What Are Your Reference Discs? or Specific Reference Tracks

Man this went into the weeds fast. I really believe the purpose of this post was stated in the first sentence
Looking for new gems!

Lyle Lovett North Dakota from Joshua Judges Ruth is one of my go to songs used for COMPARISONS. as in developing a baseline of preference. I use it because:

I’m familiar with it
Excellently engineered
Amazing piano entry that just floats on the sound stage
Sharp percussive attacks to assist in evaluating dynamics and snap
The duet with Rickie Lee Jones for vocals
... and a great song

It’s a diamond of a song

Another +vote for 'Year of the Cat'.

Happy Listening!

I was just surfing old music I felt like listening to, and the Lovett album immediately struck me as especially expressive of my system’s improved capabilities. It’s a great reference disk.

It seems clear that MC uses Year of the Cat as a standard reference track, and its bona fides as a reference track are proved by the way it renders the various instruments. (Viz., "sounded more like sax than ever,", "each note on a piano is three strings…and its way more real now than ever," "things are rendered so clear and distinct from each other.") Indeed, the track exhibits this more the other tracks/artists he mentions in the quotation, so if Year of the Cat stands above/beyond them, I cannot see how it does *except as* a reference track. Unless it is just above/beyond them for the musical content, in which case it wouldn’t be necessary to dwell on the acoustic details.

I would highly recommend the new album by Rag n Bone Man - Life by Misadventure.
Let your ears decide.