Mcad10893 Are You Experienced Steve Hoffman Cd Review

lx essential albums for audiophiles

If your ears, speakers and headphones need a proper workout, you should start with one of these records. Or better yet, all of them

Today'southward pop music tends to be mastered to sound "loud" even when it'southward being played at depression volumes – a compressed dynamic range means that there'southward not much difference in decibels between the quiet and loud parts of the music.

Listening to these albums through high-quality sound gear can be a horrific assault on the lugholes, which is why audiophiles seek out albums that have been mastered with a wider dynamic range.

That doesn't mean you accept to resort to slapping some leather waistcoast-wearing, ponytail-sporting Austrian jazz fiddler's latest opus onto your beloved turntable.

Thankfully, many of today's artists are nonetheless committed to well-mastered, exquisitely produced recordings and that, along with a plentiful supply of older albums that were either originally mastered well or have since been remastered, ways at that place'due south plenty of fantastic music to listen to. And here are some of our favourites.

Reviews by Stephen Graves, Marc McLaren, Tom Wiggins, Sam Kieldsen, André Dack and Simon Lucas

Blackness Land, New Road – For the Kickoff Time (2021)

It's quite plumbing equipment that Black Land, New Road are signed to legendary electronic/hip-hop label Ninja Tune, because there'due south very little about the London seven-piece that conforms to the expectations of a normal rock ring.

With so many musical brains involved – almost every band fellow member has other projects on the go – it's no surprise For the Starting time Time is positively overflowing with ideas, whether it'due south straight-upward post-rock, skronking sax breakdowns or Jewish klezmer music, but it manages to avert sounding muddled or breathless. Even Isaac Wood'south lyrics, which are full of references to Nutribullets, Danish crime dramas and Kanye West, audio amusingly off-kilter rather than merely irritatingly wacky.

Purchase For the Starting time Time in hello-res audio from 7digital

Stream it on Spotify hither

Ghetts – Conflict of Involvement (2021)

When grime emerged from the streets of London in the early on 2000s it was all about brash electronic beats and aggressively confrontational lyrics, but every bit the genre has gradually taken over the mainstream its sound has evolved. On Conflict of Interest, Ghetts' 3rd album simply first for a major label, at that place are string sections, choirs and spoken-give-and-take intros – but this isn't the 36-year-old disappearing upwardly his own backside.

There's plenty of the same tension and menace that defines grime, but the album's widescreen scope, slower pace and introspective lyrical themes – particularly on the first six tracks – set it apart, fifty-fifty if the Ed Sheeran and Emeli Sandé collaborations experience out of place.

Purchase Conflict of Interest in hello-res sound from 7digital

Stream it on Spotify hither

Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher (2020)

Released just every bit the globe was in the grip of the Covid pandemic, you'd forgive Phoebe Bridgers for making her follow-upward to 2017's Stranger In the Alps a claustrophobic, inward-looking tape – simply Punisher is quite the opposite.

Information technology still features the intimate soul-bearing that made the 26-year-sometime's debut such a stop-you-in-your-tracks listen, merely there's a more circuitous sonic palette in use here, with musical contributions from her Improve Oblivion Community Heart collaborator Conor Obert, Nick Zinner of the Aye Yeah Yeahs, and Warpaint'south Jenny Lee Lindberg.

Purchase Punisher in hi-res audio from 7digital

Stream it on Spotify here

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Ghosteen (2019)

Iv decades into his musical career, Nick Cave still has the ability to surprise – and Ghosteen is both a deviation from his previous work (the songs' subjects are more personal and confessional than Cave's yet visited) and an anthology that feels apt and true to everything that has come before it. Shimmering synths underpin Cavern'south trademark vocals in this dream-like, lush and admittedly beautiful exploration of loss, grief and despair.

Stream Ghosten on Apple music here

Michael Kiwanuka – KIWANUKA (2019)

The third LP from London singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka showcases an artist on a spectacular upward trajectory. Soulful, political, sonically steeped in tradition too as beingness dashingly innovative, the Danger Mouse-produced KIWANUKA is a party record with a nighttime, tortured heart – and 1 of 2019'due south best albums.

Buy KIWANUKA in how-do-you-do-res audio from 7digital

Stream it at Spotify here

Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to Children (1998)

At present over 20 years erstwhile, this seminal debut album from Edinburgh brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin still sounds gloriously skewed, fresh and future-facing – a slice of pioneering electronica that's more interested in making you sit up and listen than making you stand up and shake your booty.

Gleaming digital, crisp, crunchy out-of-footstep rhythms, lush synths and the odd, judicious vocal sample conjure up a textural, atmospheric audio-scape that demands to be listened to on capable equipment – please, annihilation just a smartphone speaker.

Buy Music Has the Correct to Children (xvi-chip FLAC) here

Stream it at Spotify here

Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising (2019)

Likely to be feature on many critics' "best of" lists come the end of 2019, Natalie Mering's fourth record under her Weyes Blood pseudonym is a long way from the one-woman-and-a-guitar-and-oh-yep-perhaps-a-piano-as well schoolhouse of folky vocalizer-songwriting. Mering'south ethereal voice, its lyrics touching on all the travails of our lilliputian-chip-into-the-21st-century lives, soars over lush orchestral arrangements that evoke archetype American albums of the 1970s whilst sounding thoroughly modern with it.

Buy Titanic Rising from Band Camp here

Stream information technology at Spotify here

David Bowie – Blackstar (2016)

David Bowie's 25th and final studio album, released two days earlier his death, Blackstar feels like a knowing concluding nod to the world, a departing souvenir for fans – and Bowie at some of his inventive best. Most 69 yr-sometime stone legends would have been content with releasing a suite of comfortable, head-nodding numbers to finish their career, only that wasn't Bowie's way: Blackstar is all spiky fine art-rock with whiffs of jazz and electronica, a galaxy away from easy listening. But with Bowie'southward longtime producer Tony Visconti at the controls, information technology's an impeccable joy for the ears.

At a brisk 41 minutes in length and consisting of only seven tracks, this isn't an album that outstays its welcome – only like its maker, it departs leaving you feeling like there could take been yet greater things to come.

Buy Blackstar (24-bit/96kHz FLAC) here

Stream it at Spotify here

Neil Young – Roxy: Tonight'southward The Night Live (2018)

Released in 2018 but recorded 45 years before, this exceptional album perfectly captures the atmosphere, warmth and raucous free energy of Immature's live show with The Santa Monica Flyers – the inaugural gig at now-legendary LA nightclub The Roxy. Despite its critical success, the studio version of Tonight's The Night is amid Young'due south thornier records, consisting mostly of loose, off-kilter 1-have recordings and festering with stop-of-the-hippie-dream pessimism; death, drugs and darkness abound. Harvest it nearly certainly is not. But here, presented in the concert context with jokey stage banter intact, those same songs (and a couple of others) take on a livelier, more vibrant tone – this is a party, non a wake for departed friends.

Make sure to listen to information technology in 24-bit/192kHz main quality (should your bandwidth be broad enough) at Young's online archive, which currently features about his entire catalogue, for gratuitous, in loftier resolution.

Purchase Roxy: This evening's The Night Live (24-bit/192kHz AIFF/FLAC/ALAC/WAV) here

Stream it at the Neil Young Archive (24-bit/192kHz) here

Stream information technology at Spotify hither

Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004)

Bringing a maximalist attitude to chamber pop, showcased past euphoric singalong anthems like "Wake Upwards" and "Rebellion (Lies)", Arcade Fire first caught the wider world'due south attending with the strikingly overwrought, lyrically dramatic and sonically lush Funeral, a tape that showcases the band'southward accomplished multi-instrumentalism and its ability to make songs both hauntingly personal and reassuringly universal. Few albums about decease sound every bit vital and life-affirming as this one.

Download Funeral (44.1kHz/16-bit FLAC) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral (2017)

Originally released in 1994 but now bachelor remastered in a "definitive edition", Nine Inch Nails' second studio album is an alt-stone trailblazer, blending heavy metal, ambient, industrial rock and techno elements into a textural tour-de-force that'south left it regarded every bit one of the 1990s' well-nigh important and influential records.

A concept album based effectually a man's psychological breakdown, The Downward Spiral is an ambitious and abrasive record that tackles all manner of transgressive field of study matter – self-impairment, drug habit, alcoholism, suicide – while sounding appropriately discomforting. Produced and recorded by NIN frontman Trent Reznor and Flood in the house in which Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson Family, in that location's a dark ability to its sonic perfectionism that conveyed best on a loftier-quality howdy-fi setup.

Download The Downward Spiral (MP3/WAV/FLAC) here

Stream it on Spotify hither

The War on Drugs – A Deeper Understanding (2017)

Kurt Vile'due south onetime band are pretty much the definition of drivetime rock, with echoes of Springsteen, Straits and even a hint of Bryan Adams (it'south not a bad thing) to their widescreen epics (seriously, merely three songs on this anthology clock in at nether six minutes). But y'all can tell every unmarried note on A Deeper Understanding has been recorded and re-recorded until it sounds exactly right, with slightly more focus on shimmering synths than their previous records. And while it's difficult to shake the feeling that this is a quintessential 'white men whining about stuff' album, when it sounds this good, y'all just have to let them get on with it.

Download A Deeper Agreement (44.1kHz/24bit ) hither

Stream it on Spotify here

Kendrick Lamar – Damn. (2017)

Kendrick Lamar's ane-man mission to alter hip-hop was well underway by the fourth dimension he released Damn. this year, with the kaleidoscopic To Pimp A Butterfly already pushing the genre to places it had never been before in 2015. Damn. is another concept album, with Kendrick'south confrontational poesy telling another story about being a immature black human in America. More thoughtful than the shock and awe of '90s gangsta rap, information technology can actually be played in reverse order, flipping the narrative on its head. Perhaps near impressively, it features Bono on a vocal that's not rubbish.

Download Damn. (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Mogwai – Every Country's Sun (2017)

Glasgow's Mogwai might have left behind the serenity/loud vocal structures that helped them to put postal service-rock on the map back in the '90s, simply their recent albums have been no less dynamic, building on the drama and intensity that made them famous and evolving it.

Every Land's Sun (named after a clanger dropped past a friend of the ring) is often surprisingly upbeat, finding warmth where previous records take had a tendency to experience a fiddling clinical and common cold. Information technology's also less reliant on their trademark guitars, just with songs such every bit the penultimate track Old Poisons, Mogwai show they haven't forgotten where the volume dial is when it's required.

Download Every Country's Sunday (44.1kHz/16bit) hither

Stream it on Spotify here

Childish Gambino – "Awaken, My Love!" (2016)

When Childish Gambino (aka Community'due south/Atlanta'southward/Solo: A Star Wars Story's Donald Glover) released "Awaken, My Dear!", Questlove from The Roots woke D'Angelo up at 4am to make him listen to information technology because he was and then diddled away by its funk-inspired sound. When y'all take that issue on musicians as respected as those ii, you lot must be doing something right, and the multi-talented star's switch from straight-up hip-hop to a groovier, more than multi-layered style of music couldn't accept gone much better. Redbone is the standout rails but as an anthology information technology'due south yet a remarkable funkadelic trip that but makes you wonder what Glover will practise next.

Download "Awaken, My Love!" (96kHz/24bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Radiohead – OK Computer OKNOTOK (2017)

Radiohead's OK Estimator turned 20 years old in 2017 and the band's seminal record has had a nip and tuck for its altogether. Completely remastered from the original counterpart tapes, OKNOTOK also includes iii unreleased tracks and eight B-sides from the period. For those unfamiliar with the album, information technology defenseless Radiohead right on the cusp of the experimentation that would spawn Kid A, and marries it with the kind of choruses that would have ninety,000 fans singing every word back at the band from in front of Glastonbury's Pyramid stage that summer. A genuine best classic.

Download OK Figurer OKNOTOK (96kHz/24bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

LCD Soundsystem – American Dream (2017)

Later a relatively short-lived hiatus, LCD Soundsystem returned in 2017 with their accept on the American Dream. James Murphy's encyclopedic cognition of music from the past 50 years informs a more than melancholy record than fans might've been expecting; a meticulously recorded tribute to his recently lost heroes rather than a triumphant celebration of the band'south return. The electro-punk that made the group famous in the early noughties isn't entirely absent (which is just likewise, because Call the Police force and Tonite are probably the all-time two songs on the tape) but for LCD Soundsystem 2017 isn't much of a party.

Download American Dream (96kHz/24bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Thundercat – Drunk (2017)

With a guest list that includes both Kenny Loggins (of Top Gun soundtrack fame) and Wiz Khalifa, you should press play on Drunk with your expectations left at the door. Thundercat – a virtuoso bass player born Stephen Bruner – meows, farts and grooves his manner through 23 tracks that give a brief insight into his unique musical mind. That might make it audio similar an exercise in zany showboating, just on the whole Boozer isn't equally oddball equally its ingredients would suggest. That doesn't hateful it'southward ever predictable but there's far more restraint here than you'd expect from a man who toured with Suicidal Tendencies and has a pet cat called Turbo Tron Over 9000 Baby Jesus Emerge Hot Carl.

Download Boozer (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Nirvana – In Utero 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (2013)

This 2013 special edition of Nirvana's third and final studio album, released exactly twenty years after the original, includes a remastered version alongside brand new remixes past Steve Albini.

Albini was sound engineer the beginning time round, just label interference lathed off some of his rougher edges – he evidently couldn't decline the risk to take another shot at such classics every bit Scentless Apprentice, Rape Me, Heart Shaped Box and Pennyroyal Tea, adding greater texture to the original versions.

But for many, the originals were well produced anyway – and information technology's here than the remasters' value is seen, or rather heard: with less compression and greater dynamic range in these versions, Kurt Cobain'south songs accept rarely sounded so nuanced.

Download In Utero (96kHz/24bit) here

Or stream information technology on Spotify hither

Interpol – Plough On The Bright Lights: The Tenth Anniversary Edition (2012)

Giving The Strokes' Is This It a good run for "the virtually New York debut album of the early noughties", Turn On The Bright Lights is the record that put Interpol on the map, and besides loftier on the list entitled "bands who people e'er say audio like Joy Division".

And while this album's audio is certainly rooted in post punk – there'due south a precision and texture to the playing that create a sense of space, clarity and virtually clinical detachment that seems perfectly suited to post-9/11 New York.

Interpol's trademarks – angular guitars, expressive bass and the studied, constructive monotone of Paul Bank'due south vocals – sound pleasingly bleak and clean in this remaster, all the amend to limited TOTBL's sketches of pain and squalor.

Download Turn On The Bright Lights: The 10th Anniversary Edition (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991)

You're going to desire a weighty set-up for this ane. When they perform Loveless live, MBV crank up the volume to such an extent that most fans don earplugs, and while we're non suggesting you go that far, it's an album that demands to be played loud. Recorded over two years in 19 studios and with almost as many engineers, it's dominated by Kevin Shields' trademark tremolo-heavy guitar plus layer upon layer of samples: sampled guitars, sampled drums, sampled vocals, sampled samples. The cyberspace result is a modern wall of sound, at once hypnotic and chaotic, dreamy and thunderous, urgent and woozy. At its best – the delicate intricacy of To Here Knows When, the relentless hookery of What Yous Want, the rhythmic assault of Soon – it's crying out for a system with bang-up separation and precision. [MM]

Download Loveless (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream information technology on Spotify hither

Dr Dre – 2001 (1999)

Mainstream hip-hop isn't the beginning genre that springs to mind when you remember of audiophile-quality recordings: the majority of rap albums are compressed, lacking the dynamic range craved by golden-eared beard-strokers. Not so 2001.

Dr Dre'southward 2d studio anthology exhibits a make clean clarity and dynamic range that suits its sparse beats, bottomless bass, doom-y cord samples and thousand-funk synths – it'southward a great workout for whatever decent pair of speakers or headphones (Beats or otherwise). The lyrical content won't sit comfortably with every listener, being an encyclopaedia of gangsta rap clichés but, well, it's a gangsta rap album with a cannabis foliage on the forepart cover made past the co-founder of N.W.A. If it was mum-friendly it just wouldn't be the aforementioned.

Download 2001 (44.1kHz/16bit) hither

Stream it on Spotify here

Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Puddle (2016)

With some songs of its songs sitting on Radiohead's dorsum burner for 20 years before being committed to tape it'due south inappreciably surprising that A Moon Shaped Pool is a care for for the ears. Opener Burn The Witch dates back to the Child A sessions, although it's far less familiar to fans than long-time live favourite True Dear Waits, which has its mournful piano bolstered by a bed of fluttering percussion.

The lilting Present Tense and the tape's highlight Identikit accept their roots in older albums too but Decks Dark and the urgent Ful End testify A Moon Shaped Pool is much more simply the sound of a ring clearing out its drafts.

Download A Moon Shaped Puddle (24bit) hither

Stream it on Spotify here

Marvin Gaye – What'due south Going On (1971)

Deeply affected by his brother'due south experiences returning from the Vietnam War and what he viewed every bit rampant, widespread injustice in America, Marvin Gaye shrugged off his soul loverman epitome and recorded a concept anthology about the land of the world.

All nine of its songs flow into one another and it ends with a reprise of its opening theme, all the meliorate to tell the story of a Vietnam veteran who has come up home from state of war to come across his country in a new light. Gaye tackles poverty, drug habit and even environmental issues not through angry political rants but from the betoken of a dismayed man who believes love – not more hatred and violence – is the answer.

As a recording the album exhibits a rare spaciousness, with each element able to be picked out clearly. Combining blues, jazz and soul elements, it'south a hugely influential album and over twoscore years after its release, nonetheless highly relevant and relatable.

Download What'due south Going On (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York (1994)

MTV may be a dingy word these days, but the Boob tube network's Unplugged series served upwardly several fantabulous albums in the 90s, nearly of them recorded with a "hey, I could be in the audience" fidelity. And this is ane of them.

Information technology would be Nirvana's terminal album recorded before Kurt Cobain's suicide, and hindsight adds extra weight to songs like Pennyroyal Tea, Something In The Manner and the soul-wrenching closer Where Did Yous Slumber Last Nighttime. That song is i of several covers performed by a band who announced to accept consciously avoid picking their biggest hits for the acoustic treatment. Simply the reworkings of Cobain's own songs, stripped of their grunge trappings, highlight only how much of a talent he was when it came to tune and lyricism – a talent that would be lost forever five months afterwards.

Stream MTV Unplugged In New York on Spotify hither

The Beatles – Abbey Route (1969)

Recorded in eight tracks rather than the 4 of previous Beatles albums, Abbey Road was remastered and rereleased in 2009, and this version is considered the best in terms of sound quality. At the time of its release, some critics claimed the band'due south apply of the Moog synthesizer was "inauthentic", simply in hindsight nigh of them – and the wider world – consider Abbey Road to be amidst The Beatles' best LPs, and certainly their near painstakingly produced.

Stream Abbey Road on Spotify hither

Bon Iver – Bon Iver (2011)

Trading the intimate "folk music pity political party in a log cabin" feel of debut album For Emma, Forever Agone in favour of a more expansive, ambitious audio, Justin Vernon's 2d anthology as Bon Iver flirts with R&B-style crooning, country hoedowns and, at 1 point, Bruce Hornsby and the Range-esque MOR (well, that's what it takes to win a Grammy as an indie artist these days). But in that location's beauty throughout: Vernon's multi-tracked vocalisation and his band's rich instrumentation evoke the icy northern reaches of America simply equally deftly as For Emma did – but in a far grander way. At that place are landscapes conjured by this record, and they are vast.

Download Bon Iver (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream it on Spotify hither

R.E.M. – Automated for the People (1992)

R.Eastward.M. were no strangers to nautical chart success by the time they released Automatic for the People, just this was the album that cemented the Athens, Georgia natives as the mainstream'south favourite alternative stone band. And you tin't say they got in that location by continuing down the jangly, upbeat pop furrow they'd ploughed with earlier songs like Shiny Happy People: Automatic features only three tracks that move to a higher place mid-tempo (2 of which became singles) and for the most part, it's a sombre, carol-dominated matter. It might be a nighttime journey, but it'southward also musically irresistible thank you to the lush arrangements, in which organs and strings feature prominently.

Download Automatic for the People (96kHz/24bit) here

Stream it on Spotify hither

Dusty Springfield – Dusty in Memphis (1969)

In an attempt to boost her musical brownie, British swinging sixties icon Dusty Springfield decided to make an anthology of soul songs – and tape it in a city forever associated with the origins of soul and dejection. The result was Dusty In Memphis, a record that didn't make many waves when information technology was released but has since been recognised every bit i of the best releases of the 1960s – or whatever decade. The tracks are arranged and recorded with a rare perfectionism (Springfield ended up re-recording all her vocals in New York because she was unhappy with the Memphis takes) and the songs striking a sweet spot betwixt soul and pop that suggests Dusty was way ahead of her fourth dimension.

Download Dusty in Memphis (96kHz/24bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Burial – Untrue (2007)

Believe information technology or not there was a fourth dimension when dubstep wasn't the sound of adverts for energy drinks. These days Burial'south Untrue is barely recognisable equally dubstep: there's no pumped-upwards euphoric drops and it barely hints at the wriggling 'wub wub' bass that was to come. Play Etched Headplate in virtually clubs and the but way you'd empty the dancefloor quicker would be to release a wolf onto it. That's because Untrue isn't a record for dancefloors; it'due south a record nearly the alone, 3am bus ride home, or the feeling of unease you get when walking solitary late at night. While Untrue is not an album with any daylight in information technology, it'due south a long way from The Night Side of the Moon. You don't listen to it to appreciate the stereo image of your expensive hi-fi, you listen to it for its heavily textured yet spacious tunes, and samples that sound like coins or bullet casings falling to the common cold pavement. [TW]

Download Untrue (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin (1999)

Blast! Boom! Crash! Smash! Subwoofers at the ready – it's a Flaming Lips album… Although actually, The Soft Message isn't just a Flaming Lips album, it's THE Flaming Lips album, the loftier-point of a career now spanning 31 years and 14 albums. It's also the finest moment in the career of producer Dave Fridmann, a man regarded as the indie-rock Phil Spector (but without the murder) and whose CV also takes in such classics every bit Weezer's Pinkerton and Mogwai's Come On Die Immature. Fridmann ramps up the percussion on The Soft Message, turning drums and cymbals into weapons of mass destruction. Merely if the sound's big, the songs are bigger all the same – from cord-drenched opener Race For The Prize to the searingly honest Feeling Yourself Disintegrate, it'southward a work of musical and lyrical genius. [MM]

Download The Soft Bulletin (44.1kHz/24bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

The 20 – 20 (2009)

In 2009 iv young, perpetually blackness-clad Londoners released an anthology blessed with a rare feeling of what one could call "sonic unity": every track just fits. There'south something incredibly clean near the twenty's self-titled debut, as though the band are performing in an hermetically sealed room devoid of furniture, fittings, dust, microbes and, well, anything that isn't their instruments. Thin drum machine beats, taut bass, a guitar tone polished to a mirror sheen and understated vocals from Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft make upwardly a record of immense restraint. It's virtually the reverse of Phil Spector'south "wall of sound": there's an evidence of sonic infinite here that makes the twenty's gloomy make of pop a joy to listen to.

Download 20 (44.1kHz/16bit) hither

Stream information technology on Spotify here

Rage Confronting The Machine – Rage Confronting The Machine (1992)

Thanks to bands like Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Papa Roach, the fusion of hip-hop and hard rock would later become a catchword for "horrific men proverb horrifically dumb things", only it all started in much improve place: Rage Against The Machine's eponymous debut album. While those other bands might have been angry at their parents, Rage were angry about the Western globe, the armed services-industrial complex, the entire capitalist arrangement. Very angry. Zack de la Rocha'due south politically-charged lyrics and Tom Morello's squealing guitar make for an incendiary mix, but Bob Ludwig's mastering keeps everything from humid over. We accept no hesitation in saying that this is 1 of the cleanest, most audiophile-friendly difficult stone albums ever fabricated. Marxist political theory rarely sounded so funky.

Download Rage Against the Car (44.1kHz/24bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Animal Collective – Merriweather Mail Pavilion (2009)

When Baltimore psyche-popular oddballs Animal Collective turned to samplers and synths as the dominant instruments for their eighth studio album, few could have guessed that it would turn out to exist their most successful on both the commercial and critical fronts (although information technology's far from a mainstream pop record, and less open-minded listeners might find its unconventional song structure inexplainable).

The members of the band are older and accept settled downward, but their youthful joie de vivre hasn't melted away in Merriweather Post Pavilion – it'southward simply shifted focus. There are songs almost Avey Tare and Panda Bear'due south families on here simply not a trace of sentimentality, just soaring, luscious electronic soundscapes and harmony-heavy vocals that bring to mind a postal service-rave civilization Beach Boys.

Download Merriweather Post Pavilion (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream information technology on Spotify here

Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (1977)

Rumours' meta-story is almost as compelling equally the album itself: recorded confronting the properties of two intra-band breakups and rampant cocaine consumption, it signalled a new mainstream stone direction for the British bluesy throwbacks – 1 that propelled the group into new realms of popularity. Spurred past the songcraft of new American recruits Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac produced an LP without a skippable song (well, peradventure "Oh Daddy" if you're feeling particularly mean), and the production and mastering are every bit as noteworthy equally the hooks.

Download Rumours (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Meet the range

OutKast – Speakerboxxx/The Dear Below (2003)

The fourth killer record in a row from Atlanta hip hop duo Andre 3000 and Big Boi, this is essentially two solo albums in a single instance. In hindsight, it was a signal that a creative partnership that had proved and so fruitful in the past had run its course – but when each of the albums is equally good as these, who cares? Andre 3000 morphs into an manic electro crooner and Big Boi brings all style of cleanly-produced, P-Funk-influenced club-friendly jams.

Download Speakerboxxx/The Beloved Below (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Steely Dan – Aja (1977)

In all honesty, if we had the space nosotros could put all of Steely Dan's studio albums on this listing. New York jazz-rockers Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are zilch short of slaves to perfection when it comes to recording and mastering, and consequently each LP is an audiophile'due south dream. But if we have to pick a single one, we'll say 1977'southward Aja, which features something like forty session musicians and some of the band's virtually seamless product even so. Jazz-rock may conjure up nightmares of Kenny 1000 soullessly noodling his sax, but their songs' cynical, acerbic lyrics have always elevated "the Dan" to something more than the sum of their parts.

Stream Aja on Spotify here

Joni Mitchell – Blue (1971)

Joni Mitchell'due south masterpiece, Blue is a spare, sparse record showcasing the Canadian's pure stripped-down songwriting: most songs feature niggling instrumentation beyond Mitchell's audio-visual guitar or pianoforte. It's recorded to exist highly revealing (with headphones, you can hear the piano pedals moving in the title track) which is entirely appropriate given the confessional nature of the songs, in which Mitchell details her life, loves and struggles with depression with unflinching transparency. Mitchell herself later said of the album, "There'south inappreciably a dishonest note in the vocals. At that menses of my life, I had no personal defences. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes." Information technology'due south all there, clear equally a bell, in the recording.

Download Blue (96kHz/24bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (2013)

Less an album than a dear letter to disco, Random Access Memories volition never exist the most beloved of Daft Punk records – Get Lucky aside (cheque it out if yous get the chance, it's the sound of the summer), there's nothing here that gets its hooks into you like Around The World or Ane More Time. Simply thanks to the use of original instruments and some of the most talented session musicians (almost every audio on the album comes from a "real" musical instrument) and collaborators in the game, it'due south an exquisite torso of work. And it sounds amazing: rarely has deep sub bass every sounded, well, so bassy, and then real and and so gigantic as it does on RAM. In that location's a wide dynamic range here, so this is one big recent release that hasn't fallen victim to what horrified audiophiles refer to as the "loudness wars".

Download Random Admission Memories (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream it on Spotify hither

Miles Davis – Kind of Blue (1959)

Probably the most famous jazz album of all fourth dimension – and about certainly the best-selling, Kind of Bluish represented a new direction for Miles Davis, as he discarded the complex chord progressions of hard bop for something dissimilar: improvisations based on scales, or "modal" jazz. The result is an anthology of gentle, evocative numbers that influenced not only the jazz scene simply other genres like rock and classical. E'er the innovator, Davis later abandoned Kind of Blueish's laid-back mode, regarding it every bit a product of its time that no longer moved him.

Download Kind of Bluish (96kHz/24bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Sigur Ros – Agaetis Byrjun (1999)

Before Iceland's Sigur Ros became the become-to ring to soundtrack every Attenborough documentary they sat awkwardly on the border of post-rock – but it was a genre that never seemed to fit them. At that place are elements of Agaetis Byrjun that qualify information technology for such categorisation – it sounds ballsy in the true meaning of the word, not what you say when yous've simply eaten a really nice beige – but if anything it's more mail service-folk, like Mogwai with flutes, horns and an orchestra rather than filibuster pedals and a volume dial. It creaks, moans and soars with the sounds of the band's near-Chill abode, and, without wanting to make it audio too much like some sort of hipster Enya tape, at that place's even a hint of whale song to Jonsi's vocals. [TW]

Download Agaetis Byrjun (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream information technology on Spotify hither

Neil Young – Afterward The Gold Rush (1970)

Whether wrenching a feedback-drenched wall of noise from a dilapidated Les Paul or strumming his way through a gentle countrified carol, Neil Young has ever been an artist who cares about sound quality: he favours releasing albums in Hi-Res formats like DVD-Audio and Blu-ray, and is about to launch Pono, a portable Hello-Res Audio histrion.

While you could argue for days about which of Young's 40-odd LPs is the all-time, few offer as complete a picture of his range equally a songwriter than After The Gilt Rush, an all-killer-no-filler tape offering mournful pianoforte ballads (the championship track and Birds), down-home sing-alongs (Cripple Creek Ferry) and aroused axe-wielding stompers (Southern Human being).

Download Later on the Gilt Blitz (192kHz/24bit) here

Stream information technology on Spotify hither

Prince – Sign o' the Times (1987)

This double anthology is fabricated upwards of castoffs from three aborted records, just Prince beingness Prince, a drove of odds and sods turned out to be a masterpiece and one of the 80s' greatest LPs. As usual, Prince non only sings but plays many of the instruments, including programming the drum machines and samplers that play such a huge part in the record's sound. On CD, it's non widely regarded equally the all-time-mastered of Prince'southward records, only audiophiles should do their best to seek out the superb Japanese SHM-CD version (or the vinyl).

Download Sign o' the Times (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

The Congos – Heart Of The Congos (1977)

Few producers take been then innovative and influential as Lee 'Scratch' Perry, and The Congos' 1977 debut is without dubiety his most consistently brilliant piece of work. Recorded at Perry's Black Ark studio in Kingston, Jamaica, it'south a mind-altering blend of reverb-heavy rhythms laid down past the studio's business firm ring The Upsetters plus the perfectly matched harmonies of its three vocalists: tenor 'Ashanti' Roy Johnson, falsetto Cedric Myton and baritone Watty Burnett. Somehow, Perry recorded information technology on an ageing four-track, simply you lot'd never know it from the lush Fisherman or Open up Upward The Gate, with the producer using constitute sounds and a battery of tricks to create the effect he was after. Roots reggae at its finest. [MM]

Download Heart of The Congos (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream information technology on Spotify hither

Pink Floyd – Wish You lot Were Here (1975)

Pinkish Floyd is probably regarded every bit the archetypal band for audiophiles: prog stone giants serving up complex and immaculately produced albums full of lengthy songs. And never more and so than on Wish Yous Were Here, an anthology that features only v tracks but runs well over twoscore minutes. The whole album is substantially a tribute to Floyd'due south founding member and creative tinderbox Syd Barrett, whose heavy use of psychedelic drugs had led to him stepping abroad from the ring and guild in general. Fifty-fifty if noodly prog isn't your thing, it's an album that will requite your speakers or headphones a total body workout.

Download Wish You Were Here (44.1kHz/16bit) hither

Stream it on Spotify here

Jeff Buckley – Grace (1994)

David Bowie considers Grace to exist the greatest album ever fabricated, and while we won't become that far it's hard to come across it as annihilation other than an excellent record from a singer-songwriter at the peak of his powers: his tenor voice is faultless and the songs, whether his own or covers, are memorable. It'south a beautifully well recorded album too: play it on decent equipment and Buckley could almost be singing in your living room.

Download Grace (44.1kHz/16bit) hither

Stream it on Spotify here

Michael Jackson – Thriller (1982)

Thriller'due south cultural and commercial significance is well documented, merely Michael Jackson's masterpiece is also i of the best-recorded and nearly immaculately produced albums of the 1980s. Producer Quincy Jones and Jackson enjoyed (or possibly endured) a strained relationship during the making of Thriller, and every rail was painstakingly remixed (a week was spent on each vocal) because neither was happy with the initial recordings. The difficult piece of work resulted in a record that blended disco, soul, rock and R&B and a template that would inform pop music for the adjacent 20-plus years. Oh, and it's comfortably the acknowledged album of all time.

Download Thriller (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Massive Attack – Mezzanine (1998)

Trip hop pioneers Massive Attack had already established themselves as Britain's all-time-known proponents of what the Americans call "electronica" when they dropped Mezzanine, initially as a legal MP3 download on their website (they were among the beginning major acts to comprehend digital distribution) and later as a concrete release. Despite the Bristol trio plain hating each other's guts during the making of the album information technology'due south a prime case of a record which uses ambient sounds to create rich texture, depth and atmosphere. The trade-off is maybe a lack the hookier songs that loomed large on previous Massive Set on albums, only when a new direction results in songs like Teardrop, we're definitely on board. An LP you should play loud on headphones on dark, moody nights.

Stream Mezzanine on Spotify here

Underworld – 2nd Toughest in the Infants (2015)

If you've nonetheless got Underworld pegged equally that laddish 'lager, lager' band from Trainspotting, it's time to acquaint yourself with their classic fourth album. Far from being packed with banging techno anthems, it seamlessly blends various flavours of downbeat electronica with Karl Hyde'south meditative poetry. The effect is brilliantly paced masterpiece that has aged even better than Ewan 'Peter Pan' McGregor.

Fans of the original will appreciate the remastered version's cleaner audio and bolstered bass, along with the inclusion of dozens of remixes from the same fertile period. But though these rarities show Underworld to exist more than capable of a big unmarried, it's Second Toughest… that showed that rave music could be just equally comfortable being atmospheric and reflective.

Download Second Toughest in the Infants (44.1kHz/16bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Slint – Spiderland (2014)

When Kentucky's Slint released Spiderland in 1991 it sounded and so far removed from the music Pearl Jam, Guns 'northward' Roses et al were making (despite using exactly the aforementioned instruments) reviewers started calling the album post-rock.

So sparse you tin can well-nigh hear the empty infinite in the studio, with sinister rhythms and hushful, spoken-word vocals, each runway is more like a chapter in a book than a song. 25 years later it still sounds totally fresh and like zip else ever recorded.

Download Spiderland (96kHz/24bit) here

Stream it on Spotify hither

Phil Collins – Hi, I Must Be Going (2016)

There are people who volition tell you that Phil Collins' music is without merit. That he's a miserable bugger who ruined Genesis after Peter Gabriel left. That whatsoever honey for his music is a sign of psychosis – after all, Patrick Bateman was a huge fan. These people are all wrong.

Hello, I Must Be Going is a flawless popular record, full of tracks with sparkling, rhythmic exteriors that contain deep, sometimes night lyrical stories. The remastered version cleans everything upwardly farther, polishing what was already pretty much popular perfection. Or possibly we're just psychotic.

Download How-do-you-do, I Must Exist Going (96kHz/24bit) here

Stream it on Spotify here

Honey – Forever Changes (2015)

On the face of information technology Beloved's Forever Changes sounds like just some other pleasantly psychedelic folk record from the late '60s. Just listen closely to Arthur Lee's lyrics and there'south an undercurrent of menace, like the musical equivalent of a David Lynch movie.

Whether it's the bad trip of A Firm Is Not a Cabin, the squealing guitar on Live and Allow Alive, or the hints at indiscriminate incarceration and slaughter on The Red Phone, Forever Changes is a destructive, surreal record. The Morricone-esque nail of brass midway through Alone Over again Or is almost worth the admission price lonely.

Download Forever Changes (192kHz/24bit) hither

Stream it on Spotify hither

My Morning time Jacket – It Still Moves (2016)

Tinkering with an album that's loved partly for its raw, live sound can be a dangerous game, merely My Forenoon Jacket get the balance correct on this remixed version of their fan favourite. Certain, the the guitars are crunchier and the reverby vocals more prominent, just information technology still feels like you lot're in a sweat-drenched bar listening to classic rockers on top form.

Fittingly for an anthology that celebrates the no frills approach, the reissue also has original acoustic demos that audio like they were recorded in the band'southward kitchen. Fifty-fifty if yous're not a big enough MMJ fan to appreciate those, it'south still worth treating your new hi-fi or headphones to 1 of the noughties' all-time records.

Stream It Still Moves on Spotify hither

Isis – Panopticon (2014)

Panopticon is a record that sounds like information technology was unearthed rather than recorded, forged between two tectonic plates or constitute pressed into the fossilised remains of a Supersaurus. Wherever it came from the album was remastered in 2014 (ten years after its original release and iv years after the band divide upward) and it'south never been more earth-shudderingly heavy.

Everything on it sounds massive, with Aaron Turner's vocals buried somewhere deep in the heart, like he's bellowing from the bottom of a collapsing sinkhole.

Download Panopticon (44.1kHz/16bit) hither

Stream information technology on Spotify here

Manic Street Preachers – The Holy Bible (2014)

Less an anthology and more an hr-long exercise in pain and suffering, The Holy Bible is nonetheless one of the outstanding, er, albums of the past 30 years. Written almost entirely past the ring's creative heartbeat Richey Edwards and released mere months before his eventual disappearance, it places such laugh-a-minute subjects as anorexia, prostitution and the holocaust against a backdrop of raw guitars and unflinching samples. Not an easy listen, so, simply undeniably an essential one.

Download The Holy Bible (44.1kHz/16bit) hither

Stream it on Spotify here

Intelligent music

Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma (2010)

One of the about compelling and outright inventive records of the 21st century, Flying Lotus' Cosmogramma is a stunning showcase of music aided by modern engineering. Every bit the grand-nephew of legendary pianist Alice Coltrane, jazz is ingrained in his Deoxyribonucleic acid. Hither, Flying Lotus expertly explores the sensations of jazz with the aesthetics of electronica, IDM and hip-hop. Like most music released on Warp, Cosmogramma is a sheer delight for audiophiles – packed with animated arrangements and rich textures. This is a cosmic feel similar no other, seen by many as a modern masterpiece.

Buy Cosmogramma (sixteen-bit FLAC) here

Stream is on Spotify here

Godspeed Y'all! Black Emperor – F# A# ∞ (1998)

Godspeed Yous! Black Emperor's 1998 debut album was a momentous release for post-stone, and information technology remains ane of the genre's key landmarks. English managing director Danny Boyle cited F# A# ∞ as inspiration whilst making his critically-acclaimed horror movie 28 Days Later, which makes total sense given its apocalyptic tone. Moments of quiet separate the more thunderous segments, with satisfying homages to the late, bully Ennio Morricone. Each musical passage features a number of field recordings and samples, adding further fascination to the already impressive spectacle. This is a true sensory experience like no other, and a proper headphone listen.

Buy F# A# ∞ (16-fleck FLAC) here

Steam it at Spotify here

Björk – Homogenic (1997)

Björk is 1 of the about love figures in gimmicky music. The Icelandic singer, songwriter and producer has amassed an incredible torso of piece of work over the years, and 1997'southward Homogenic is arguably her greatest record to date. This is avant-garde pop at its absolute best. Björk examines the disharmonize between human and artificial elements to create an otherworldly audio that has proved impossible to replicate. Dank IDM beats, luscious string arrangements and unique instrumental flourishes provide a fascinating backdrop for Björk's archaic vocal expressions. Homogenic is a 1-of-a-kind experience that deserves to be listened to at an optimum level. No other anthology, of any kind, sounds quite similar it.

Buy Björk – Homogenic here

Stream on Spotify here

PJ Harvey – Let England Milk shake (2011)

A grand departure from the raw and noisy alternative rock PJ Harvey was known for in the '90s, Let England Milk shake is a vital anti-state of war anthology with its roots found generally in folk. It's a powerful open letter to the leaders of the Western world that continues to resonate almost ten years after release. The music is lush, only the lyrics are hitting and visceral. Legendary producer Flood and longtime collaborator John Parish play essential roles in making the record sound so monumental. These hauntingly beautiful songs were recorded in an English church, simply for extra potency. Let England Shake is performed, engineered and mixed immaculately, and it remains one of the true highlights of the 2010s.

Buy Permit England Shake (hi-res audio) hither

Stream information technology at Spotify here

Fairport Convention Unhalfbricking (1969)

Hard to imagine, nosotros know, but there was a time that the idea of English folk music was at the cutting edge of radio-friendly rock and pop. Its near constructive protagonists were Fairport Convention, thanks in big part to Sandy Denny's immaculate, emotive singing and Richard Thompson's lyrical, virtuoso guitar-playing. These days Unhalfbricking sounds almost sepia – it was staunchly retrospective when it was new, and at present it'south over 50 years old it tin sound, at first, like an artefact. But the deathless quality of its songs, and the lustre of its sound, guarantee information technology timelessness rather than antique status.

Buy Fairport Convention Unhalfbricking here

Stream Fairport Convention Unhalfbricking on Apple Music here

Bob Marley & The Wailers Exodus (1977)

Bob Marley gets most of the credit – and information technology'south undoubtedly deserved – for bringing reggae to a globe-wide audience. Merely Island Records' insistence on a high-gloss sheen for his recordings for them non just made the traditionally crude-and-gear up genre a niggling more palatable to American and European ears, it besides resulted in some of the most satisfyingly audiophile albums of the era – and Exodus is the best of them. 10 incredibly achieved songs roofing religion, politics, good times and sexy times, Exodus is – as they used to say – all killer, no filler. And its audio is as smoothen as butter.

governorhatc1972.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.stuff.tv/features/57-essential-albums-audiophiles/

Share this post