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Great Music/Bad Vinyl - 2010 Edition

You know it, you dread it -- a great performance but a crummy sounding LP. This is even worse than a crummy performance because you want to listen, but it's painful and offends our highfalutin' audiophile sensibilities. Yes, I know it's all about the music, but 'fess up; it hurts a bit to hear how bad that recording sounds.

Hope others chime in and share their tales of vinyl woe and help others avoid our expensive mistakes. Nominees should be restricted to vinyl you've actually heard and not water cooler scuttlebutt.

Without further adieu, my nominees are (drumroll...)

The Raveonettes - 'In and Out of Control'
Recorded too loud with no dynamic range.

Phosphorescent - 'Here's To Taking It Easy'
Imagine the sound of mid-60's Motown; this was worse.

The Dead Weather - 'Horehound'
Actually anything on the Third Man Record Label could be on this list. Jack, please, hire a real engineer. Please.

Special Award for Disappointment/Expectation Ratio:
Elvis Costello - 'My Aim Is True' (MSFL re-issue)
jazdoc
xiekitchen
821 posts
 
"Metal Albums that are sonically great"
You're not gonna believe this but,,, Black Sabbath "Technical Ecstacy" (the LP)wasn't bad...
Also Deep Purple's "Who Do We Think we are" LP pretty good sounding.
palasr
526 posts
 
Yeah, I know about the 45RPM version, but I only found out after I bought the 33RPM (!). I agree, there is a lot of complexity happening, but there's a lot of complexity in a Mahler symphony and I have a few of those that sound stunning.

Decent sounding metal (and I use the term broadly) albums:

Faith No More - 'King For a Day, Fool for a Lifetime'
Soundgarden - 'Badmotorfinger' and 'Down on the Upside'
The Melvins - 'Stoner Witch'
Prong - 'Cleansing'
Leeway - Open Mouth Kiss
Nearly the entire Rage Against the Machine catalog, and most of Clutch's albums (especially Elephant Riders, recorded/mastered on a Tim de Paravicini modded Studer, which shamefully has never been on vinyl). There are more which I can't remember off the top of my head.
And, of course, there's the past - lots of good sounding Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Sabbath, Rainbow, etc.

What's your list of recommended metal LPs?
theunderlyingtheme
90 posts
 

Here, some "metal" LP's that I think have great sound (of course I'm loosely using the term also):

Extreme - III Sides To Every Story

Metallica - Metallica

Hanoi Rocks - Two Steps From The Move

Queensryche - Empire

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak, Black Rose

AC/DC - Powerage

Queen - News Of The World, A Day At The Races, The Game
xiekitchen
821 posts
 
ditto on Thin L.'s "Jailbreak" UK pressing (LP)
theunderlyingtheme
90 posts
 

Xiekitchen, I'm fortunate to have some Thin Lizzy UK pressings as well.

One I forgot about:

King's X - Out Of The Silent Planet
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