TV's Frink said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G4jnaznUoQ

Perhaps the most awesome song in the world. Thanks Frink

Don't Look Back - The Remains
from the collection Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era

The loudness war has pissed me off for a for years, I put a lot of money into audio equipment, and generally avoid CDs accused of being brick walled. Here is examples of big time albums suffering:

Death Magnetic - Metallica

(Note how the CD version is almost a complete rectangle, instead of a jagged and saw like.)

Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Both are good albums, and recorded really well, but the mastering destroyed them.

EyeShotFirst said:

The loudness war has pissed me off for a for years,

+1 to that. 

I'm a full-on Genesis nerd since the 70s.  Over the last few years I've purchased their entire catalog in three very nice box sets, plus two additional boxes of all their live albums and concert DVDs.  They are one of the only bands I'm a completionist of, so I knew I would buy them when it was announced they'd gone back in the studio to start the years-long process of going through each album themselves.

That said, the first box was a victim of the loudness trend and the second two were only somewhat better.  The boxes are not my go-tos the way I'd hoped.  Some songs are much improved, such as the albums engineered by Hugh Padgham.  With the others, I've gone back to my original CDs.  For the most part, the live albums are all improved.  Since I always choose live Genesis over studio Genesis when I have a choice, I'm glad the live box didn't suffer the loudness trend.

For some of the other songs, which are always better & deeper live, I ripped the audio tracks off the DVD box.  Truthfully, I'm really only keeping the boxes for the bonus material which is hours of interviews, all done very well.  The loudness and the compression are most certainly not improvements.

I got the remasters when they came out and I've always thought about getting the mono versions of their early albums, and CA you've just convinced me.  Please Please Me is one of my favorite Beatles albums.  Well.. then again so are most of them.

Come Clean - Jeru the Damaja

Goodbye Booze - Old Crow Medicine Show

      [[link to the song in image, new idea!]]

Clearly the video is a cover version, but it's awesome.  Ohio rocks.

**edit: The same guy did a cover of Adam Sandler's I Wanna Grow Old With You from The Wedding Singer wearing a Darth Vader mask.  Weird, but... Star Wars is everywhere!!

ChainsawAsh said:

The mono remasters are absolutely fantastic.  They're the only way to listen to Please Please Me through Sgt. Pepper in my opinion (second to the original mono vinyl pressings, that is).  Same goes for all the singles that were mixed in mono.

Oddly enough, I still prefer the White album in stereo.

I agree-probably just because of "I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!"

The whole loudness war issue is the primary reason of my growing vinyl collection. Even if the same master is used, the nature of the vinyl format allows for the audio to have more breathing room and thus more depth. Most releases today get a vinyl pressing at some point, and even classic albums get rather cheap well done reissues. Plus with good equipment you can rip your vinyl for FLAC files.

Which leads me to:

Rope-Foo Fighters

This is an all analog album, recorded in a garage-and the mastering nearly killed it. As it stands, the CD sounds much better than other modern albums because of the analog recording, but the vinyl release destroys it. It's a double LP 45RPM release and freaking awesome. Highly recommended!!

"Mind Games" - John Lennon

"Love IS the answer, and you gotta let it, you gotta let it grow"

Dustin Hoffman Quits Bathroom and Climbs a Tree ~ of Montreal

asterisk8 said:

Colin Stetson - The Stars In His Head (Dark Lights Remix)

Holy!-- that was awesome *8

Fire Ant ~ Bibio

News - Dire Straits

The Bride ~ Dirty Projectors

I've been listening to this album a lot lately, very loudly, and I think I can hear the loudness war stuff you guys were talking about.  Specifically on the song Two Doves, at one point it gets really loud and sorta all tops out, and gets kind of flat, and sounds like my speakers are gonna pop (when I know they aren't). 

Why do they do this, especially when we can just control the volumes with our volume knobs/slides/bars if we want to make it louder?

God damn you guys! Now that I've researched the loudness war I can't help but notice that crap in my music. Sure, I'd heard of it before, but I'd never really paid too much attention. Now, it's especially jarring on my iPod, where my Santana is quiet and has the high points with the drums and then I listen to something else later and it's all pretty loud. Shit, listening to Santana's most recent release - Guitar Heaven - is pretty jarring even from recent "greatest hits" collections.

...And keep in mind I compress most (if not all) my music to fit on the iPod and I can still tell the difference depending on how something was mastered!

Christmas - The Who

As soon as you realize it you can't go back. To see it really badly just pop any song into Audacity and see the brickwalled waveform...

And it didn't start with ipods. The real start was around the mid-90's.

Foo Fighters-Stranger Things Have Happened

I make sure I hear what other people say about an album before I buy it. Amazon occasionally has reviewers that will let you know how an album is gonna sound.

99 Ways To Die - Megadeth

High & Dry ~ Corporate Love Breakdown
from the album The Bluegrass Tribute to Radiohead

Kid A - Radiohead. The album in full. Fan-TASTIC.

Hell yeah bkev that's their best one!  And that's the way it was meant to be listened to.  How To Disappear Completely going into Optimistic... amazing.

Strangers ~ Portihead