Great and Great Sounding Rock LPs Part 1 (Absolute Sound)

[Ex Lion Tamer]

Since Bob Gendron has become the Rock Music Editor at Absolute Sound, I think their review section is the best of the "Big 3" audio magazines, (the big 3 as I see them includes Sterophile and HiFi+, along with TAS), by far, with a distinct indie rock bent. For instance the latest issue has reviews of new albums from; The National, Spoon, Bloc Party, The Mars Volta and Beck. Never find a line-up like that in Stereophile.

They also have an article picking the best (and best sounding) rock albums of all time, and by albums, they mean vinyl. They purposely left off the obvious choices like DSOTM, Brother is Arms, Rumours and Hotel California, because everyone knows about them. Here's their alphebetized list, discuss amongst yourselves... (note, I've indicated re-issue labels where applicable, otherwise assume original label release.)

AC/DC: Highway to Hell & Back in Black
Afghan Whigs: 1965
The Beatles: Revolver & Abbey Road
Bright Eyes: I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
Johnny Cash: American Recordings 1 through 4
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: The Boatman's Call
Elvis Costello: When I Was Cruel
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Deja Vu
Drive By Truckers: Southern Rock Opera
Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde (Sundazed mono), John Wesley Harding (Sundazed mono) and Oh Mercy
Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Grateful Dead: Live Dead & American Beauty
Guns & Roses: Use Your Illusion I and II
Jimi Hendrix: Axis Bold As Love (Classic Records mono), Band of Gypsies (Classic Records).
John Hiatt: Bring the Family
High on Fire: Blessed Black Wings
King Crimson: In The Court of the Crimson King
John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band
Led Zeppelin: 1-IV (Classic Records)
Low: Things We Lost in the Fire
Magnolia Electric Co.: Trials & Errors
John Mellencamp: Scarecrow
Metallica: St. Anger
Mission of Burma: OnOffOn
M83: Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
Neu: Neu
Nine Inch Nails: The Fragile
Nirvana: Unplugged in New York
Pearl Jam: Vitalogy
Tom Petty: Wildflowers
The Police: Synchronicity
Queen: A Night at the Opera
Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet
Santana: Abraxas
Shellac: At Action Park
The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow
Sigur Ros: ( )
Slint: Spiderland
Soundgarden: Badmotorfinger
Bruce Springsteen: Greatest hits
Rod Stewart Gasoline Alley
The Stooges: The Stooges & Fun House(both Sundazed)
Tortoise: TNT & Standards
Traveling Wilburys: Vol. 1
U2: Achtung Baby
Tom Waits: Mule Variations
White Stripes: Elephant
The Who: Tommy & Who's Next (Classic Records)
Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot & A Ghost is Born
Neil Young: Tonight's the Night, After the Goldrush & Greendale

Feel free to comment even if you don't do vinyl, as I'm sure the CD is probably comparable in sound quality on most of the above. My first comment, and only one for now is; "where's London Calling".

[Dave_G]

Interesting list.

London Calling is a good call, ya.

But this list can vary wildly, based on pressing quality, carteidge, table, arm, etc.

Vinyl sound quality varies wildly, to me.

Dave

[Mr MidFi]

I revisited a great-sounding disc over the weekend, one that I hadn't listened to in about 10 years or so...Roxy Music's Avalon. Wasn't on vinyl, but it sounded pretty good to me.

[Ex Lion Tamer]

I revisited a great-sounding disc over the weekend, one that I hadn't listened to in about 10 years or so...Roxy Music's Avalon. Wasn't on vinyl, but it sounded pretty good to me.

Yeah Avalon is a classic, surprised it wasn't mentioned, but it could be that it falls into the "obvious picks" category that they said they were not going to include.

Vinyl sound quality varies wildly, to me. based on pressing quality, carteidge, table, arm, etc

I'd agree that pressing quality and general record conditon is a wild card in judging any records sound quality, but I don't think you can include the playback equipment too, assuming that the equipment is in good working order, is competently designed and is set-up properly, the virtues of the recording quality should be discernable, whether the table is a Music Hall 2.1 or a Rockport Sirius, or something in between

[Slosh]

I revisited a great-sounding disc over the weekend, one that I hadn't listened to in about 10 years or so...Roxy Music's Avalon. Wasn't on vinyl, but it sounded pretty good to me.

The SACD sounds great even though it was sourced from a PCM re-master. I don't think I've ever listened to the CD layer though (not a car type album for me).

[Slosh]

Grateful Dead: American Beauty

The stereo track of the DVD-A sounds really nice.

The Police: Synchronicity

The SACD is better than the other Police SACDs but doesn't sound very good compared to other rock recordings on this list.

Queen: A Night at the Opera

DVD-A = meh

Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet

SACD is excellent.

The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow

Mine's red translucent vinyl. It does sound better than the CD but I wouldn't say it's anything special. Just a good, solid recording but there are lots of those and many are better.

[Davey]

The SACD sounds great even though it was sourced from a PCM re-master. I don't think I've ever listened to the CD layer though (not a car type album for me).

The rest of the story...

The multi-channel mix is from 16-bit PCM safeties of the multi-tracks which were done in 1995 because the analog tapes were deteriorating and they could only bake and play them a couple times to make digital copies before they were lost, but Bob Ludwig has said the 2-channel mix is from the original 30 ips 1/2" analog stereo master which was supposedly in great shape and it went through no PCM stages on the way to the SACD.




I do agree that there seem to be a lot of somewhat lackluster recordings on the list.

[Slosh]

The rest of the story...

The multi-channel mix is from 16-bit PCM safeties of the multi-tracks which were done in 1995 because the analog tapes were deteriorating and they could only bake and play them a couple times to make digital copies before they were lost, but Bob Ludwig has said the 2-channel mix is from the original 30 ips 1/2" analog stereo master which was supposedly in great shape and it went through no PCM stages on the way to the SACD.

Wow, I never even listened to the stereo track. I'll try to find time soon. What I heard was the 16-bit master they used for the multi-channel mix was recorded on a Sony DASH machine and the engineer mistakenly left the pitch control at +12% so the actual sample rate is something like 52kHz so it is technically better than CD. In any case it does sound very nice and it's one of the few 5.1 channel mixes that gets the surround right.

[Davey]

Wow, I never even listened to the stereo track. I'll try to find time soon. What I heard was the 16-bit master they used for the multi-channel mix was recorded on a Sony DASH machine and the engineer mistakenly left the pitch control at +12% so the actual sample rate is something like 52kHz so it is technically better than CD. In any case it does sound very nice and it's one of the few 5.1 channel mixes that gets the surround right.

And also 16-bit multi-tracks should yield something with significantly better than 16-bit resolution when mixed down on any modern console with high resolution digital processing, and so goes the story as to why something like Brothers In Arms might sound better on SACD (or DVD) than CD (provided it was remixed and not just remastered).

[Ex Lion Tamer]

I do agree that there seem to be a lot of somewhat lackluster recordings on the list.

It's a curious list, for sure. I think that much of the motivation for the choices was to increase TAS' indie-cred, as much as pointing out great-sounding LPs. I think they purposely left off anything that HP has mentioned in the past...like Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Dire Straits, or Cowboy Junkies. They made great efforts to include as much contemporary (indie) vinyl as they could, and as such stretched the traditional boundaries of "great sound". The preamble to the list did mention that this was a list of great music as much as great sound and that they wanted to "steer" the reader to "lesser known titles", which I don't think is a bad thing at all. Points for not regurgitating the same old tired list of "audiophile" favorites. And some of the comments about the albums are a making me re-think my decision to pass up on some of these...about "A Ghost is Born" they write; mastered by Kevin Gray at AcousTech and pressed at RTI, (it) is one of the finest and finest sounding rock LPs of any era. period. Well, I wasn't going to buy this one, but I will now.

[Slosh]

And some of the comments about the albums are a making me re-think my decision to pass up on some of these...about "A Ghost is Born" they write; mastered by Kevin Gray at AcousTech and pressed at RTI, (it) is one of the finest and finest sounding rock LPs of any era. period. Well, I wasn't going to buy this one, but I will now.

Even the CD sounds good and there is actually a semblance of dynamic range for once. Plus it's packed with many really good songs (although I don't think it's their best effort - still pretty damn good). Why wouldn't you want this?

~Slosh - All my stray thoughts, they are unarranged. All my stray thoughts, they are impure.