I too am turned off by the low LOW fi quality of his earlier albums. If you feel the same about low-fi recording, avoid everything before All Hail West Texas.
Even though AHWT is still a lo-fi recording, it's tolerable and features good music. The first album I think where John Darnielle abandons the lo-fi approach altogether is The Sunset Tree so it wouldn't be a bad idea to work foward from there either.
Personally, my favorite of his was last year's album Heretic Pride. It's an AMAZING album and one of the few records I'd give a perfect rating to... ever.
He also released an album this year but I haven't listened to it too much yet.
Even though AHWT is still a lo-fi recording, it's tolerable and features good music. The first album I think where John Darnielle abandons the lo-fi approach altogether is The Sunset Tree so it wouldn't be a bad idea to work foward from there either.
Personally, my favorite of his was last year's album Heretic Pride. It's an AMAZING album and one of the few records I'd give a perfect rating to... ever.
He also released an album this year but I haven't listened to it too much yet.
