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Best-produced Albums '10-'20
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Tasartir View Drop Down
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    Posted: February 09 2021 at 00:50
Hey everyone,
There's obviously going to be a lot of debate as to what "production" means or what constitutes an album with "the best production"; however, in your opinion, what are the best-produced albums between 2010 and 2020?

I'm talking about those albums that you just have to play through high quality headphones or sound systems. Maybe even the albums that you use to test out those high quality headphones or sound systems to see how good they are.

Looking forward to your answers!
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On top of my head is 'Hand Cannot Erase' by Steve Wilson. Arguably the best album released this century. Honorable mentions would be the previous two records he released.
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All steven wilson solo albums Are produced amazing, the production on his new album "the future bites" is absolutely genius.
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In the prog sphere, my favorites are

Hand. Cannot. Erase.
From Silence to Somewhere
Terraformer
Virus
A Drop of Light
Pale Communion
The Road of Bones
I'm in Your Mind Fuzz
The sun has left the sky...
...Now you can close your eyes
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Originally posted by Tasartir Tasartir wrote:

Hey everyone,
There's obviously going to be a lot of debate as to what "production" means or what constitutes an album with "the best production"; however, in your opinion, what are the best-produced albums between 2010 and 2020?

I'm talking about those albums that you just have to play through high quality headphones or sound systems. Maybe even the albums that you use to test out those high quality headphones or sound systems to see how good they are.

Looking forward to your answers!

Albums I own that sound brilliant due to excellent production, meaning mix and mastering as well pristine pressing (I am 95% LPs) are as follows:
Most of these will be cut and pressed by Optimal Media GmbH, one of the best. 

The Pineapple Thief: The last 3 albums, Steve Kitch is an excellent engineer.
Steven Wilson: HCE and TtB, the latter is a 45RPM version, amazing.
Riverside: L,F&TTM, mastered at Serakos Studios, Magda and Robert do an excellent job there.
David Gilmour: Live At Pompeii...holy smokes, this one is magnificent, stunning. The sound stage on this one is massive in my room.
The Tangent: Proxy, mix by Andy Tillison
Bent Knee: You Know What They Mean, surprisingly very good pressing.

Anything released by BlueNote in the past couple years, simply stunning to hear jazz like this. The Tone Poet Series as well the 80 Series are all mastered and cut by Kevin Gray, pressed at Optimal and RTI. This series of reissues has to easily be the best thing to happen to music and especially jazz of the past 20yrs. They are all analog from the original master tapes recorded by Rudy Van Gelder back in the day. I'm not going to list the titles I have as it's pretty much all of them.....Clap
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Manuel View Drop Down
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Points: 12352 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Manuel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 09 2021 at 10:21
Steve Hackett's albums are superb in terms of production, even the live ones, which are always harder to work with.
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Originally posted by dougmcauliffe dougmcauliffe wrote:

In the prog sphere, my favorites are

Hand. Cannot. Erase.
From Silence to Somewhere
Terraformer
Virus
A Drop of Light
Pale Communion
The Road of Bones
I'm in Your Mind Fuzz

Let me see. 

1. Steven Wilson
2. Wobbler
3. Drawing a blank (no, that's not the name of the band) (TYS maybe)
4. Haken
5. Drawing a blank again
6. Opeth
7. IQ
7. Drawing a blank yet again


Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - February 09 2021 at 10:35
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JD View Drop Down
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First question...
Why the 10 year time frame?

Outside of that restriction:
Any Thomas Dolby album is absolute heaven for production, they truly put Alan Parson's to shame IMHO.
Likewise with Peter Gabriel, stellar.
Thank you for supporting independently produced music
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Helmet of Gnats - Travelogue
Pat Metheny - From this Place
Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase
Thieves' Kitchen - Genuis Loci
French TV - Stories Without Fingerprints
Transatlantic- The Absolute Universe
Antoine Fafard - Proto Mundi
Wobbler - Dwellers of the Deep
Izz - Don't Panic
Big Big Train - English Electric Part I
All Traps on Earth - A Drop of Light
Hiromi - Spark
Sanguine Hum - Now We Have Light
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Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Originally posted by dougmcauliffe dougmcauliffe wrote:

In the prog sphere, my favorites are

Hand. Cannot. Erase.
From Silence to Somewhere
Terraformer
Virus
A Drop of Light
Pale Communion
The Road of Bones
I'm in Your Mind Fuzz

Let me see. 

1. Steven Wilson
2. Wobbler
3. Drawing a blank (no, that's not the name of the band) (TYS maybe)
4. Haken
5. Drawing a blank again
6. Opeth
7. IQ
7. Drawing a blank yet again

You're correct on Thank You Scientist, the other two are All Traps on Earth and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
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No idea, these days I mostly listen to music on my phone using ten dollar earbuds (on sale, mind you). My favourite album of the decade is probably Bowie's Blackstar (Prog enough to me), but I have no idea how well-produced it is.
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Honestly, I would not even know how to judge a production. Being a musician myself what counts for me is the music. What's the use of a great production, whatever that is, if the music is crap? I'd rather listen to a sh*tty cassette tape with great music on it than a so-called "great production" with a load of hollow BS on it.


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Tasartir View Drop Down
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Originally posted by JD JD wrote:

First question...
Why the 10 year time frame?

Outside of that restriction:
Any Thomas Dolby album is absolute heaven for production, they truly put Alan Parson's to shame IMHO.
Likewise with Peter Gabriel, stellar.

In answer to your question: I wanted to limit the choices a little. Also, I'm curious about the last decade and wonder what people consider good production now.
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AFlowerKingCrimson View Drop Down
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Originally posted by dougmcauliffe dougmcauliffe wrote:

Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Originally posted by dougmcauliffe dougmcauliffe wrote:

In the prog sphere, my favorites are

Hand. Cannot. Erase.
From Silence to Somewhere
Terraformer
Virus
A Drop of Light
Pale Communion
The Road of Bones
I'm in Your Mind Fuzz

Let me see. 

1. Steven Wilson
2. Wobbler
3. Drawing a blank (no, that's not the name of the band) (TYS maybe)
4. Haken
5. Drawing a blank again
6. Opeth
7. IQ
7. Drawing a blank yet again

You're correct on Thank You Scientist, the other two are All Traps on Earth and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

Thanks. ATOE I figured out later. I should have known that one but forgot the name of their one album and so wasn't sure right away. The KGATLW makes sense because I know you are big into them. Wink
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Tasartir View Drop Down
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Originally posted by BaldFriede BaldFriede wrote:

Honestly, I would not even know how to judge a production. Being a musician myself what counts for me is the music. What's the use of a great production, whatever that is, if the music is crap? I'd rather listen to a sh*tty cassette tape with great music on it than a so-called "great production" with a load of hollow BS on it.

I expected a comment like this! Not that it's a bad thing at all. I play the guitar myself and rarely used to focus on production values, but recently I've gotten into how albums sound and why they sound that way. Hopefully our choices reveal a mix of excellent music and production values.
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I agree about Steven Wilson...perhaps not that odd seeing as he has become somewhat of a speed-dial producer whenever X classic album needs an update.
Personally though I’m much more enthralled by the warmer sound of bands/musicians merely playing it live in the studio...together with a couple of well-placed mics. That’s really all you ever need...but some times musicians aren’t good enough to externalise their own ideas, so they need to go ‘click’ with the click machine and opt for some headphones and a stool in a booth.
Wobbler’s two latest albums are prime examples of ‘live in the studio’-like production..which is one of the biggest selling point methinks. 90% of all folks who buy these albums are absolutely over the moon that they’re able to buy new music that sounds like the stuff they span back in high school.
Dungen sounds like a live in the studio kind of band too...just like Elephant9, Hooffoot, Agusa, My Brother The Wind as well as a slew of other bands and artist from Scandinavia. In fact..if you want great old school production..go for Scandinavia
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Anything by Wobbler , Wolf People or Astra. I love that 'retro' analog type sound. 
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Tasartir View Drop Down
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Thanks for all your recommendations, everyone. I'm looking into lots of these at the moment!
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I'm a Guided By Voices fan so I can not a bit for production values and sonic perfection.

It's about passion!!!

Yezda Urfa's Boris is way better than Sacred Baboon, for example.
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