CD's Released after after year 2000 That Are "NOT" Compressed/Brickwalled/Loud

1) The more I read on this site, the more it seems that if the first pressings from the 80's (domestic/import) are the best masterings available. Yeah, they are quieter, sometimes a little thin sounding, but definitely not overly loud, brickwalled, compressed, etc........

2) Yet every time a new "modern" remaster is released, someone always starts a thread "I can't wait for this - maybe the new remaster won't be loud, brickwalled, compressed" - and yet almost invariably the "new" remaster is all of the above and we are all disappointed.

So - I guess I would like people to list modern "remasters" or modern "new" CD's that are "NOT" loud, compressed, brickwalled...............And I will say by modern I mean anything released after 2000.

Here's the only one I could think of:

Pugwash - 11 Modern Antiquities

 

Kate Bush's "Aerial."

 

Any of The Pillbugs titles. Excellent mastering on all of them.

Both Loose Fur CDs sound great.

k.d. Lang: Live By Request.

NRBQ: Ludlow Garage 1970 and Froggy's Favorites Vol. 1 Also, the recent Japanese CD of Workshop sounds amazing...warm, rich and vinyl-like. I love the sound of this CD.

Audrey Ryan: Dishes and Pills

Orchestra Baobab: Specialist All Styles

The Shins: Oh Inverted World

There are many of them though sadly, they seem to be in the minority.

The Pugwash CD (mastered by Steve) does sound amazing. Actually, the previous Pugwash CDs sound very good IMO. Jollity, Earworm, Almanac and Almond Tea. Great sound throughout.

 

Michael Penn's "Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947" was originally released unbrickwalled, but I have read here that it was later reissued with a different mastering... I'm not sure how to tell the difference on the packaging. (If you can find the album at all.)

 

The Wilco cd's all sound good.

 

The new Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is an excellent sounding CD.

In fact, there are many new CD's I purchase that do not fall into the "too loud" catagory IMO; the trouble is that around here one man's "loud" differs from anothers...(just recently I read that the Laura Nyro Sony/Legacy remasters are considered too loud!?...and that's not true to my ears...)...It's all subjective.

 

The two David Gilmour remasters are excellent. A few slight EQ changes that help unveil the music a bit more along with the self titled album getting some slightly longer versions of songs as well. I'm very happy with these new remasters. Oh, and "On An Island" is beautiful sounding as well. Gets very quiet in many spots as well but loud when it should be.

 

Dennis Wilson: Pacific Ocean Blue

Nice work Vic!

 

On a related note, David Gilmour's "On An Island" is a textbook case of a modern excellent sounding CD.

 

King Diamond "Give Me Your Soul Please"

King himself has stated in a few interviews how today's music (whatever the genre) is been "destroyed" by "modern mastering techniques".

The Kiss remasters were also done right (according to posts in this forum)

 

Marshall Tucker Remasters (2003) maybe a little on the loud side..

 

His latest - Live in Gdansk - sounds great too and is not highly compressed.

 

There's some compression going on with those. The early cd's use inferior sources but aren't loud. Best bet with Tucker is vinyl.

 

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights [2007]

(Interestingly enough 'Dap-Dippin' With' & 'Naturally' are compressed!)

BTW: so much better than 'Back To Black' by Amy Winehouse, not only sound-wise...

 

Rainbow - Catch the Rainbow anthology 2xCD

 

I think these sound so much better than the old ones... like a cloud was lifted -- its like they are 2-3 generations better...

 

The recent Spiritualized album has reassuring-looking waveforms.

 

I think the Shelby Lynne - Just a Little Lovin sounds good.

I also like the sound of Peter Malick featuring Norah Jones.

 

The Midnight Oil Diesel and Dust remaster by Bob Ludwig.

 

Vanessa Carlton-Heroes and Thieves. Nice work by Emily Lazar.




Dan

 

Steve's Faces CD sounds great!

 

nine horses

 

I purchased Bette Midler's new "best of" after several members responded to my thread & said it sounded good....they were right

 

Franz Ferdinand self-titled