Your Not-So-Obvious Best Fidelity LPs


I’ve spent over three years building up to the system I have now.  I’m really happy with it and my wife and I love sitting in our listening room spinning various vinyl most evenings.  Rather than researching and testing gear, I want to spend this year adding great recordings to our collection.

So what are the albums you have that every time you play it you're continually amazed at its fidelity?  You might have spent $80 on it or just $1 or maybe it was a hand-me-down decades ago.  Any genre really.

And if we can please avoid the most obvious choices (which are truly wonderful) such as Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Diana Krall, etc.  I’m looking for albums, (vinyl only please) that probably fly under the radar for most folks.

I'll start….

James Taylor - Dad Loves His Work - this was just given to me by a friend a couple of weeks ago as he had an extra copy.  I have plenty of JT albums but I didn’t have this one yet.  As soon as I put it on I could tell it was special.

Edie Brickell - Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars - My wife requested this one so I found a NM copy on Discogs for a reasonable price.  This kind of blew my socks off.  Sounds really wonderful and present and the music still holds up.

Counting Crows - August and Everything After - I surprised my wife with this one as it’s one of her favorite albums.  They really nailed the recording and pressing on this one.  It’s quite impressive. 

Ben Folds - What Matters Most - He’s one of our favorite songwriters but trying to find a copy of anything of his or Ben Folds Five for under $80 is nearly impossible.  This album was released just last year and they obviously paid special attention to the recording quality.  Sounds just phenomenal. 

Steely Dan - Northeast Corridor - Obviously everyone knows how amazing their studio recordings are but this album might be unknown to some as it came out just a few years ago.  I bought it on a whim knowing nothing about it.  It’s amazing.  As if they would release an album with less than stellar fidelity.  If you’re a Dan fan, this album is a no-brainer.

REM - Automatic for the People - Completely hypnotic.  Stunning recording.

OK, that’s enough from me.  

paulietunes

I didn't get not-so-obvious part, because what I see here is so obvious, usual and easily comprehended. 

Jennifer Warnes - “Famous Blue Raincoat”

America - “America”

Wynton Marsalis. All of his stuff

 

. . . for starters

@grislybutter @bigtwin @winoguy17 thank you for your suggestions.  Really appreciate it as these would otherwise not be on my radar.

 Pousette-Dart Band --Amnesia

Duke Ellington   Masterpieces

The Okanes  Tired of the Running

Orleans    S/T

NRBQ  Tiddlywinks

Little Feat   The Last Record Album

Les Humphries Singers - Kansas City

The Shirelles - Lost and Found

Harry - Harry Nilsson

Miles Davis - In A Silent Way

John Schofield - Hand Jive

Joe Henderson - State of The Tenor Vol 1

 

Thanks @mahler123 really appreciate your insights and recommendations.  Time to hit Discogs to see if I can find a couple of these!

looking forward to hearing from others as well…..any genre of your favorites with unbelievable fidelity.

Any of the RCA Living Stereo lps will do, particularly ones featuring Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony or Arthur Rubinstein. Mercury Living Presence lps and the Everest records cut with 35 mm film tape. Decca lps of the early stereo era, harder to get in the U.S., are also excellent.  By the seventies, those labels had slipped and were working with terrible vinyl.  Phillips and Deutche Grammophone then rose to the top with quiet surfaces.  I always prefered Phillips, particularly Haitink conducting and Claudio Arrau and Alfred Brendel, pianists.  DG had von Karajan, but they were always somewhat problematic in the bass.  Early music labels such as Telefunken Die Alte Worke and Decca L’ouiseau Lyre were treasured for their repertoire, but the recordings were more hit and miss, veering towards harshness

Allegri / Mundy / Palestrina, The Tallis Scholars Directed By Peter Phillips – 
Gregorio Allegri - Miserere / Vox Patris Caelestis / Missa Papae Marcelli (Classics For Pleasure 1980)

@mahler123 please feel free to suggest your favorite classical LPs that have stunning fidelity.  I know so little about classical but I would love to add some great recordings to my collection.  
 

Who else has some contributions?

Great choices!  I have both of those albums although my Blue is a repress.  It does seem that Supertramp was a band loathe to put out anything less than stellar fidelity.   

Well, I just picked up an original pressing of Joni Mitchell Blue.  I’ve been working on the song ‘River’ as a beginning piano student.  I mainly listen to Classical.  I think the last time I bought a non classical lp was in 1980. Supertramp Breakfast In America