I find that the vast majority of pop, hip hop and rock recordings range from abysmal to ok. Very few are excellent.

I can say however, that the majority of jazz and classical recordings are excellent.

Pop/rock recording engineers do tend to compress (to sound better on crappy and car systems)

Companies like Telarc, Mapleshade and Chesky go direct to disc and rarely have any processing or compression at all.

I'd say that the individuals mastering the product make the biggest difference, not the country of origin.