jason_from_volo wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 1:50 pm Had one more album come to mind: Bob Mould's "Workbook". I'm not sure if I'd say it was ruined, but I think it would have sounded a lot better if it would have been recorded/produced like "Black Sheets of Rain" or "Copper Blue".

Agreed, I think Anton Fier's fondness for a snare fill every 5 seconds coupled with the snare sound makes for a challenging listen which is a pity given the brilliant song writing and guitar playing. IMO this is Mould's best work in terms of flat-out misery coupled with ace folk-rock.

Back In The USA
Born In The USA

and presumably any other album with similar titling.

When you come up through punk rock your bar gets set very low - the ROIR cassette (for example) is competent demo quality, but the music is killer, so you start setting different priorities. It wasn't until recently that I started using good quality speakers / headphones etc - it's been nice rediscovering my favourites.

First one that came to mind - Suffocation: Breeding The Spawn - massive jump in technical skill coupled w/ a sub-thrash demo quality recording. This is one of the few examples where I think the sound of the record is so bad it does lessen my ability to enjoy the record. Heresy: Face Up To It was also unusually bad. The snare sound on Prong's Beg To Differ was a big misstep.

Will echo that Pure (my favourite Godflesh record) hasn't held up at all, I used to think it was operating in the same space as Justice (which I think is a great sounding record, totally brittle and bitter, just right for the emotional tone (grief denial)) - Pure is definitely lacking force. The SST-era Husker Du records also sound.. not bad... but wrong, somehow, though I think that's much more to do w/ Mould's choice of guitar tones than Spot's production choices.

Huskers: New Day Rising
Voivod: RRROOOAAARRR (At first I was going to list War and Pain, but the songwriting on R is of a higher order buried by an absolute cacophony of noise)
The Tragically Hip: Fully Completely

kicker_of_elves wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 12:27 pmHuskers: New Day Rising

You crazy?

MBV Isn't Anything comes to mind.

jason_from_volo wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 1:32 pm

kokorodoko wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 12:42 pm

kicker_of_elves wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 12:27 pmHuskers: New Day Rising

You crazy?

New Day Rising is the last of their records that wasn't in some way ruined by the production...

I will die on this hill. If NDR was treated similarly to Flip Your Wig, it would be an unstoppable record. As it is, it's...good.

kicker_of_elves wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 12:27 pm Voivod: RRROOOAAARRR (At first I was going to list War and Pain,

War and Pain sounds fine!

Bernardo wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 2:44 pm

kicker_of_elves wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 12:27 pm Voivod: RRROOOAAARRR (At first I was going to list War and Pain,

War and Pain sounds fine!

There are spots when Away's hi-hat really overpowers his snare to the point where it's kind of an indistinguishable mush.

jason_from_volo wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 1:32 pm

kokorodoko wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 12:42 pm

kicker_of_elves wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 12:27 pmHuskers: New Day Rising

You crazy?

New Day Rising is the last of their records that wasn't in some way ruined by the production...

Uh... I think nostalgia and memory are competing here. Their albums all sound terrible.
On Flip Your Wig they ditched a lot of awful guitar sounds, and you could start to make out the vocals, but I could hardly say anything got better or worse at any point in their catalog.

Off to the C/CRAP section!