Fleetwood Mac, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, Alan Parsons Project, Supertramp, Steely Dan, King Crimson, MIchael Jackson, Santana, Doobie Brothers are some bands that always impressed me with the quality of their releases.
I have seen Rush live at least 10 times and I own every album of theirs, but I would have to say Rush albums are really not very good sounding. Moving Pictures, well maybe, but the last time I took it for a spin without drumming along (and not very well I should add) it didn't really impress me. My brother swears the Mobile Fidelity releases are the best sounding Rush albums, and somewhere around here I have Moving Pictures from that collection so I should dig it out and give it a listen. The new Rush album (Clockwork Angels) is a fantastic album in terms of musical content, certainly their best album by far since Counterparts, but it is so poorly recorded in my opinion that I have a hard time playing it, I certainly could never turn it up as it turns into noise quite quickly. To make it playable on my iPod I had to use a parametric EQ to remove the mountains of extra bass that obscures all other detail and provides plenty of noise. How they could allow the album to be mastered that way is beyond me, but what do I know?
I have to agree that Moving Pictures sounds great. It was really a let down to find the level of audio quality on Rush albums after worshiping the basic music for all these years. I even saw 2112 live! And Hemispheres live!
Here is a link to a slightly different version of the song Growing Up by Peter Gabriel from the album UP. UP is really well recorded and presents plenty of transitions and complex bass signals. This is one of my favorite test tracks as on the album when the drums first come into the song with some basic tom hits they are rich, fat and very thick sounding. This video isn't quite as good as the album version, but still very nice.
I have to agree that Moving Pictures sounds great. It was really a let down to find the level of audio quality on Rush albums after worshiping the basic music for all these years. I even saw 2112 live! And Hemispheres live!
When I was 15 I was stuck in the back of a VW Van with my family for a 2,000 mile road trip in the summer, no AC. I had a cassette walkman and one tape-Back to the Future soundtrack that I had listened to about 20 times in the first 2 days. Stopped in to a Kmart someplace and I saw an interesting cover on a cassette that was on sale.
Rush's Exit Stage Left. I had never heard of them at that point. Man was I sucked in. I couldn't believe all the cool songs and theatric type music could all be on one $5.99 cassette. Listened to this on a loop to drown out my sisters nagging voice for the next two weeks. Been a fan ever since.
When I was 15 I was stuck in the back of a VW Van with my family for a 2,000 mile road trip in the summer, no AC. I had a cassette walkman and one tape-Back to the Future soundtrack that I had listened to about 20 times in the first 2 days. Stopped in to a Kmart someplace and I saw an interesting cover on a cassette that was on sale.
Rush's Exit Stage Left. I had never heard of them at that point. Man was I sucked in. I couldn't believe all the cool songs and theatric type music could all be on one $5.99 cassette. Listened to this on a loop to drown out my sisters nagging voice for the next two weeks. Been a fan ever since.
The new remastered CD which came out in 97 or something does have the missing song. I think it's Passage To Bangkok. I purchased the album which when it came out in 81 had 2 records. The old CDs could not hold all the songs. The tape and 8track did though. I think it is a live DVD too. Moving pictures has better sound. There s even a high resolution version of Moving Pictures out if you believe in higher than 16 bit benefits.
I had the original vinyl of Exit Stage Left (still have it and All The Worlds A Stage). The live cuts Xanadu and A Passage To Bangkok are just stunning as is Jacob's Ladder so try to get versions that include A Passage to Bangkok if you can.
To my ears, all of the MTV "Unplugged" albums sound great, especially through headphones. I heartily second another poster's suggestion of the Alice in Chains edition, as well as all of the already-mentioned suggestions which I've heard.
A few other rock albums which I feel are well-recorded, which I've not seen mentioned:
The Dave Matthews Band - Crash
Riverside - Second Life Syndrome
Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
Pavement - Crooked Rain
The Police - Reggatta de Blanc
The mastering on Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick is probably the best I've heard.
I also really like Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, since the album hits a lot of different styles. (Not to mention the album is absolutely phenomenal, and belongs in every rock fan's collection)
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