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CScottG wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

Captain Ned wrote:

Yep.  Have never purchased digital music, just CDs and LPs.

..But still complete albums only.

..it's probably a generational thing.

I'm not sure I'd say that. I only buy whole albums too, and have very, very rarely purchased digital music. (I'm "only" 30) I don't doubt that for the most part my generation purchases digital music though. Most also don't know what dynamic range is, or a FLAC file, and probably haven't seen a turntable in person for the last 20 plus years. We all have our loves.

I'm a weirdo though. I like newspapers and real books and real paper. I think there are still a few of us around.

And to contribute to the thread:
File path : F:\Music\Warren Haynes\Ashes and Dust\08-Gold Dust Woman (feat. Grace Potter).flac
File name : 08-Gold Dust Woman (feat. Grace Potter).flac
File size : 144 MB (151 944 145 bytes)
Duration : 6:24.000 (36 864 000 samples)
Sample rate : 96000 Hz
Channels : 2
Bits per sample : 24
Bitrate : 3157 kbps
Codec : FLAC
Tool : reference libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917

Tool - Undertow (1993)

A prog metal classic. My recent discovery of Soen (which is definitely influenced by Tool) has made me go back and listen to all of the Tool albums.

Chad Wackerman - Forty Reasons (1991)

First solo release by one of Frank Zappa's former drummers. Energetic, adventurous fusion which also features Allan Holdsworth in his prime on guitar. Would potentially make it onto my "desert island discs" list (depending on how long that list was allowed to be).

The Kinks - Celluloid Heroes - One For The Road.

It's a live album that came out just before freshman year at Uni, and I burned out at least 2 TDK SA-90s (was always a TDK/Denon guy; never liked Maxell) given how often it was in the tape deck and the cans I had at the time. Amazon brought me the CD over the past weekend and it's made its way into the WAVMusic (that's the folder name) collection on my work lappy. Fired up foobar, set it to full library random, and it was the first tune it coughed up this AM at my desk.

I don't know why, but ever since Uni this tune has forced me to conduct pollen counts as soon as it starts.

just brew it! wrote:

FM - Transformation (2015)

The Canadian prog-space-rock band that released their stunning debut Black Noise back in 1977, reincarnated (sort of). The only original member is Cameron Hawkins on keyboards, bass, and vocals.

Hawkins' voice still sounds almost the same as on their debut; he must not be a smoker! While not a powerful vocalist, his voice does suit the material.

Quite a bit of violin and mandolin on this (not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but their old albums tended to feature keyboards more prominently, and I think that would help fill out the arrangements). Some of the songs themselves are somewhat forgettable, but there are flashes of that original FM vibe here and there, and I just got this so I need to give it a few repeat listens to sink in.

Based on initial impression I'd give it a 3/5. If you really want to hear this band in their heyday, check out the above mentioned Black Noise. Their third album City Of Fear is also quite good, as is the more improv/experimental Headroom (if you can find it... AFAIK only ever released on vinyl sometime back in the '80s).

And a belated RIP to their original violinist James Plewman (a.k.a. Nash The Slash), who passed away as a result of a heart attack in 2014.

Bit of a "quote necro" (the above was posted a month ago), but I just noticed that the complete album is on YouTube, for anyone who's curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPV8N5BoaGE

Bloody 'ell. Yes, Genesis, and Kansas rented the Honeymoon Suite and this is what popped. You do know how to bend my plastic.

Wish I Knew You.  I've enjoyed several songs from The Revivalists that have come up on XM36 during my commute.

Captain Ned wrote:

Bloody 'ell. Yes, Genesis, and Kansas rented the Honeymoon Suite and this is what popped. You do know how to bend my plastic.

You talking about Transformation (the latest, which I just linked) or Black Noise? I remember back in my college days having the opening cut of Black Noise blasting in my room, and the resident rabid Genesis fan stopping by during the instrumental break, asking where I'd found a Genesis song he hadn't heard before.

FM trivia: Their second violinist Ben Mink (they've had 3 AFAIK) played the violin on the Rush track "Losing It". And has also been involved in several of Heart's later (post-MTV-era) efforts as producer.

Edit: The above mentioned opening cut from Black Noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SO8x_j-4Iw

My comment was on the new album, but your link to their first instantly propelled me into Room 413 of West Hall circa 1981.

Bog, more plastic. Oh no, next linked YT from what you posted was from Saga. I seem doomed to repurchase all of the TDKs I made in those days (and which SWMBO pitched without asking).

Captain Ned wrote:

Oh no, next linked YT from what you posted was from Saga.

I have a few of their albums too. Saw them open for Rush back in the day, and followed what they were doing for a few years after that.

Speaking of FM, the title track from their 3rd album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB23ydTn9jQ

Clearly going for a "harder" sound, and it really doesn't sound much like their first (or last) album. Still good though. City Of Fear also features oddities like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86IrD0Gm4qs (again, nothing like their debut album, but I really like it!)

just brew it! wrote:

Speaking of FM, the title track from their 3rd album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB23ydTn9jQ

Clearly going for a "harder" sound, and it really doesn't sound much like their first (or last) album. Still good though. City Of Fear also features oddities like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86IrD0Gm4qs (again, nothing like their debut album, but I really like it!)

A couple of other tracks of interest from City of Fear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eglJ6ktgFVE (closer to their "classic" sound than most of the other stuff on the album)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGqp-SNUuVo (a quiet ballad which appears as the final track; IMO a very effective coda)

I've always wondered about something in that last one. While the piano intro plays, you can hear a couple of voices back in the mix speak the lines "Is there anybody to blame for this? No... nobody at all." Perhaps a reference to the different musical direction they took on this album?

Can't get into prog even though I keep trying. Ah well!

Recent fun from shuffle:

Matt Ueleman - Diablo OST - Town - my favorite game OST track of all time, perhaps? Certainly the best single piece of music to come out of Blizzard. Hits you right over the head with its moodiness, but I find that endearing. One of the first tracks I can recall appreciating specifically for artful channel separation (having just received decent headphones in 97).

Justice - Genesis - French house. That clipped distortion loop makes me happy.

Yoko Konno & The Seatbelts - Too Good Too Bad - from the evergreen first Bebop soundtrack. I dare you not to wiggle along.

Yuji Ohno - Lonely for the Road - I have lots of anime OSTs in rotation, heh. Funky light jazz.

Recent finds:

Thrice - Night Diving - post/alt-rock rec'd to me because I like lots of Mogwai's stuff. Mmm.

Takenobu - Exposition - splendid cello arrangements. Dove into his work when I first heard this piece and I've yet to find something I haven't liked. Marvelous, often joyous stuff that lingers in the mind.

...

No, synthwave & retro electro has not left me. atp it never will. Awkoder - Lovely Eyes. Crank the bass, feel it, wear your sunglasses at night, channel your latest Shadowrun shenanigans, etc (maybe it's a bit too chippy for SR but it works for me... also: dat syncopation).

Jambe wrote:

Yoko Konno & The Seatbelts - Too Good Too Bad - from the evergreen first Bebop soundtrack. I dare you not to wiggle along.

I bought that album before I bought the DVDs, after seeing a handful of episodes on Adult Swim fifteen years ago. Great series, amazing soundtrack. More shows need to have a house band.

Collection is on shuffle. Right now, Kathleen Edwards - In State. I tend to not like country, but I like specific country, and she's one of them.

Jimmy Herring - Endangered Species (2001)

My exploration of guitarist Jimmy Herring's music continues. On this one he teams up with keyboard player T Lavitz (Dixie Dregs), and drummer Richie Hayward and bassist Kenny Gradney (rhythm section of Little Feat). Funky, fusiony goodness.

The first two tracks off the album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no_P8jz3_o0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_igxBPiSn0

Leonard Cohen (and most everyone who's ever held a mic) - Hallelujah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zEqWw4IQWA

I link this one not for the performance, though it is good, but for the highest-rated comment. You only need to watch 10 seconds of the vid for it to make sense, but whoever that was had a piece of Cohen in him. Given how YT works these days, I'll post the comment I saw and admired:

They share a bare and dirty stair,
They seem a sad and sacred pair,
The talent's rare, but you don't care now, do ya?
She whispers to an honest mic,
But you can only hit dislike,
It stings her - still she sings her hallelujah.

Jambe wrote:

Can't get into prog even though I keep trying. Ah well!

Prog can be tough to get into, kind of like a hot bath that way. I have a friend who showed me how to inch into it.

Gary Moore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVN9ckrREWY

One from XM37:  Lullaby

... and one from XM41:  Holiday in Cambodia, which naturally caused me to look up a funny one from the same album (which I have have somewhere in my cassette tape library):  Kill the Poor.

CSNY - Helpless

just brew it! wrote:

Project Z - Project Z (2001)

I continue down the Jimmy Herring rabbit hole. The opening cut Raging Torrent really got my attention... whoa! Some great improv (at times jazzy, funky, bluesy) on this album. Here's Allmusic's take.

Somewhat annoyed that the Amazon download I bought has some sonic glitches/dropouts (most noticeably in track 3, "Mud Bug"). Trying to figure out if this is a problem with Amazon's rip (it is also there if I stream the track directly from their site) or a problem with the original recording. It is out of print, but I'll buy a used CD on the secondhand market if it'll get me a clean copy. The copy of "Mud Bug" on YouTube (supposedly supplied by their label/distributor) has the glitches too, so I'm not hopeful.

Ended up ordering a cheap secondhand copy of the physical CD from a third-party seller. It arrived today; the case is a little beat up, but the CD itself is pristine, and does not have the glitches. So Amazon has some defective rips.

I've e-mailed customer support to alert them to the issue and see if they'll give me a refund or credit towards the defective download.

...and just received an e-mail indicating that they will issue a refund.

I should note that all of the times I have had to deal with Amazon's customer service, they have been nothing less than wonderful. Even the time the problem was a brain fart on my part. Convenience isn't the ONLY reason Amazon is kicking B&M retail's butt.

Things even worked out for the best in the end. As it turns out, the used CD I ended up ordering was cheaper than the download, even after factoring in shipping. I came out 71 cents ahead!

I guess I need to pay more attention to whether there are cheap third-party options available when buying music where the physical media has gone out-of-print. Typically these end up being significantly more expensive than the Amazon download, especially once you factor in shipping; not so in this case.

I used to be in the "lossless physical media or bust" camp, like Captain Ned (though I've never been in the "vinyl or bust" camp, in spite of the fact that I still own a fair amount of it). About 5 years ago, I realized that A) if I want to continue legally feeding my appetite for new music without going broke, I need to buy whatever is most cost-effective; B) the physical vinyl and CD collection is taking up a LOT of space (and someday in the not-too-distant future we may be "empty-nesters" looking to downsize our house); and C) I've lost most of my ability to hear anything over ~15kHz, and generally can't tell the difference between the original CD and a decent MP3/OGG encode any more. I've come to grips with the fact that a digital download makes more sense if it'll save me money and there isn't a worthwhile physical extra (e.g. booklet) that comes with the CD.

I should also add that this is the first time I've gotten an obviously defective digital download from Amazon. Prior to this, the only issue I've had with their downloads is the occasional album that had short (fraction of a second) silences added to the ends of tracks, which is annoying when you've got tracks that flow one into the next (but at least can be fixed with a bit of fiddling in Audacity). Contrast this with Rhapsody's ill-fated digital music distribution service (which I tried out for a few months when I initially dipped my toe into the music download waters), where corrupted downloads seemed to be the norm. (Hey Rhapsody, how did you f**k that up so badiy? Not rocket science!)

Ruh roh, it's guilty pleasure time!

Ambrosia: How Much I Feel
I can karaoke the hell out of this song, and usually with genuine emotion. 

Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)

JP before they had fully developed their signature style. The Black Sabbath influence is pretty blatant in spots, but they're more technically adept and tighter than Sabbath, with random prog-rock-isms thrown into the mix as well. While there aren't any heavy metal earworms here like "Living After Midnight" or "Heading Out To The Highway", IMO it is less formulaic (and hence more interesting) than their later material.

An overlooked gem.

The Beatles - Love, which I just ripped from DVD-Audio and converted to 5.1ch 96/24 FLAC files. I normally don't listen to 5.1 music, but this is just insane. I can't believe how well mixed this is. It sounds as if it was recorded yesterday. The stereo CD edition of Love is great, but the 5.1 DVD-A really is something special. I can't believe what I've been missing. Man, this reminds me of the first time I heard Jurassic Park in DTS on Laserdisc! 

My jaw is still on the floor in a puddle of saliva, but I'll deal with that later. 

Many of the original Beatles recordings exist as four individual tracks before mastering.  There was a furor among purists when these were re-mixed to stereo for CD release instead of the original mono masters.

DVD-Audio is the digital format that puts to rest the old-timers' claim that analog is better than digital.  Ironically, it's an older generation who appreciate music well enough to buy it in the superior format.  Many young folks listen to horribly-compressed low-bitrate MP3s that were probably auto-tuned when originally recorded, anyway.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

Many young folks listen to horribly-compressed low-bitrate MP3s that were probably auto-tuned when originally recorded, anyway.

While in a perfect world everything would use lossless compression, the stuff available for purchase and download on services like iTunes and Amazon actually sounds pretty good these days.

Streaming is much more variable. There's still a lot of stuff being put out there with obvious compression artifacts.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

There was a furor among purists when these were re-mixed to stereo for CD release instead of the original mono masters.

As one of those purists, the only albums originally recorded in stereo were Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road, and Let It Be. The rest are best heard in their original George Martin mono mixes.