana" on Telarc LP or SACD

Lyle Lovett - "Here I Am" from  "Lyle Lovett & His Large Band" on MCA

Lettuce - "The Lobbyist" from "Crush" on Lettuce Records

 

Cheers!

 

Steely dan aja  james taylor suite for 20g  rolling stones waiting on a friend  all killer songs.

Fun one, but streaming DSD should be a criteria for those who, well are truly dialed in 1..Paul McCartney III Imagined find my way with Beck. Midbass reference track. Dunno 2. ? Possibly Beth Orton Weather Alve track Lonely, or actually all tracks. 3. Not DSD but IMO best live recording or studio for that matter, Bob Weir Wolf bros Colorado live track West LA Fadeaway, but again you would Peace love and HiFi. Gotta think Bobby has spent stupid resources to get these legacy state of the art recordings...There will be many more. And those will be DSD! Thought about getting a turntable then I said not today. Enjoy!

Supertramp Crime of the Century - Whole album

Alice in Chains MTV Unplugged - Whote album

Natalie Merchant MTV Unplugged - Whote album

Roxy Music Avalon - Whole album

Talking Heads Stop Making Sense - Whole album

EPITAPH / KING CRIMSON

TOMORROW WENDY / CONCRETE BLONDE

CRIME OF THE CENTURY / SUPERTRAMP

Waterloo Sunset - Kinks. Terrific song, well produced with a wide, deep sound stage. Great tune to demo system. 

I agree with the early Pink Floyd comments in all regards.

Maybe not the audience here...but I just bought Nevermind on Vinyl new pressing.  It's front to back stellar SQ and songwriting.

And finally, going Bowie.  The level of detail he put into his art I chlenge you to name a poorly produced / mixed album.  Blackstar is an under the radar statement piece.  Put that on a high end system with lights off and a candle.

 

An album that I always take when I'm auditioning equipment is "Another Lifetime" by Simon Phillips.  It's well written, well played, very well recorded and it's my favorite kind of music.