What in the world is going on.....

Simple explanation is that most commercial recordings are mastered to sound great on lesser systems. High rez systems will make all those recordings sound like crap. Unmastered albums is actually a thing now.

I bought this album when it came out and posted a comment on it and did not receive one response. I felt that it was recorded hot, had sibilance issues and seemed compressed. I bough the vinyl. IMO, the song writing is disjointed and the lyrics seems forced. There are some interesting moments and probably worth  purchasing but not near his best effort. And, I am a big fan of his music!

I thought I was the only one who really didn't like this album.  Guess not, but Fremer sure creamed all over it.

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/simon-and-halee-reunited-again-make-musical-and-sonic-magic

I suppose, hew is correct about mass market production, but I don't think it fully explains the lousy sound from high end rig. There is something else to it. Bad pressing? Dirty record? High expectations?

I can give a somewhat similar example, comparing cd and youtube.
Yngwie Malmsteen with Japanese orchestra. Great music. First, I listened to it on youtube through Grado phones, no external dac, and it sounded acceptable. Then I got the cd and it sounded terrible on my rig, I threw the cd away. Somehow they managed to completely screw up that cd, I don't know how. My expectations were not high, yet I couldn't really tolerate that crap. Still listen to it on youtube.