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Great Music/Bad Vinyl - 2010 Edition

You know it, you dread it -- a great performance but a crummy sounding LP. This is even worse than a crummy performance because you want to listen, but it's painful and offends our highfalutin' audiophile sensibilities. Yes, I know it's all about the music, but 'fess up; it hurts a bit to hear how bad that recording sounds.

Hope others chime in and share their tales of vinyl woe and help others avoid our expensive mistakes. Nominees should be restricted to vinyl you've actually heard and not water cooler scuttlebutt.

Without further adieu, my nominees are (drumroll...)

The Raveonettes - 'In and Out of Control'
Recorded too loud with no dynamic range.

Phosphorescent - 'Here's To Taking It Easy'
Imagine the sound of mid-60's Motown; this was worse.

The Dead Weather - 'Horehound'
Actually anything on the Third Man Record Label could be on this list. Jack, please, hire a real engineer. Please.

Special Award for Disappointment/Expectation Ratio:
Elvis Costello - 'My Aim Is True' (MSFL re-issue)
jazdoc
mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
4,982 posts
 
"Special Award for Disappointment/Expectation Ratio:
Elvis Costello - 'My Aim Is True' (MSFL re-issue)"

You must have gotten a bad copy. Mine is EXCELLENT both sonically and musically. All of the reviews I have read say the same thing. Sorry, don't agree with this...
xiekitchen
821 posts
 
LOTS of pop albums fit the bill:
just thinking how BAD the sound is on YES "Yessongs" live 1973 tour.. NO BASS... man I coulda done better with a stereo walkman.
how about the HORRIBLE sound of Chicago's IV "Live at Carnegie Hall" 4 record set? in some ways sound not too bad but all kinds of reflections and bouncy muddy lower mids and again NO BASS.
Then of course the unlistenable YES "Close to the Edge" the only version even listenable is the MFSL.
I have an OREGON album I absolutely LOVE the music on, but the vinyl quality is so incredibly bad with super noisy distortion it's unbearable.. the recording is good, the vinyl itself sucks and I went thru 3 copies trying to find one that didn't suck.. the pressing is "Roots in the Sky" on the Electa label.. could never find an import copy but that would be the way to go.. one of those ultra rare instances where the CD was a better situation than the LP!
"Miles and Monk at Newport" also pretty bad recording.. so is Coltranes "Live at the Village Vanguard II" sounds like it was recorded on a portable GE cassette recorder!!
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,964 posts
 
I am really glad to hear Xiekitchen point out Close to the Edge as a terrible CD transfer. I used to enjoy listening to it on LP. The CD is without exaggeration unlistenable. Once every couple of years , I think to myself, it couldn't be that bad and I put it on. Within 2 or 3 minutes, I can't take any more of the screeching high frequency distortion and gross compression. What a shame for such a good work.
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