What is the VERY BEST CD album you've ever heard?


Just like with records, I came across releases on CD that were never popular, but bring lots of interesting music and so I started collecting CDs that do have collectible value for the reason of a great and rare music presented.

So far album "Sauce Hollandaise" by Ashra is on my #1 desirable list

"Best Band You've Never Heard In Your Life" by Frank Zappa is my 2nd best CD I've ever heard. 

 

czarivey

Can this be defined, my favourite album for content is Sade Diamond Life, but it's a poor recording. Gaucho by Steely Dan is a great recording but far from their best tracks. 25th anniversary Famous Blue Raincoat by Jennifer Warnes has great songs and excellent recording, losing the sibilance of the original. What do I listen to most, Based on a True Story, Fat Freddy's Drop. 

I can’t help but laugh when people make these delineations within pop music.  
It’s ALL POP.  
If it ain’t classical or jazz, it’s just a particular shade of pop.  
It was Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, etc.  

Then Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc.  

That pretty much did it.  
Everything we’ve enjoyed in pop the last 60+ years has been an offshoot of that “Rock and Roll Big Bang.” 
It’s ALL POP.  
Popular. Hence the abbreviation.

The remastered 96 bit It’s a Beautiful Day cd sounds spectacularly good, especially “Wasted Union Blues”…..one of the heaviest tunes of the 60’s.

My Hendrix Band of Gypsies cd with 2 bonus cuts was (I think) rare up until the complete concerts box set can out and has it all.

So do bootleg cds count? I have some Stones bootlegs that are pretty good (was gonna mention The Beatles bootlegs but….)

Occasionally box sets sell out and aren’t available except used. The Ten Years After 1967 - 1974 complete albums box has been reissued but packaging is inferior and doesn’t contain the “discovered” Cap Ferrat recordings.

@ czarivey    Where is "rock" identified as a qualifier?  ... by who's definition?

@ tylermunns   Blues is not pop, classical or jazz; many of the artists mentioned are not "pop," and do not fit cleanly in one of your three grossly oversimplified categories of music.

+1 for It's a Beautiful Day

King Crimson, "Starless and Bible Black"