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There's a subtle difference between best production and best production values, isn't there?
So Screamadelica has some of the best, most creative production ever, but the "production values" might be way beneath whichever Coldplay or U2 snoozefest you'd care to pick.
Anyway, how come nobody had mentioned MBV's loveless yet? Probably wins in both categories.
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Soundgarden - Superunknown
and changing tack completely
Daft Punk - Random Access Memory
Seals first album produced by Trevor Horn iirc.
UNKLE-War Stories
Belle and Sebastian-dear Catastrophe waitress
The Black Keys-El Camino
Crikey, I know that New Order has been mentioned but I'll go one further - check out Martin Hannett's production during the late 70s and early 80s.
And +1 for Ultravox's Vienna - a fave of mine.
no mention for Dr. Dre yet either!
For electronic stuff (where often the artist and the producer are the same), for me the sign of quality was knowing within a bar or two who'd produced something. Daft Punk and Autechre are two examples that spring to mind.
I love El Camino but there's a really annoying fret buzz with the acoustic guitar on Little Black Submarine.
David Sylvian is pretty much spot on to me.
I know the Eagles have been mentioned and I've always thought Hotel California was beautifully produced.
On Sky Arts there are some great documentaries on Great Albums - interviews with the bands, producers, engineers, session musicians and so on. Great songs and musicianship will get so far but add in the perfect mix of production and innovation too, layering multiple tracks and overdubs and you get real magic.
Screamadelica is not on it for some reason, but it is on Youtube in parts
Daft punk is a great example, fantastic production values... but the tracks are mostly a bit bland.
For anyone that's a fan of production and how a song is put together, I can't recommend Rick Beato's "What Makes This Song Great" YouTube videos enough. He breaks songs done by all the elements and his insight is fantastic
A Deeper Understanding - The War on Drugs
Copper Blue by Sugar is great. As good a noise as anyone has managed to get Bob’s pure rage-filled guitar sound.
Happy Mondays: Pills n’ Thrills n’ Bellyaches. Martyn Hannet & I think Paul Oakenfold. They took a rag tag assemblage of lunatics and made them sound brilliant. Loose Fit, especially the extended version, is wonderfully detailed.
Chic’s first album Chic. There’s a great BBC documentary series called The Producers which went into the details of how that was produced using the original multi tracks. Nile Rodgers is a genius.
If you want an example of an extremely well produced individual track, (now bear with me here) Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t stop the feeling” is technically superb. You can listen to it at any volume and everything is crystal clear, nothing overpowers anything else so there’s always great separation across the volume range.
The Black album by Metallica is one that springs to mind, it’s so crisp and clean sounded especially compared to their previous album.
Another is Dirty by Sonic Youth, with this and Nevermind Butch Vig could do no wrong in 92.
I think maybe Brian Wilson was being polite there.
Songs in the key of life by Stevie Wonder.
Officium by Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard ensemble
I met George Martin once and he said that Apocalypse by the Mahavishinu orchestra and the LSO was the most complex recording challenge he ever had bit one of the best results. The story he told was that he had the Mahavishinu in one room in the studio (crazy volume) and the entire LSO in the other with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting with headphones and a video link and the control room trying to balance it all without the loud stuff bleeding across rooms into the orchestra mics ! He said orchestra overdub would be easier for anyone trying similar 😉
I love El Camino but there’s a really annoying fret buzz with the acoustic guitar on Little Black Submarine
That’s my favourite track on the album, however for me, the production on it does not match the brilliance of Thickfreakness...
Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Armed Forces
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Exodus
Dusty Springfield - Dusty in Memphis
How about mobys play and fat boy slim you've come a long way baby.
Also I think the way the acoustic is played on little black submarines sounding that way is deliberate. The electric part of that song is also pretty raw and live sounding.
Agree on thickfreakness too!
Lou Reed - Transformer (producers to die for David Bowie & Mick Ronson)
Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
The boundaries were massively pushed on what you could do with studio production in the 80’s by the competition between Martin Hannet* at Factory and Trevor Horn at ZTT.
Apparently they were both utter perfectionists and an absolute nightmare to work with. But if you listen to any New Order or Frankie 12”s then that was the benchmark for studio production
* ‘Inside New Order’ by Hooky is a fantastic book. It goes into real geeky technical detail about recording in the pre-digital age and the tyranny of being in the studio with Martin Hannet. A great read
Agree on thickfreakness too!
Me too! That album is the best scuzzy sounding album. Brendan O’Brien produced some great albums in the 90’s and his reworking of PJ’s Ten (redux) is far better than the original.
Anything produced or remixed by Steven Wilson.
I thought his own music production was absolutely perfect, until I heard his recent remixes of some classic Yes and Jethro Tull albums. I know those are certainly an acquired taste, even for me and I like prog, but what he's done to them can only be described as epic.
Marillion albums are always well made.
if you listen to any New Order or Frankie 12”s then that was the benchmark for studio production
I have a small collection of 12" singles (including Frankie). Almost without exception the quality is amazing. I've no idea why, it just seems there is more "space" for the sound to inhabit. I'm assuming there is some proper technical thing going on.
That reminds me - Diana Ross, Chain Reaction - Bee Gees.
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Mentioned above but another vote for Closer by Joy Division.
Martin Hannett produced.
The Peter Hook book on Joy Division is really good for a breakdown of the tracks!
Genius.
Thank you for the explanations.
Resonates with why I like some tracks more than others.
Stuff that sounds good and plays well IMO
Erykah Badu - Baduizm
Metallica - Black Album (although a lot of people think it's too clean)
Neneh Cherry - Raw Like Sushi
Ocean Colour Scene - Moseley Shoals (spelling might be off)
Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance (especially Clean My Wounds)
Therapy? - Infernal Love
Black Crowes - Southern Harmony & Musical Companion
Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
Sugababes - Angels with Dirty Faces
Probably loads more if I have a bit more of a think...
don't particularly like it and it's not been mentioned yet (Not that i've seen so apologies if it has) and it has some merit in this thread
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
I'm really surprised by some of the suggestions above. I'm not trying to start an argument - each to their own and all that - but I always thought Elvis Costello albums had dreadful production. Good songs, good musicians, etc, but the sounds was always a bit muddy and tinny to me. I'd also say the same about Transformer - I think it's a good album, but I never liked the 'feel' of it.
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love, as suggested above, has great production.
Transformer is on that Classic Albums series.
Boardin Bob - that's a great find! I'm lost in that already,
Anything produced by Steve Albini
Talk Talk.
Spirit of Eden.
I think maybe Brian Wilson was being polite there.
He wasn’t all there a lot of the time, and George Martin, along with The Beatles, developed a whole new range of studio techniques that The Beachboys and Brian Wilson were only to keen to try to copy and improve on. As shown on ‘God Only Knows’, possibly one of the finest pop songs ever recorded.
Production is part of the story, but so is mastering, especially with vinyl, and a really good mastering engineer can make a huge difference. Back when I was buying vinyl, I always bought Hi-Fi News & Record Reviews, because NME couldn’t give a shit about the quality of the music, only if it fitted the reviewers own political world-view. Apart from good album reviews, there was a bit at the back which always went deeper into production and the like, written by a bloke by the name of Ken Kestler, and I learned a lot from his articles.
One thing was to look at the run-out grooves and see if there was anything stamped there, and if so, did it match anything in the liner-notes on the sleeve, in particular the word Masterdisk. If the sleeve notes said the album was mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk, the quietly rejoice and enjoy the music, because he was about the best in the business, and the vinyl was pressed from first generation metal stampers.
If it said something different, like Stirling Sound, then one or both stampers had worn or been damaged, and new ones cut elsewhere from second-generation stereo tapes copied from the original studio stereo master, which meant there was already slight degradation in quality, along with the unknown quality of whoever mastered that cutting.
Two albums I have, original vinyl, are Dire Straits ‘Love Over Gold’, and Paul Simon’s ’Hearts and Bones’, both of which are Bob Ludwig masters, and both are outstanding quality.
I’ll go along with Steely Dan’s ‘Aja’, and Donald Fagan’s ‘Nightfly’, fabulous production, clear vocals, space around instruments, a nice wide soundstage, and not cluttered up.
I have a small collection of 12″ singles (including Frankie). Almost without exception the quality is amazing. I’ve no idea why, it just seems there is more “space” for the sound to inhabit. I’m assuming there is some proper technical thing going on.
Yeah, it’s only having one track on each side of a 12” disk, playing at 45rpm instead of 33rpm, giving lots of room between the grooves to allow plenty of bass without the stylus jumping into the next groove, or grooves actually crossing into the next groove.
This is why vinyl sounds ‘warmer’, the master stereo tape is EQ’d, the high and low frequencies are rolled off to avoid issues at the mastering stage - bass causing stylus jumping, high frequencies causing the mastering lathe cutting head to overheat and burn out. MP3’s may be compressed, but so is vinyl, it can’t work otherwise, at least not with 33rpm albums.
John Mayall with Clapton - Blues Breakers
Jack White - Lazaretto
The Beatles - Revolver
Kamasi Washington - Harmony of Difference
Michael Kiwanuka - Love and Hate
Led Zep - I, II, III & IV
I think this is a difficult question for me - because it’s so subjective.
I know albums that I love the production of and those I really dislike, but in reality that’s just my individual taste - apart from really awful production. There are a few howlers here.
- The Joshua Tree - Lanois/Eno/Lillywhite. Original release sounds awful in every format. Lumpen, sludgy, dull sound.
- Nevermind - Butch Vig. Sounded ok at the time - but now it sounds dreadful. Too bright, too FM radio-friendly sounding. Think of how good In Utero still sounds!
- All Change - Leckie. I don’t know what went wrong here, sound overly bright and harsh. Tiring to listen too.
I'm no expert, but I thought that part of the appeal of Eric B & Rakim's Paid In Full was that the production was a so rough, so raw, so unpolished and "genuine"?
For very high production values, PSB's Race for Space is recent standout for me. Going back a bit anything by Air, and back a bit further Portishead.
Portishead is a very good call.
Def Leppard – Hysteria
Mutt Langes finest hour
He has blood on his hands regarding crimes against music.
No feeling , no soul just making music as bland as possible to appeal to people to as many people as possible ,to make as much money as possible.
Most of Seal's albums are pretty good, especially Seal I and Seal II.
As previously mentioned by RichPenny Dr Dre always delivers great production, particularly 2001.
Justin Timberlake's Future Sex / Love Sounds.
And Timbaland's Shock Value.
I’m no expert, but I thought that part of the appeal of Eric B & Rakim’s Paid In Full was that the production was a so rough, so raw, so unpolished and “genuine”?
That’s why like anything - it’s just so subjective. It really depends on who is listening and what sounds great to them for that artist.
"Talk Talk.
Spirit of Eden."
Would respectfully disagree, production on that not as good as Laughing Stock. Much better album tho...