Thread: Best produced albums

Name some of your favorites, where the sound just seems to surround you, is right in front of you, or whatever production qualities you find appealing. It can even be that the production is raw, simple and minimal.

Some of my favorites are:

Metallica: Master of Puppets
Steely Dan: Aja
Boston: first two albums
Beatles: White Album

Off the top of my head, in no particular order, and straying from just Rock...

- Pink Floyd from Dark Side onwards, but particularly The Wall (but excluding live albums)

- Roger Waters' solo studio albums

- Supertramp's Brother Where You Bound

- The Hounds of Love by Kate Bush

- Welcome to The Pleasure Dome by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (seriously !!)

- Weld by Neil Young (One of my fave live efforts. Brilliantly recorded guitars), and his album with The Bluenotes, This Note's For You

- Famous Blue Raincoat by Jennifer Warnes

- The Nightfly by Donald Fagen (since you've mentioned Steely Dan)

- Stella, One Second, & Flag by Yello (awesome sounding Electronica)

- Peepshow by Siouxsie & The Banshees

- The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies (live in an empty church into a single microphone. Intimacy personified)

- Homogenic by Björk (more Electronica)

- Secret Wish by Propaganda

- Murder Ballads, & The Boatman's Call by Nick Cave

- Mind Bomb by The The

- Revolutions by Jean Michel Jarre(more electronics)

- Mystery Girl by Roy Orbison

- The Road to Hell by Chris Rea

- Garbage by Garbage

Any of these are guaranteed to sound superb, but of course may not be music you're keen on.

Also there are scores of fab sounding Jazz albums dating back to the mid '50s

^^

You must have an awful big head to have that many come off the top of it.

Mrs Tiggi would agree with you...

Metallica's Death Magnetic.





Not.

Thriller by Micheal Jackson.......................Quincy Jones

Sgt Pepper. by the Beatles......................George Martin

Electric Warrior ........By T.Rex...................Tony Visconti

Who's Next.............................................. .Glyn Johns

Originally Posted by Tiggi

- Garbage by Garbage

I agree with that because I have the song "only happy when it rains" on a compilation and every time I listen to this I think "wow, what a great sounding song, everything seems to be so present and enveloping". I don't know about the rest of the album, but as you mention it, it's great too.

So for my own list here they come:

- Les Jardiniers - Moon Patrol (style: electronic)

This album comes from my province of Quebec, so unfortunately I will be hard for you to know and/or find it; I don't know if it was exported. But it was the first time I was really impressed with the sound of an album. I was in a car and the sound was perfect: I could hear every sounds very clearly, and it was sounding like it was made especially for this car: the music was everywhere, perfectly sounding. I think that even if hating the music, just the sound was worth a listen.

Madonna - Confession on a dance floor

I think this albums is a masterpiece, both in the sound and the music. A great experience from beginning to end.

Gorefest - False

A death metal album that sounds really great. I the world of death metal, you often stumble upon really sounding mess; but this one was clearly well produced.

Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells 2003

It's the first time I saw something like this: a complete re-recording of an old album. Being dissatisfied with the original from 1973 because of production restrains, he re-played/re-recorded himself his own album to make it sound exactly how he wanted to with today's technology. The result is perfect sound, it is even available on DVD-Audio in 5.1 surround sound. Despite this effort, some consider the old one to be the best, probably because of the nostalgia. But if you're new to this album, pick the 2003 re-playing; only after discovering this one you can go back and try the old one; maybe his nostalgia will even surpass the sound of the new!

Originally Posted by Iota

Metallica's Death Magnetic.





Not.

It's a darn site better produced than St Anger

I'll add Earth Wind and Fires - All in All

Supertramps - Paris

Oh, I get into trouble BIG TIME in posts such as this. I see all kinds of goodies to disagree with.

First off, IMO production contribution comes in two flavors.

1) Audio (what we hear as listeners)

2) Actual artistic direction & contribution that more so shapes the essence of the product itself prior to, or as, the artists themselves are being recorded.