Best CDs of 2003 (production)

[musikman316]

Okay, it's getting to be that time of the year when SPIN and every other crappy mag prints there "Top of 2003" lists and was just wondering what everyones picks are for production this year?

Here are mine:

Daniel Lanois - Shine
The Mars Volta - De-loused in the Comatorium
Steely Dan - Everything Must Go
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
Nelly Furtado - Folklore
Eels - Shootenanny!
The Beatles - Let it Be... Naked
Ryan Adams - Rock n' Roll
The Bad Plus - These are the Vistas
David Bowie - Reality
Britney Spears - In the Zone
Outkast - Speakerbox/Love Below

And please, if you're just going to post some "music sucks now, I don't buy music" junk. Don't post...

Later,
musik

[ignition]

I had a hell of a time thinking of any cds that were actually from 2003 that I bought this year The only ones I can think of that stand out production-wise are:

Damien Rice - "O". Recorded and mixed almost completely by himself in his home/friends homes/etc, and it sounds great. Mostly acoustic-folksy stuff, great cd.
http://www.damienrice.com

The Grand Silent System - "Gift or a Weapon". I think these guys are on an indie in Australia. Hard rock + some not-so-hard rock instruments (flute, etc.). Definately worth checking out.
http://www.thegrandsilentsystem.com/

travis

[tf5_bassist]

i think that i bought less than five albums all year (mostly due to the fact that I was unemployed for most of it)... But the album that tops my list hands down is Alien Ant Farm - "truANT". Produced by Robert and Dean DeLeo (yes, of Stone Temple Pilots), this album is just amazingly textured, and in a very unconventional way, really. It's somewhat of a sonic departure from their debut album "ANThology", but it's still good-ol' AAF all the way. I *really* suggest giving this CD a listen, even if you really don't care about AAF. I've been suggesting it to friends who do a bit of mixing and engineering as hobbies, and i think it's great idea and source material.

Runner-up would have to be Linkin Park - "Meteora". Despite what everyone thinks about LP, admit it: The cds are produced like whoa.

[c9-2001]

Production wise imo..
R.kelly and Beyonce have some of the best sounding cd's..
just about anything r.kelly did production on this year.. from Js to the isley's.. those cd's sounded great.
the new outkast album too...

the new Alicia Keys album is about to drop, you already know the production on that album is great..

[The Green Hornet]

Yo All:

I CAN'T believe that nobody has mentioned:

"The River Turned Muddy When She Turned Me Down."

By, The Green Hornet.

Alas, marketing isn't fair.

Green Hornet

PS Bear -- I'm working on your copy!!!

[Analytical Man]

Metallica St. Anger

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE...i kills myself!

No seriously would have to say Soilwork Figure Number 5
Evenescence has a good sounding album as well.

[ChristopherM]

Originally posted by musikman316
Eels - Shootenanny!

Another Eels fan! Holy shit! I love that band. Most of E's are pretty well-produced. Did you also pick up MC Honky's disc?


Nothing really to add to the list. Queens of the Stone Age's latest CD has been in my car CD changer since I bought it, but that was 2002, wasn't it?

[Paco]

keziah jones (black orpheus). unreal

[130R]

I gotta second Steely Dan's Everyting Must Go - in DVD- Audio.

Blues Beach is phenomenal in hi-resolution multi-channel!

[musikman316]

Yeah, I did get MC Honkey, it's a great album!

Okay, if we're going to talk about Hi-Def (I just got a new stereo, WOOHOO!) I'm going to have to plug the SACD Bob Dylan and Miles Davis discs... you will never listen to CDs the same again (I can't believe nobody thought of this architecture for digital music before now!). Also the "Pet Sounds" DVD-A is amazing, Mark Linnett did such a great job on the surround mixes, it's almost like Brian Wilson recorded the project for surround. I think it works really well because all of the instruments were done in the same room, so being able to spread them out across a plain just adds to the originally recorded ambiance.

Later,
musik

[jeffree]

I'll third Steely Dan's latest (one of my favorite reference CDs), as well as the recent disks by Pat Metheney.

J.

[cstockdale]

Ditto on Lanois "Shine"

Also:

Let it Be Naked
Hail to the Thief
Phaser "Sway"
Knopfler "Ragpicker's Dream"
Dido "Life for rent"
Sloan "Action Pact"

[AsIsRock]

The New blink 182 cd has a great fn production, in my opinion.

[Jerry W]

It would be helpful for this to be broken down in categories. Since this is a recording site for persons with better than average understanding, it would be worthwhile if those voting would point out what it is about any particular CD that they thought merited such a vote. I say this because I often wonder to what extent the listeners bias towards the music affects these incredibly subjective opinions.

By trying to break the best of into categories, we might interject some level of objectivity and validity to the voting process.

With that, I would put a vote in for Praful's first release for overall concept.

[Neil Ogilvie]

The new Blink record has some really unconventional techniques on it - I was very impressed.

IMO this is a huge difference to their old stuff and is almost like a new band. From a production point of view I think it could be really interesting to listen to.

But then, if you hate Blink, your going to probably hate it. Its not like anything they've done before though.....

[Rocket Boy]

Beulah - "Yoko"
This album has a great vocal sound, great guitar tones, really the sounds on this album are all great. also the songs are very good, theres not one bad track on it... theres not even one kind of "meh" track on it. Start to finish one of the only albums I own where I think every track is really great.

Ozma - "Spending Time on the Borderline"
Great guitar sound, great drum sound. Cool instrumentation on track 5 with the flute. Oh, and a great bass sound.

alright. i cant think of any other records released this year that i have anything to say about... oh, Let it Be naked sounds great too!

[pratt]

ditto on Radiohead, the Bad Plus and Bowie

I had a hard time thinking of what 2003 records I bought?

of the ones that I could think of, these stand out imho:

Lake Trout - Another One Lost
- lots of good experimental kinda production, in other words it don't sound like everything else

Edie Brickell - Volcanoe
- nice smooth production

A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step
- production on this record kills the overprocessed garbage on their first record. amazing drum sound

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (30th anniversary) - remastered
- this remastering job was masterful! it sounds killer - I wish I had a SACD player to hear that mix....

[The Green Hornet]

YO:



Should soon be getting a review on "The River Turned Muddy When She Turned Me Down" from Blue Bear which would put the song "way" up there.

Canada is WAY up there too.

Green Hornet

Or, a review from POP in California.

Green Hornet

[kylen]

Anybody like the latest John Mellencamp 'Trouble No More':

http://www.mellencamp.com/troublenomore.htm

It's 'American Roots' music with surprises. I'm using it as one of my primary references right now to clean up my listening environment - it's very dynamic but at the same time loud, loud that sounds good. Mastered by one of the great ones - Bob Ludwig.

kylen