What is the greatest production job ever, then? The best produced / recorded / mixed / arranged record in the world...

"Good Vibrations" is a really great arrangement, but I don't like the way Pet Sounds era Beach Boys stuff actually sounds - there's little realism to the timbre of the instruments. Which I know is kind of what poor mental Brian was going for...

I'd agree with Lou Reed Transformer as a whole - it's full of loads of ambitious, risky production.

This album nearly 20 years on, still sounds inspiring. Sharp, intoxicating, textured, powerful, attention to detail, a real full on epic expansive sound.

No, really, I'd say maybe something by the Stones Roses?

Whats Goin' On is heaven on record to my ears. So that. Honourable mention to Outkast's Aquemini.

i have found that what he often seems to be aiming for a is a more-real-than-real sound, a kind of harsh simplicity which tends to remind me of the sound Hannett got out of JD (and, as observed, ACR). plus, Albini has his reputation for no monkeying, but he's not averse to adding a few sonic touches of his own. good recent example of this is the latest Electrelane album, one song off which even has a breaking glass sound that might even have been lifted off JD's 'Insight'.

that said, dadaismus OTM.

All The Things She Said

I am guessing this wasn't a serious suggestion, but for those of you who need to be disillusioned, Tatu's Horn-produced English singles are indisinguishable from the Russian originals aside from the vocals. It always annoys me that he gets any credit for their success -- they paid for his name and that's it.

Funny, as much as I love the album, I always find it slightly muffled. OTOH, I've been re-discovering 'More Songs about...' lately, which sounds so sharp and dynamic. I'm curious what the remasters sound like.

-- Le Baaderonixx de Benedict Canyon (baaderonix...), March 17th, 2006.

Fucking amazing - go get them!
-- Sick Mouthy (sickmouth...), March 17th, 2006.

__________

totally. MORE SONGS... is *jaw dropping*.

PE's Nation of Millions leaps to mind for me - so dense and detailed and explosive but insistent and accessible, maybe it's a cliche to say so now but it really sounded like nothing else before. It felt like a whole new way of making music that demanded a whole new way of listening to it, like I imagine someone really groundbreaking like Ornette Coleman might have sounded on first listens. I love how that era of hip hop really rewarded repeat listens - something new jumping out with each spin.

I'd also throw in a Psychocandy here - I hated it and wanted to hear it again right away, it just sounded so wrong-headed when I first heard it with teenage ears. It felt like mistake after mistake piling up: the voices in the basement, the drums all stiff and drum-machiney but scruffy and humanly imperfect, the ugly clangy treble, the screaming-beatlefan feedback drenching everything almost soggy... and unlike something like Nation Of Millions which was all about seeing how much you could put into 3 minutes and still have a pop song, Psychocandy was all about how much you could leave out and still have a pop song. I also think all the nothing in Psychocandy lets your popsong-trained head fill in the blanks. Even though they're not there, you kind of hear the shangri-la's girly choruses and glockenspeils and hal blaine fills in your head because the melodies tell you they should be there.

and maybe I'd throw in sly stone's Fresh album too - Riot is the one that always gets fawned over, but Fresh is the one I always come back to.

sorry, I guess these are kind of canonical choices. this kind of question does sort of invite you to reminisce over records that blew your head open - and the late eighties and early nineties was when my head was open to being blown. thanks, black hash, you were so much fun back then. I'll spare you grandpa's reign in blood revery.

Nation of Millions was famously produced "live", unlike any other examples on this thread -- the samples, scratching etc -- were all done in real time

hopefully i will see them perform it live at primavera

Yeah? I've never heard that before. I'm not sure it's the only thing on the thread like that though. Laughing Stock was recorded as live improvisation sessions and the edited together afterwards, much like In A Silent Way - i.e. not 'live' strictly, but not laying down one part and then recording others in isolation and overdubbing them. Also I'd imagine much if not all of Songs For Swinging Lovers was done live.

not really the same thing.

No, it's not at all, but there's an analogue there especially compared to how most records are produced (click track, overdub to hell).

I'm sorry, ILM. I've created a monster. :)

and maybe I'd throw in sly stone's Fresh album too - Riot is the one that always gets fawned over, but Fresh is the one I always come back to.

I come back to both, really. I think they're equals. And they both have gotten a lot of play from me in the last year or two.

ELO.

i actually think the sound on OK computer sucks. very digital and harsh sounding. i think ppl mean that they like the arrangements and instrumentation when they say it is a well produced record. i don't like the drums on that record at all.

I'm listening to this 50th anniversary Stax comp and damn those records sound great.

never mind the bollocks is a great sounding record.

espers II sound great to me for something newer.

I agree with Matt re OK Computer, but I don't think Radiohead have ever sounded 'nice' in terms of pure engineering / drum sound / guitar tone or whatever. Ditto Pink Floyd. It's too... sterile's the wrong word perhaps. I've got Lift To Experience on at the moment and THAT'S a good sound.

Been a long time.

Though it was recorded in a barn in one long day, the first Black Sabbath LP still sounds absolutely perfect to me (especially the Castle remaster). Drums, bass, guitar, vocals--each have their own sonic space carved out; things get much muddier on all of Sab's later records. Producer Rodger Bain deserves more credit than he tends to get.

But for BIG EXPENSIVE sound, I have always dug Sepultura Roots. Ross Robinson has committed many crimes, but this album just sounds so huge and raw at the same time. Really classic and really loud.

The Joshua Tree

69 Love Songs

those are the two

'country life' imo, atm.

Some Zapp albums, for sure

I love the whole production of Tusk. With some headphones you can easily distinguish everything that's happening in the room.

before and after science, especially the second side, sooooooo velvety good

Back in '87, I skeptically asked my new music-geek friend (with the brand! new! CEEDEE PLAYER) "What's the one album you'd put on the demonstrate the alleged magic of compact discs?". His reply was "Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Welcome To the Pleasure Dome"".

He added that he didn't even LIKE that record, particularly.

Surely that means something to somebody?

i'd place a lot of stuff already mentioned in this thread over it but dj quik's rhythm-al-ism

I'm constantly blown away by the sound of Abbey Road. It's not my favorite Beatles album by a long stretch but it's the one that, every time I listen to it, I hear new things in the mix and arrangements.

i'd place a lot of stuff already mentioned in this thread over it but dj quik's rhythm-al-ism

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Tuesday, July 30, 2013 7:09 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my man!

100% agree of course. When testing out gear I use something like Rhythm-al-ism, Voodoo, Superunknown, Thriller, Spirit of Eden, Aja and Pole 'Steingarten'.

My favourite pure production job is probably Autechre's Draft 7.30, although I accept electronic music is easier to produce than live instrumentation (citation needed)

An example of how unusual or fucked-up production can completely make a record is Foetus - Hole, which is magic of another order

I agree with martin hannett on joy division. if you heard them before he came along, you'll know what an amazing job he did.

tbh, i don't really get the point of this thread, people just saying "x album sounds great!" greatest production job ever? what's the criteria? fleetwood mac rumors is produced well, and so is sebadoh's the freed weed, imo. should production be considered good if it serves the overall goals of the record? there's a ton of terrible sounding records that might be "well-produced", but who gives a shit about those, really? i don't have a lot of well-formulated ideas about this but i feel like there should be more fleshing out about the relationship between production and the music being produced, and how that relationship impacts whether the productions is considered "good"

it's so incredibly hard to pin down the greatest production job *EVER* but I do think of Super Ae as that kind of album

Roxy Music - Avalon
Boz Scaggs- Silk Degrees
any number of Al Green records

Al Green otm. I am always struck by how balanced his classic recordings seem.

alien lanes vs. falling into you

It's Tusk.

yeah probably, but this shit is meaningless if one doesn't elucidate their interpretation of "greatness"

I used to know a guy who used Dire Straits' Love Over Gold to test out new audio gear -- he knew every sound on that record backwards and forwards and could use it as a yardstick, or micrometer or whatever. I do remember thinking that was a great sounding record, but I haven't listened to it in 20 years.

there are so many great sounding records i wouldn't even know where to begin. so i won't. you guys should try listening to clssical records sometime! or movie soundtracks. they can be an eye-opener. or records from the 50's. a golden age for sound if there ever was one. let's just say guided by voices and dire straits wouldn't be my first picks.

Invincible by Michael Jackson is good for playing this game as it has one of the highest amazing production to so-so material ratios.

Ha, WmC, I remember Brothers in Arms being THE go-to album when measuring whether or not your new fandangled CD stereo player was up to snuff.

Jandek, Ready For The House

you guys wanna kick this one round again?

I think a big appeal of Stephen Wilson's music and projects is how well they are recorded. Kind of hard to knock the Floyd from their purch, but he's definitely going for that type of studio production.

Martin Birch's albums always sound great. His production is really the sound of heavy metal. It's too bad Metallica never made a record with him.

Connie Plank was a f-ing wizard. He recorded all sorts of music and all very well.

Was actually thinking this about "Spirit in the Sky" when it came on the radio the other night.

Insignificance by Jim O'Rourke and Naughty Boys by Yellow Magic Orchestra are two contenders for me. I'm always amazed at beautiful they both sound whenever I play them.

Another more obvious one is Steve McQueen by Prefab Sprout. That 2007 reissue that came with the acoustic versions did such a great job of highlighting how perfect the production is. I noticed bits in songs I'd never heard before.

Manfred Eicher's ECM catalog...

found a download of the MFSL remaster of Murmur over the weekend and I'm listening to it right now and dang I am inclined to say Murmur though I wouldn't have yesterday.

Also

Gaucho
All The Pretty Horses
Tilt
This Nation's Saving Grace (get the omnibus edition if you don't believe me. The Fall's moment in production heaven)

top 2 related searches on Twitter when you type in Ghostbusters: Ghostbusters racist and Ghostbusters awful.

no, wrong thread pisces.

The remaster of Grace Jones's Nightclubbing is sonically the best thing I've ever heard.

Country Life sounds amazing to my ears. Particularly the snare.

xpost - was going to suggest Slave to the Rhythm.

http://neongods.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Van_Halen.jpg