5 Records to Die For

Posted by: Camlan on 13 March 2004

With apologies to Stereophile Magazine. My current top 5 buys for criticism/discussion.

Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks - Hybrid SACD. Don't know what the SACD sounds like but this is a stageering remastering of a classic album. A must have.

Mark Knopfler - Sailing to Philadelphia - I have always felt that Mark Knopfler was somewhat underrated. Great songs, brilliantly arranged and well recorded. The title track is a standout.

Ella Fitzgerald - Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. Possibly the greatest female jazz vocalist meets one of the 20th centurys outstanding song writers. There has been some criticism of the remastering but it works for me. Particularly good value on Amazon at present.

Joni Mitchell - Travelogue. If this is indeed Joni Mitchell's final offering. It is an appropriate finale to an outstanding career. Forget the disappointing Both Sides Now orchestration attempt - this is much much better.

The Lindsays - The Complete Beethoven String Quartets. Superb music payed with professionalism and panache and only £29.99 for an 8 CD boxed set on Amaxon at present. This has to be the bargain of the year so far.

Certainly not obscure and rather conservative I guess but hours of sublime listening pleasure for less than a meal out these days.

Comments or alternatives?
Posted on: 17 March 2004 by domfjbrown
quote:
Originally posted by Rasher:
Dire Straits - Dreadful "New Colour TV" song thingumy



That'll be "Money for nothing" off of "MTV unfortunately-plugged" AKA "Brothers in arms" - the success of which helped CD become dominant, so that album has a lot to answer for!

1200 Mics' "Acid for nothing" makes great use of the guitar intro though, so it's not all bad...

__________________________
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.

Posted on: 17 March 2004 by Pete
"To die for" strikes me as a bit hyperbolic. I can't think of one piece of music I'd willingly die for, and if that means I'm selfish, then I'm selfish. Sorry.

I'd suffer a bad cold for things like Spem in Alium and Kind of Blue, and maybe even a dose of flu for the B Minor Mass, but I'm afraid that's as far as I'll go. Guess that's why I'm not a tortured artiste!

Pete.
Posted on: 17 March 2004 by Ross1
My choices:

Even if I buy a lot of new records I always come back to those ones...

Beatles - Abbey Road
Stones - Big hits High tide in green grass
Hendrix - Are you experienced
Moody Blues - Question of balance
Carole King - Tapestry
Posted on: 18 March 2004 by Sundance
When you say you bought Joni from Amazon.com in order to get HDCD, do you mean they were shipped from the US? How can you tell they are HDCD on the site?

..Life has just got better
Posted on: 18 March 2004 by Camlan
Sundance

You can't tell from the Amazon.com site and as ordering from the states did not want to risk it although probably would have been ok. Went instead to www.cduniverse.com, which did specify and also had many other HDCD choices (just click on HDCD in the JM details and they will appear). I have ordered 2 Joni Mitchell's and Stephen Stills Manassas.

However subsequent to this I was in Birmingham on business and called in HMV. They had some of the American HDCD reissues a number of which were badged as imports or HMV exclusives. HDCD logo on the back - you need to look closely.

Hope this helps