Great Recordings, Sonically Speaking - and Why.

@sumaato ,

"Audio friends, I’ve got to wonder, reading the posts in this thread, if any listeners have purchased a record since about 1980!"


My record buying (current music) began to seriously tail off by the late 1990s.

Afterwards it’s mostly been reissues and material by previous favourites (Dylan, Springsteen, Morrissey etc).

The main problem is the sheer richness of the back catalogue stretching back some 70+ years. Even now there’s potentially hundreds of great albums I’ve not heard - mostly US artists little heard in the UK.

Therefore recent stuff has a lot to compete with if its going to stick and same goes for cinema, TV etc.

In fact the only recent (post 2000) movies I’ve seen that have left much of a lasting impression were both from 2008 - The Hurt Locker and The Dark Knight (Batman).

It's a moot point as what's actually happening today but there does seem to be a clear discord between recent world events and musical commentary.

Any protest singers still around in 2021?
Anyone about to instigate a cultural revolution like the ones witnessed in the 1950s and 1960s or are we done?

Even now there’s potentially hundreds of great albums I’ve not heard - mostly US artists little heard in the UK.

Great music and great recordings have never stopped being made by great musicians. Sure enough, there is a huge amount of material to wade through even from one week of new releases to the next week , but if you know roughly what genres you tend to stick with, then it's not difficult to look into new stuff day-to-day.

If one is interested in 1970s rock music for example (as most of us seem to be!), there is a whole contemporary community of rock artists evolving and changing with modern influences from other genres, creating new worthwhile music, with great recording and musicianship.

One of my interests is 1950s torch singers, of which i have hundreds of original albums, in mono and early stereo. Though the overall presence of that type of music culture has shrunk dramatically, their high standards of arrangements and singing performance can be found in contemporary recording artists like Stacy Kent, Diana Panton and Celeste.

Jazz At The Pawnshop. It’s an excellent demo disc on vinyl and cd. And it was recorded in the mid 50’s. But the recording will blow you away. Chet Baker begins his career. This is before Chet was a household word. Great recording!

"It does not matter how much I spend on a piece of new gear or a tweak, the single biggest contribution to my listening pleasure is the quality of the recording."

@chilli42

AMEN!
Understanding recording quality to derive from: composition, performance, sonics.

In line with that, some worthy titles:
Black Light Syndrome - Bozzio, Levin, Stevens
Earth + Sky - Andy Summers
If You Look Far Enough - Andersen, Towner, Vasconcelos
If Summer Had Its Ghosts - Bruford, Towner, Gomez
Last Dance of Mr. X - Andy Summers
(forget The Police, just listen to these two from Andy)
Meltemi - Alboran Trio
Never Ending January - Espen Eriksen Trio
Searching for Jupiter - Magnus Ostrom
St. Germain (self-titled)

Eric Clapton - Change the World, Alison Krauss & Union Station - Live, Tarrus Riley - Human Nature, Brantley Gilbert - Man That Hung The Moon, yes to much of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler, Super Tramp, much of the remastered Beatles, many classics and too many more to mention.  It's great that these artist care about what their music actually sounds like and spent the money for the best.  Unfortunately very few seem to care or notice anymore so we may hear fewer and fewer great recording.