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Well produced recent albums

What does "well produced" mean? Seems to me it is getting confused with "well engineered" and "well mastered".
For example, George Martin produced The Beatles. I don't think he was hands-on to "watch the waves and move the faders"*, his role was to facilitate musical ideas and shape them in a way to appeal to listeners. Others did the engineering. Same with Phil Spector for Ike and Tina, Ahmet Ertegun for Ray Charles and Gil Evans for Miles, to name just a few.
Also music is produced for its audience. Berry Gordy famously set up a radio station at Hitsville USA so he could sit outside and listen to new tracks on his car radio to see how they would sound. Classic reggae is made to sound good on wardrobe-sized sound system speakers. Are Motown and reggae "well produced" in the way that most of the recommendations above imply?
* A bit anachronistic, I admit
 
Beatrice Dillon - Workaround
Foxwarren - Foxwarren

These two have been making my ears happy
 
scolarest said:
Not so recent but my go to LP, Alison Krauss and Union Station "Paper Airplane"
Incidentally Tony Visconti rates this as one of the the best produced and recorded LPs ever.
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Just got this on CD via Discogs on the strength of this and other endorsements - all I can say is thank you!! I bought the 'deluxe' version with extra studio and live tracks
 
For great-sounding albums and CD's, I've always found Eleanor McEvoy hard to beat. She seems to have a particular penchant for delivering audiophilic productions.

Her 'Forgotten Dreams' direct-cut vinyl is a delight. Simple and stripped-back, it's a joy to listen to.
 
Further to the above, in addition to Eleanor's 'Yola', there are another 2 staple go-to CD's that I use for equipment testing, auditions and ensuring everything is working as it should. These are:

  • Robbie McIntosh - 'Turn Up For The Books'
  • Barbara Dickson - 'To Each and Everyone' (Gerry Rafferty tribute)

The sonics on each of these are superb.
 
The Eagles Live from the Forum MMXVIII

One of the recent albums that I can listen to all the way through.

Saw the video as well, excellent to have, if you have Sky it is on Catch Up.
 
Jezzer said:
One of the mostly badly mastered albums in recent years is Haim's 'Days are Gone' (a victim of The Loudness Wars). Great songs and melodies but ruinous sound quality.
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Apologies for digging this post up from the grave, but I've just listened to this album for the first time (streaming).

As you so rightly say, great songs ruined by absolutely horrible mastering. Let's hope it gets remastered at some point in time.
 
TheManWhoBuiltTheMoon said:
The latest London Grammar album is very nicely produced. It’s called Californian soil
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Interesting. I have the CD and whilst it sounds OK in the car it sounds massively overblown on my main system. I was really disappointed by this as the previous two albums sound very good.

Edit: I just checked the Loudness Wars listings and it does indeed score poorly.
 
Nothing like a resurrected old thread!

Wet Leg - Wet Leg
RAYE - My 21st Century Blues

are well recorded and I love them both.

Nothing very new but Ray Lamontagne albums always seem to be well produced, Ouroboros sounds superb as does When the Sun Turns Black.

Turin Brakes last album Wide Eyed Nowhere was so badly recorded I emailed them and got a reply back from the drummer! Shame as it was a good album. If you ever get to hear them live (last time at the Concorde 2) they are absolutely brilliant and it always amazes me they aren’t a bigger name than they are.

I’ve bought many remastered and reissued albums that have been brilliant. Including Revolver, Abbey Road, Norah Jones Come Away With Me, George Michael’s Older, Buena Vista Social Club and Jamiroquai’s Return of the Space Cowboy, Van Morrison’s Moondance, Fleetwood Mac’s Pipus Bird of a Good Omen (Need Your Love So Bad sounds incredible) and Radioheads OK Computer which I only had on CD.
 
narabdela said:
Apologies for digging this post up from the grave, but I've just listened to this album for the first time (streaming).

As you so rightly say, great songs ruined by absolutely horrible mastering. Let's hope it gets remastered at some point in time.
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No need to apologise. If I were to hold up an example of what ‘bad’ looks like then this would be it! The lack of any quality control is criminal.
 
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