[gloco]

Lets keep this one from the 70's and onward. My vote:

Oasis: Whats the Story Morning Glory?

Simply messy production, everything sounds squashed, but also bland, flat, lifeless, screechy highs, basically sounds like a POS headphone. People actually complain about Metallica's 'Justice' album which sounds 'ok' albeit the odd cymbal reproduction (i honestly like 'Justice' the most).

George

 

[dngl]

Velvet Underground's CDs sound like heck...

But my vote for worst recorded "good-ish" CD is Deftone's White Pony. I listen to it on rare occasions, but by golly, it is horribly recorded and mixed. Never have I heard such siblance.

 

[aeberbach]

Imperial bedroom, Elvis Costello. Harsh!

 

[zoboomofo]

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffitti. It was mixed on ****ty headphones. Oh and uh Morning Glory sounds so terrible, it makes me tear my hair out. I've made other posts about the appalling production values that went into this album ( regardless of the effort to achieve a Phil Spector sound.) And Justice... sounds really wierd; its a metal album but it has the most bland and polite sound ever. OK Computer tests my grain tolerance. The 2 albums I have, that I've heard Nigel Godrich produce since OK, tests my gain tolerance. Hmmm, lets see. I'm not a huge Tore Johansson fan either (Cardigans compression man). I do enjoy all these albums despite their sound though.


The last bunch are Radiohead's Amnesiac , Travis' The Invisible Band , The Cardigans' Life , and Emmerdale .

 

[dngl]

The Beatles weren't poorly recorded, but their CDs are poorly mastered.

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally posted by zoboomofo And Justice... sounds really wierd; its a metal album but it has the most bland and polite sound ever.

Me and a friend always refer to it as a "classical metal" album due to the intricate/jamming guitar work compared to the last 3 albums they released.

George

 

[zoboomofo]

Yeah, and its funny you mentioned classical. That's what I imagined the Justice producer was into; its so neutral sounding LOL. Metallica's Black Album has shrill highs sometimes, but it still sounds lovely. That's what I auditioned the Naim Headline with, and the tunes from that amp are fondly remembered. God bless Bob Rock.

One more thing about And Justice for All, though - it always cracks me up to hear the classical intros get savagely interrupted by crushing rhythm guitar.

 

[redshifter]

my favorite (in the true sense) is metallica's "master of puppets". it sounds like it is coming from an a.m. radio, but it just seems right for the music. metallica kind of lost their lo-fi sound with the black album.

the velvet underground usually sounds pretty bad, but that just adds to the recorded-in-andy-warhol's-loft-on-poorly-maintained-equipment feel.

another is the smith's best of 1 & 2. some of the songs have very poorly equalized drums and acoustic guitar. then others sound just fine. it's the curse of the "best of" album.

the beatles abbey road cd isn't too bad. it actually holds it own with many newer remasters.

as long as we're talking about the worst, some of my best are stereolab's sound dust, michael brook's cobalt blue, and eno/burn's my life in the bush of ghosts. and i actually really like all the "worst" albums i mentioned above, despite their production quality.

 

[Xevion]

And Justice For All just happens to have a largish dynamic range for a metal album. It isn't as loud. I don't particularly care for the recording, although it isn't all that horrible.

Nightwish recordings sound like crap to me, they have such shrill, fautiging highs, it highly irritates me.

Sigh - Imaginary Soundscape sounds quite horific too.

I must say I have a lot of albums that simply sound like crap, but I still live.

 

[cajunchrist]

Exhorder's The Law. Holy solid state guitars Batman! Nothin' but treble in the guitar production, with hardly any of the low crunch that drives the music, but that second album is listenable in a way that their first (Slaughter in the Vatican), though better produced is not. Just goes to show it's all about the music.

 

[davidcotton]

Clive Nolan/Oliver Wakeman Jabberwocky CD. Fantastic music but What were they on when they went and mastered/producued it? Weird whistles going on in the background (NOT part of the music trust me)and one of the most explosive p's I've heard on the word protect! Not one of there best production wise unfortunately

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally posted by Xevion And Justice For All just happens to have a largish dynamic range for a metal album.

True, i think thats why so many fans bashed the album for its "poor" engineering, although i truely like the album more than any of their others. It has a lot of crunch, minus the bass guitar.

Master sounding like am radio? Not my cd! LOL, actually my understanding is that they used a lot of vocal "enhancers" to give James those screechy vocals, i wonder if that played into the rest of the production on their earlier efforts, besides his vocal chords aging a bit.

Eric Clapton's "layla" also sounds atrocious (i have it off of the 'Cream of Clapton' cd). Screechy highs is just the beginning, its a engineering nightmare.

 

[cajunchrist]

I think Justice's boxy sounding kick drums are it's greatest weakness. Plus, the overall dry sound of the album distances me emotionally from it.

 

[Braver]

Quote:

Originally posted by davidcotton Clive Nolan/Oliver Wakeman Jabberwocky CD. Fantastic music but What were they on when they went and mastered/producued it? Weird whistles going on in the background (NOT part of the music trust me)and one of the most explosive p's I've heard on the word protect! Not one of there best production wise unfortunately

I'll second this one! boy is it bad, but the music makes up for a lot of it, still a very fun album.

 

[Ctn]

Man I need to grow up.