I'm no audiophile music collector. I would much rather have a great performance that is digitally compressed than a bunch of new age noodling perfectly captured. But hey, I have a few bucks invested in audio too. I enjoy a well-recorded set as much as the next audiophile. So I would like this distinguished group's take on great-sounding CDs (I don't do vinyl) that are also great music. I'll start...
Van Morrison, "It's Too Late To Stop Now." -- A little light at the bottom end, but otherwise a pretty exemplary live rock recording. You can feel the ambience of the room, hear every nuance of every instrument, easily tell when Van is a bit too close to the mic creating proximity effect to good effect...hell, you can almost picture the hippie chick who says "Alriiiiight" when "Listen To The Lion" finally completes its long wind down to silence. This is the stuff. The original release from the 90s is a bit better than last year's remaster, IMHO.
Shelby Lynn, "Just A Little Lovin'" -- A modern analog recording, and I mean analog to the bone. You can hear the tube preamp of the old RCA mic she's using. It's a neat effect that gets a bit too trick after awhile, but it contributes to the uber intimacy of the recording and it's easy to overlook. The music? It is Shelby Lynn interpreting songs made famous by Dusty Springfield, backed up by a small, mostly acoustic jazz combo. It is transcendent. As I said in the Female Vocalist thread, it sounds like you walked into a smoky basement jazz club on a rainy evening, to find the ghost of Dusty Springfield singing her lifetime of heartbreak and regret. God, it's good.
P
Van Morrison, "It's Too Late To Stop Now." -- A little light at the bottom end, but otherwise a pretty exemplary live rock recording. You can feel the ambience of the room, hear every nuance of every instrument, easily tell when Van is a bit too close to the mic creating proximity effect to good effect...hell, you can almost picture the hippie chick who says "Alriiiiight" when "Listen To The Lion" finally completes its long wind down to silence. This is the stuff. The original release from the 90s is a bit better than last year's remaster, IMHO.
Shelby Lynn, "Just A Little Lovin'" -- A modern analog recording, and I mean analog to the bone. You can hear the tube preamp of the old RCA mic she's using. It's a neat effect that gets a bit too trick after awhile, but it contributes to the uber intimacy of the recording and it's easy to overlook. The music? It is Shelby Lynn interpreting songs made famous by Dusty Springfield, backed up by a small, mostly acoustic jazz combo. It is transcendent. As I said in the Female Vocalist thread, it sounds like you walked into a smoky basement jazz club on a rainy evening, to find the ghost of Dusty Springfield singing her lifetime of heartbreak and regret. God, it's good.
P
