52 Essential Albums for Audiophiles

Blueingreen

I'm not an audiophile, but I'd say this list is a surprisingly good representation of the rock/pop I listen to.  Even the newbies (Kiwanuka, Ghosteen, Weyes Blood) are among the albums from this year I've heard quite a lot of.

I just use Spotify these days but I've listened to around 40 of these although that ranges from ones I've listened to dozens if not hundreds of times (Kind of Blue, Abbey Road, What's Goin' On, After the Goldrush, Heart of the Congos, Blue, Random Access Memories,  OK Computer, Damn) to ones I've maybe heard 2 or 3 times like Moon Shaped Pool or Thundercat.

It would never have occurred to me that this was an audiophile's list if I hadn't been told.  Most of my music listening these days is Spotify on my phone.

Matt_McG

I think, like most people, the music for me is the thing, and a lot of music I like -- 30s and 40s swing and RnB, classic soul, some 80s hard rock and metal, etc -- has pretty appalling production values, which doesn't put me off.

But, there are some albums that just sound amazing, and there's a real pleasure in cranking the hifi up a bit and luxuriating in it.

The obvious one, for me, that's missing, is Frank Sinatra's sings for Only the Lonely, which is one of the most amazing sounding albums ever, to my ears.

Also Only the Lonely is a tribute (like Kind of Blue) to 50s recording techniques. You get a band/orchestra of absolute top notch players at the top of their game, you put them in a room that sounds amazing, and you mic them really well, and then ... they just play the whole thing live. The entire album, done in a few days, which is mind boggling given the complexity of the music and the arrangements.

LastMantra

Whilst I'm not an audiophile I'm not an audioluddite either. 

scrumhalf

What a load of cack.

"Oooh, look how diverse and obscure my taste is."

Winny_Pooh

Rubbish list mostly.

How about a few of these instead:

Alison Krauss - Paper Airplane
Bonnie Raitt - Fundamental
Grizzly Bear - Shields
Them Crooked Vultures
Fiona Apple - When the pawn...
John Mayer - continuum
Steely Dan - Aja
Soundgarden - Superunknown
ACDC - Back in Black
Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries
The Raconteurs - consolers of the lonely

many many ECM jazz albums
Anything by Al Schmitt

I've not included electronic albums or rap because most of it is sample based and lets be honest, easier to mix and record than real life instruments. 

Grumpyrocker

Always find "audiophile" lists odd. What do you want to listen to? Your favourite music, or your equipment? It doesn't matter how good my gear reproduces Diana Krall when I will mostly be listening to death metal. 

I like having nice gear. But it's for listening to my favourite music. 

steveledzep

I have a handful of the audiophile list, that's all.  Never heard of most of them.
I have a high end HiFi and when I put a record on the turntable I sit down and listen to it, just like someone may put a Blu-Ray on and sit and watch it.  I don't play music as a background thing, it's always to sit down and listen.
Like @Grumpyrocker , I don't listen to music I don't like just to hear how the equipment sounds.
I've just decorated the man-cave and my go to record for setting up again after dismantling is Sheffield Steel by Joe Cocker.

EricTheWeary

I own one of them, although have quite a few tracks off others in compilations. 
I feel it's albums they've bought in the last two years plus a bunch of old, obvious stuff. 

I'm sure I'm not an audiophile at all but I think I'd have a stab at JD McPherson's Undivided Heart and Soul as for a rock record it is ( or cleverly appears to be) the sound of a few instruments well recorded with minimum overdubs. 

Stuckfast

Any list of "audiophile" albums that includes Arcade Fire's Funeral is probably a work of comedy.

Blueingreen

Matt_McG said:

I think, like most people, the music for me is the thing, and a lot of music I like -- 30s and 40s swing and RnB, classic soul, some 80s hard rock and metal, etc -- has pretty appalling production values, which doesn't put me off.

But, there are some albums that just sound amazing, and there's a real pleasure in cranking the hifi up a bit and luxuriating in it.

The obvious one, for me, that's missing, is Frank Sinatra's sings for Only the Lonely, which is one of the most amazing sounding albums ever, to my ears.

Also Only the Lonely is a tribute (like Kind of Blue) to 50s recording techniques. You get a band/orchestra of absolute top notch players at the top of their game, you put them in a room that sounds amazing, and you mic them really well, and then ... they just play the whole thing live. The entire album, done in a few days, which is mind boggling given the complexity of the music and the arrangements.

  A lot of the Sinatra stuff is amazing.  I play in a swing band playing a lot of this stuff and even adapted for a smaller (9 piece) band the arrangements still sound great.

Have you read Charles Granata's book (Sessions with Sinatra:  Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording)?  Granata was the project director and producer on a lot of the Columbia sessions.  There's a foreword by the engineer and producer Phil Ramone, who worked with Quincy Jones, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Streisand, Barry Manilow, Elton John etc but leaves you in no doubt that he thought working with Sinatra was on a completely different level because of Sinatra's professionalism, attention to detail and off-the-scale musical awareness.

Johnnyseven

Winny_Pooh said:

Rubbish list mostly.

How about a few of these instead:

Alison Krauss - Paper Airplane
Bonnie Raitt - Fundamental
Grizzly Bear - Shields
Them Crooked Vultures
Fiona Apple - When the pawn...
John Mayer - continuum
Steely Dan - Aja
Soundgarden - Superunknown
ACDC - Back in Black
Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries
The Raconteurs - consolers of the lonely

many many ECM jazz albums
Anything by Al Schmitt

I've not included electronic albums or rap because most of it is sample based and lets be honest, easier to mix and record than real life instruments. 

Aja's on there.

Heel

What a weird list. 

hollywoodrox

I always thought True Blue by Madonna was supposed to be one of many good tests of a system

Philly_Q

This may be a false memory, but I'm fairly sure in the early '80s hi-fi shops used to use Dare by The Human League as a demo disc.  Where's that on this list, eh?

Matt_McG

@Blueingreen No, but I will put it on the list. I basically lose interest in Sinatra after the late 50s but the 50s stuff is among my favourite music. I can play that sort of thing, technically speaking, but have only played gypsy stuff and some earlier Brecht/Weill stuff in public, never tried to play proper swing or big band stuff in front of people. Would love to try it.

robgilmo

But none of that mentions pressings, labels, nothing, so you might go down to a store and buy one of these albums , or even all of them , then wonder why they sound crap. 

robgilmo

And why isnt ''Love over Gold'' in there? Brothers in arms even?

ICBM

Litterick said:

CHRISB50 said:

What is an audiophile album?

A term invented in the seventies to identify long-playing records that justified the expense of buying a Bang & Olufsen Beocenter.

Tubular Bells is the audiophile album above all others:

Glockenspiel
Bass guitar
Double-speed guitar
Two slightly distorted guitars

Tubular Bells II and The Songs Of Distant Earth should be even more so - they seem to have an unusually large frequency range (at both ends of the spectrum) which really jumps out on a good hi-fi system.

steveledzep

ICBM said:

Litterick said:

CHRISB50 said:

What is an audiophile album?

A term invented in the seventies to identify long-playing records that justified the expense of buying a Bang & Olufsen Beocenter.

Tubular Bells is the audiophile album above all others:

Glockenspiel
Bass guitar
Double-speed guitar
Two slightly distorted guitars

Tubular Bells II and The Songs Of Distant Earth should be even more so - they seem to have an unusually large frequency range (at both ends of the spectrum) which really jumps out on a good hi-fi system.

I've not had the opportunity to play TB II.  I have an early copy of TB I and the recording quality is poor.

ICBM

steveledzep said:

I have an early copy of TB I and the recording quality is poor.

It's so long since I heard an original vinyl copy that I can't comment on that.

TB2 on CD really made my ears prick up when I first heard it - there's some high-frequency content in particular that's just magical. You can get an idea of it even over Youtube...