[TrevorNetwork]

Well, I should be receiving the Omega II's on Thursday, and I'd like to buy some new music as well. Specifically, I'm looking for albums (Redbook) that are very well recorded. I like pop, rock, and vocals. I was pleasently suprised by the new Garbage album (BeautifulGarbage). I have also been very impressed with Faye Wong (Wong Fei) albums, and Ayako Hosokawa albums. I do not, however want to be limited to typical audiophile fare.

Let's make these Omega II's sing!

Tre

(It's almost an Omega II smile!)

btw: If Omega's truly are "The Omega" this should be the end of my upgraditis!

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

This album is one of the best recorded rock/metal album's I've heard, and the songs range from very heavy, to long and progressive, to a pair of great guitar and piano ballads. Great vocals as well. Avoids this band's tendency to "overplay" by some peoples standards that occurs on some of their other albums.

 

[minya]

I'll recommend Funkstörung's new album Disconnected. It's a very odd yet very compelling and listenable melange of electronica, pop, and hip-hop. If you like Björk, then you'll love this album. It's extremely well recorded; even MP3s of it sound great.

- Chris

 

[john_jcb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron_Dreamer This album is one of the best recorded rock/metal album's I've heard, and the songs range from very heavy, to long and progressive, to a pair of great guitar and piano ballads. Great vocals as well. Avoids this band's tendency to "overplay" by some peoples standards that occurs on some of their other albums.

Thanks for the recommendation. I listened to this CD today and really liked it.

 

[noname]

Not only is Tool's Lateralus is an amazing rock/metal album but it's also an HDCD!

Prolly the best recording I've heard to date.. and that's not my bias talking

- Justin

 

[Bolt San]

Porcupine Tree - In Absentia is very well produced, as is most of the stuff S. Wilson has touched.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by john_jcb Thanks for the recommendation. I listened to this CD today and really liked it.

Awesome! Next stops for you should be A Change of Seasons, Images and Words, and Metropolis Pt.2 Scenes from a Memory.

 

[Bolt San]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron_Dreamer Awesome! Next stops for you should be A Change of Seasons, Images and Words, and Metropolis Pt.2 Scenes from a Memory.

In my opinion those should be the only stops he makes.
Those are all great albums but the rest of their stuff is mostly horrible.

 

[redshifter]

in the realm of pop music, try the rick ocasek (the cars) and prince produced "rock steady" from no doubt. i'm no big fan of pop music, but i like this one.

for something unusual and well recorded, try "spiritchaser" from dead can dance. this is one of the top headphone albums.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bolt San In my opinion those should be the only stops he makes. Those are all great albums but the rest of their stuff is mostly horrible.

I don't know about HORRIBLE, but spotty for sure. I can't stand the singer on theri debut album so I only like the instrumental, Ytse Jam; FII has a few great songs (New Milennium, LITS, Pervuian Skies, Trial of Tears) but the rest is boring generic filler. Their las two albums also have some great spots, and some stuff that is less succesful. The albums I recommended are definitely the gems of their catalog, I would describe the rest as being "for serious fans only."

 

[dd3mon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by noname Not only is Tool's Lateralus is an amazing rock/metal album but it's also an HDCD! Prolly the best recording I've heard to date.. and that's not my bias talking - Justin

I love Tool, and IMO Laturalus is second only slightly to Aenima. However, I'm gonna have to disagree with you about the recording quality. It's not bad, probably in the top half of rock records, but far from clean. There are a few minor mastering errors, but the biggest problem I have is that many songs (especially the quiet ones) have way too much hiss/noise! On a very resolving headphone setup (or even a sensitive speaker setup for that matter!) the hiss level is too high for this to be considered a good, clean recording.

Dave Matthews makes good recordings, Beck's Sea Change is raved about for it's recording quality (I don't think it's amazing, but a very good recording for rock genre), Ben Folds makes good recordings, Radiohead's Hail to the Theif is pretty good (I love OK Computer, but it is recorded a touch hot in the treble), Guster makes good recordings, Alice in Chains' MTV Unplugged is great as well as Nirvana's (but not as clean as AiC's). Unforunately much of mainstream pop/rock is poorly recorded and mastered, or overmastered so that inherant noise floors in some instrument amps gets brought out as they mess with the tracks.

-dd3mon

 

[chadbang]

double post

 

[chadbang]

Probably the recorded rock album I can think of, hands down, is Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "The Boatman's Call". Now, it's a very down beat album, but if you're into melancholy ballads (with beautifully poetic lyrics) then you'll love this album. Why is it a great recording? I put it on par with the Ry Cooder "Buena Vista Social Club" recordings (also The Cowboy Junkie's "Trinity Session" comes to mind, though I prefer "The Boatman's Call". Possibly because the instrumentation on "The Boatman's Call" includes a lot of piano, which always sound great when well recorded). The natural-sounding, very clean recording, captures a live ambience. Nick Cave's voice is fantastically miked -- full bodied and right there in the room with you. The instruments all are natural sounding and distinct - there is a fantastic sense of presence and soundstaging. Even if you decide you don't like the material, with top gear, you owe it to yourself to hear what a good recording can be. It was recorded at Abbey Road -- I've been meaning to search out the recording engineer and producer to see what else they've done.

Other than that, Frank Zappa's "Burnt Weenie Sandwich" is pretty amazing. That's one of my other top ten best recordings of all time. Although I don't know whether to classify it as rock, jazz, classical or avant garde! You decide:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=music

 

[kevin gilmore]

joe jackson night and day 2

best recorded CD i've heard in quite a while.

 

[raif]

I love tool, but lateralus(sp?) was horribly mastered. There is the hiss issue, which always drives me nuts, but also it feels as if the frequency range of the music was compressed in a way that the extreme lows and highs are almost nonexistant, and the rest of the spectrum is too sonically dense.