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Pop album that has stood the test of time

I found a used CD copy of Sinead O’Conner’s “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” in Easy Street Records and snatched it up.  I remember liking it in the 90s when it came out and may have a lousy cassette copy somewhere, but I had not seriously listened to it with the better systems I have now.  Listening now, I am impressed by the material, the performance, and the recording quality, and it occurs to me that as an overall concept, it could have come out in 2024 and still sound poignant.  There are a few rock hangovers from the 80s, but even those are well delivered.

I am wondering what pop albums you have that you think have aged well in terms of material, performance and production.

kn

knownothing

Showing 2 responses by mulveling

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
2,178 posts
 

"Held up well" is of course very subjective, but I was blown away ~15 years ago when I bought an OG vinyl copy of A-Ha’s "Hunting High and Low" JUST for the huge hit "Take on Me". That’s the only song I knew, at that time - but the whole album, from start to finish, is incredibly emotional and powerful. Beautifully done. One of my top favorites to this day. Also check out their "Unplugged - Summer Solstice" LP; it’s amazing. It has a stunning rendition of "The Sun Always Shines on TV" from that OG album - among other stunning tracks. Almost every time I’ve demoed that Unplugged for a local audiophile, they’ve gone out and bought a copy.

Also agree The Smiths material has held up well - timeless alt rock / indie.

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
2,178 posts
 

Bruce Cockburn’s "Stealing Fires" is good, but I really love his "Night Visions" album. It’s got an instrumental "Islands in a Black Sky" that is hauntingly spectacular, and a good one to pull into system demos. The whole album is pretty cool despite not being my normal fare. The vintage LP I have of it sounds GREAT.

As mentioned by others - I also love Joe Jackson’s "Look Sharp".

I’m not mentioning more because a lot of material I like would probably not qualify for sounding "fresh" today, though that line has become quite blurred by the whole retro/synth wave genre. It’s all quite subjective, I suppose. I’m a big fan of Level 42, and their recordings on 80s vinyl generally sound pretty amazing. For the modern new wave "revival", a few of my favorite bands are:
Wild Nothing (especially "Nocturne" and "Indigo"),
Miami Horror ("All Possible Futures" - spectacular sound on vinyl)
The Midnight (they use an an analog recording chain).

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