Great music but poor recording recommendations.


It hit me that, when I visit most of my audiophile friends, that they are always playing Holly Cole, Pat Barber, Diana Krall, Kraftwerk, Dead Can Dance and other things that are well recorded but not very consonant with my musical sensibility. Most of the music I really enjoy is pretty badly recorded. So I thought that, in the interest of widening musical exposure, we could start a thread with great music that is not particularly well recorded but deserves a hearing from our audiophile friends. Doesn't have to be the worst recording ever or anything like that, just mediocre will do. I'll throw three out. "Introducing Roland Kirk", originally released on Argo and subsequently on Chess. This is Kirk's first record as a leader, before he became Rashaan, a real winner. Recording quality suffers in comparison to his later work on Mercury/Limelight and Atlantic. Robert Earl Keen, "Number 2 Live Dinner". OK, I said that I wouldn't pick the very worst recording, but this may be right up there, hey, it's my thread so I can cheat. Unbelieveable songwriting from this unsung Texas troubadour. Townes (who made a few terrible sounding recordings as well) would be proud. The Strokes "Room On Fire", their latest effort sounds like a direct-to-disc compared to this sophomore outing. More sludge than a Mississippi River flood. One can easily argue that, in this case, we are dealing with artisitic intent. For a brief moment, the only new band that mattered. Next.
128x128viridian
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Audioslave - Out of Exile.

Poor recording/mastering/whatever is highlighted by playing back to back with their first album.
Aaaahhhh

Tvad... dissing (SP?) Kiss ALive?? That was one of the first albums I ever bought... Yes Fragile was first...... I haven't listened to it since about 1980, so I can't coment on the recording....

FWIW I just got an older version of Husker Du's "don't want to know if you are lonely on a compilation CD set my stepdaughter bought me for Christmas, and YES the recording SUXXXXXXXXXs, but the song is so powerful you can overlook that... So I guess for me, that would get my vote.... along with the Minutemen "politcal song for Michael Jackson to sing"

What can I say, I still have a warm spot in my heart for the angry old punk.....

We won't even start on the UK Subs and Dead Boys... forget the SP's, and DOA, Red Kross etc....

KT
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Sting's collection, what was it called, the goldy-yellow cover, a double LP. Wretched recording and wonderful songs.