What CD are you listening to right now?

[Chris D]

And now moved on to the next new one.

[Hdale85]

Currently listening to The Beatles Box Set (stereo) The self titled album, disc 1

[Isaac]

KT Tunstall - Tiger Suit

KT Tunstall - Tiger Suit

[impala454]

Listening to a nice little soundtrack mix I made. Hans Zimmer, Steve Jablonsky, Michael Giacchino, and a few others:

[Ovation]

Phil Collins--Going Back

[r100gs]

Been awhile since I've contributed to this thread. My Bada CD player went on the fritz. Would not read a dics. I took a chance an ordered a new laser, Phillips VAM 1202, from ebay for $17 and installed it. It works! ;x( Anyway I purchased Paul Brown's new album "Love You Found Me" This guy is a real talent and if you enjoy smooth jazz it's a no brainer.

[Isaac]

Nikki Yanofsky

Nikki Yanofsky

[Brandon B]

Mike Keneally & Beer for Dolphins - Dancing

Not sure where I'd classify him. If you like electric guitar, though, you'd probably like at least one song off this album.

[Theresa]

ANYWAY... Dylan was prior to my generation, so I didn't know his stuff like I know modern well-known artists. As I perused his work, I kept thinking "Yeah, I want that song!" and, "Wow, I love that song! I didn't know he sang that!"

Those "more seasoned" people here may think that I'm just not in-the-know, but for example, I've heard "Lay Lady Lay" many times in my life, but I had no idea that Bob Dylan sang it. Other classics like "Blowin' In the Wind" I knew were his, of course. So I got this album, which is 3 discs (2 and a half, really) of his best stuff. WOW. This guy is AWESOME! If I had been alive for his earlier work, and older for his later work, I think I would have been a HUGE Dylan fan. I don't find his voice anything great, but the songs are very melodic and beautiful, and he is so poetic. And I had no idea that he did so many songs that have been redone by other artists, either.

Thoroughly enjoying this purchase, and one of the best I've made for a long time.

I've got a lot of Dylan and I love all but the xtian albums. He really sold himself out with that. But he was a genius. I like the Grateful Dead do Dylan too. Also, All Along The Watchtower performed by Jimmie Hendrix. He was great friends with Johnny Cash who I think influenced him into adopting fundamentalism. Early on he was a close friend of the Guthrie family and visited Woody very frequently when Woody was in a state hospital dying from Huntingtons.

[Isaac]

Tron Legacy soundtrack Music by Daft Punk

[Johnloudb]

The Dead Weather - Horehound

:T

[Johnloudb]

Gipsy Kings - Roots

Really like this spanish music. Acoustic instruments - Guitars, drums, singers. High quality recording.

Gipsy Kings

[wkhanna]

Great stuff!

I first heard the Gipsy Kings in ’92 when traveling Portugal & Spain. Their music seemed to be playing every where we went. Music was expensive there back then & I remember paying $18 - $20 US for one of their CD’s at a store in Lisbon. It was still worth it, though.

[madmac]

I recently heard some Bob Dylan, and thought, "I need to get some of his songs--I don't own any of his stuff." My standard practice when I recognize this with artists, is that I'll go to iTunes and Amazon, and peruse their work. I'll check out the songs I know, and sample some that I don't recognize, to see if some of their more popular stuff might be something I recognize when I hear it, and then want to get. If there's only 2-3 songs that I like, I'll just buy them individually from iTunes. If there's more, and I can find them on a "greatest hits" album or such, I'll get the whole album and then rip it for my iPod. I get better quality that way, too.

ANYWAY... Dylan was prior to my generation, so I didn't know his stuff like I know modern well-known artists. As I perused his work, I kept thinking "Yeah, I want that song!" and, "Wow, I love that song! I didn't know he sang that!"

Those "more seasoned" people here may think that I'm just not in-the-know, but for example, I've heard "Lay Lady Lay" many times in my life, but I had no idea that Bob Dylan sang it. Other classics like "Blowin' In the Wind" I knew were his, of course. So I got this album, which is 3 discs (2 and a half, really) of his best stuff. WOW. This guy is AWESOME! If I had been alive for his earlier work, and older for his later work, I think I would have been a HUGE Dylan fan. I don't find his voice anything great, but the songs are very melodic and beautiful, and he is so poetic. And I had no idea that he did so many songs that have been redone by other artists, either.

Thoroughly enjoying this purchase, and one of the best I've made for a long time.

Many people concider Dylan the best folk artist of all time......including Gordon Lightfoot, who was a major fan of his work!. I should get that CD. ;x(

[wkhanna]

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5
performed by Anton Dikov (piano), Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Emil Tabakov (conductor)

For my mom.

[r100gs]

Found this in the back collecting some dust. Acoustic Alchemy "The Beautiful Game". Beginning to end this is great cd. Well recorded to top it off. ;x(

[audioqueso]

Adele - 19
There are some great tracks and those tracks are very well recorded. But there are also a few tracks that I need to listen to on another setup other than the one I have in my living room. I hear some notes where I am not sure if it is my drivers, crossover design, audio equipment, or recording that are a little off. But regardless, I recommend the album with two thumbs up.

Track 9 "Make you feel my Love" is worth the price of admission all by itself.

I'm definitely going to have to give it a try. I owe it to myself after listening to 21.



"21" is the first album I've heard of her's. This album is just amazing. It's so good! I haven't enjoyed a complete album this much since Jill Scott's first album. Though some lyrics are questionable on whether or not she's even old enough to understand those feeling, her voice sure does have enough emotion to convince you that she really does understand those feelings. Amazing album!

[RPAudio1]

The Adele album is great :T
It's also nice to know it is still selling well- shows there is still a market left for good songwriting paired with good performances.

[r100gs]

The Adele album is great :T
It's also nice to know it is still selling well- shows there is still a market left for good songwriting paired with good performances.

19 and 21 are both worth owning. ;x(

[Ovation]

Tony Banks--Seven

[bigburner]

Tedeschi Trucks Band - "Revelator" (2011)

Nigel.

[bigburner]

Warren Haynes - "Man In Motion" (2011)

Nigel.

[Isaac]

Givers - In Light

Givers - In Light

http://youtu.be/A0vzHSPmTfE

[Burke Strickland]

Bernstein
Mahler
The Complete Symphonies

These are the orignal recordings from the 1960s which comprise the first complete set of all the symphonies by Gustav Mahler performed under the baton of one conducter. We are very fortunate that this conducter was Leonard Bernstein, conducting the New York Philharmonic, and that Sony/Carnegie Hall has remastered the entire set from the original multitrack recordings and reissued them in a very nice package with 12 CDs.

I have several of these performances on vinyl, although it had been years since I listened to any of them. Having also enjoyed performances by other conductors, and even some others by Bernstein with other orchestras, it is a revelation to hear these again with arguably even better sound than before. (I'm not getting into a discussion of vinyl versus CD.) The DSD remasters definitely cleaned up the sound, letting through details that had sort of been hazed over in the orignal vinyl pressings.

Bernstein was the conductor who "sold" American audiences on Mahler in the middle of the last century, and if enough people listen to even part of this set, he may do it again! A lot of great music to enjoy here.

[bigburner]

Wilco – The Whole Love (2011)

A couple of years ago I decided that Wilco was the best band playing today. I fell in love with their “Sky Blue Sky” album and their performance at the Byron Bay Blues Festival was a transformational experience for me.

This new album affirms my faith in Wilco. “The Whole Love” is edgy, original, cohesive, gentle, driving, intelligent and moving. I have run out of adjectives.

Bravo!

Nigel.

[Isaac]

Transformers: Dark of the Moon THE SCORE



Dark of the Moon :T

[PewterTA]

Rusted Root - When I Woke

Great dynamics and the sound stage is very very open on this disc. Plus it just makes you want to get up and move.

[Johnloudb]

This box set is the best sounding Chicago compilation I've heard on CD. It's only available used but they are available on Amazon. The Rhino remasters I've heard are down right atrocious.

[JeremyG]

Arch/Matheos: Sympathetic Resonance



Very cool progressive metal. Good recording, production and mix. :T

Jeremy

[madmac]

I'm listening to Meaghan Smith and the Crickets Orchastra. Wonderful open and spacious recording!. Also, listening a lot to George Benson's "Songs and Stories". That CD sounds absolutely amazing!!!. A little bass heavy but that can be tamed!!. The vocal presentation is amazing...clean....clean...CLEAN !!

[Hdale85]

Dispatch - Bang Bang



Fantastic album, actually found via Pandora but I have been listening to it tons and I love it.

One of my favorite songs from it.
[youtube]q3JjlkfX5Gk[/youtube]

[wkhanna]

Each holiday season around our home seems to become themed by some specific album. 2011’s ‘soundtrack’ is Pink Martini’s “Joy to the World”.

The Wife & I saw them in concert this past year, and this SeeDee has held forth well this season after many spins.

[mpauline]

Listening to Hilary Hahn's Elgar/Vaughan Williams CD. Brilliant! She does a great job on "The Lark Ascending".

[Ovation]

Listening to Hilary Hahn's Elgar/Vaughan Williams CD. Brilliant! She does a great job on "The Lark Ascending".

This is one of my very favourite classical discs. I have the MCH SACD and it gets a lot of play. I also used "The Lark Ascending" as a speaker shopping track in the past few weeks. My kids (6 and 10) love that piece. As Elgar and Vaughan Williams are among my favourite composers, this is a desert island album for me.

Currently listening to Loreena McKennitt's A Midwinter Night's Dream (the tree is still up in the living room, and this a favourite holiday disc of mine).

[JonMarsh]

Jeff Beck Wired, DSD Mastered Japanese import



The music, well, it's Beck, so you certainly know what you're getting, and if you're a Jeff Beck fan like me, you're digging it, even from 1976.

This album was produced by George Martin (yes, he of Beatles fame), and Martin has had production duties for an awful lot of Beck's albums since, to good effect.

I assume when they say DSD mastering, they've done conversion from the analog masters to DSD for digital (SACD format), then SBM down conversion to make this CD version. Let me tell you, the 1976 mixing methods and balance sounds a little quaint in 2012 terms, BUT, this sucker is crystal clear, especially the remarkable cymbal tone on the NAD M51 DAC on some of the cuts with Narada Michael Walden on drums.

[Chris D]

Thanks, just added the Lark Ascending album to my Amazon list.

[Glen B]

Cassandra Wilson - Glamoured. Stellar recording quality and fine performance, as always from Ms. Wilson. This album includes nice covers of Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay", Luther Ingram's "If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Wanna Be Right)" and Willie Nelson's "Crazy".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agrjf-UyCvc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONMzFwsR-Pk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJH898KDFWc

[wkhanna]

Carmina Burana, Leonard Slatkin conducting



I think the first time this work left an impression on me was 1982 when it was used in Arnie Schwarzenegger’s movie “Conan the Barbarian”. This was actually a decent flick for its genre, and consider the fact that James Earl Jones lent his great Shakespearean skills to its production along with one of my other favorites, the Japanese actor Mako (his supporting role with Steve McQueen in the ‘the Sand Pebbles’ is one the most overlooked performances in motion picture history, IMHO). Back on topic, this work, specifically the first and closing pieces, ‘Fortune’, are now so over sampled as to be cliché’. Possibly more so than even Beethoven’s famous lick from the Fifth Symphony. Surprisingly maybe to some, there exists rather interesting and worthwhile work between the overworked end caps here.

Part opera, part choral work, part bombastic orchestral arrangement, the origin for Carl Orff’s most famous labor is taken from poetry transcripts of a rather obscure sect of 11th, 12th & 13th century monks who took great pleasure in the satirical mocking of the RCC’s clergy for their flagrant pursuit of pleasures of the flesh, embezzlement of tithe, and overall epicurean life style.

I have this work on a Deutsche Grammophon LP I bought used years ago when I first returned to vinyl. It unfortunately is in very poor condition. Thus, while recently completing an order from Amazon for a few SeeDee’s I have been longing after, I added a copy of Leonard Slatkin’s interpretation while guiding the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. I dropped this in the CA 640 v2 for the 1st time last night.

You may not be aware of the work Dan (aka PewterTA) has been performing on my system, but some significant changes were brought to my RB-1090 power amp recently. Since that time, I have only had a few hours to do some uninterrupted listening.

This is the first orchestral music I have played since the upgrade. Now since this was a new SeeDee, I have no real true benchmark. Regardless, the performance was stunning. Brass was clean and clear. More so than I ever remember. Massed strings had shimmering texture that I don not recall hearing at home. The hall seemed very open and large, as would be required for a work of this dramatic magnitude.

I’m now anxious to play some other classical from my digital library that I am V familiar with. Hopefully the improvement will be shared with all of it.

AFA this disc, some say it is a bit green with little emotion. I found it quite pleasing, modern all most, with excellent sound quality and dynamics. I plan on purchasing the DG label of Eugen Jochum conducting. He is guided as it were during the preparation for the recording by the composer himself. I will report back when I have a chance to compare the two.

[Ovation]

I was in a choir that performed Carmina…, so I'm always interested in good performances. Will add this one to my list.

I've just finished listening to an old favourite--among the first CDs I ever bought. Romances for Saxophone by Branford Marsalis (playing soprano sax--one of my favourite instruments). It is a 1986 production from CBS Masterworks. I picked it up because I had recently seen him play with Sting and in a local small club venue with his jazz quartet. I know it is not a masterpiece but it has both sentimental value and it sounds very good. I like to trot it out now and then, often with a fire in the fireplace and a good single malt.

[Chris D]

Yeah, I've been on a search for the "definitive" Carmina Burana recording for some time, and still haven't pulled the trigger. I'll be interested if you have any further thoughts.

[Lex]

I was listening to Diana Krall "From This Moment On "Best Buy Exclusive" CD. Maybe there was an extra cut on the BB exclusive, I cannot recall. But that's what the title info says.



Wow, I noticed the music section at BB has been desecrated. Very small now. :-(

[Chris D]

Yeah, it's sad, Doug.

On a side, note, I absolutely DESPISE when manufacturers come up with these "exclusive content" things on a CD or DVD from a particular retail store. Totally lame.

[wkhanna]

I was in a choir that performed Carmina.

Wow! Not too many people can say they have actually participated in the performance of Camina!

I had recently seen him [Branford Marsalis] play with Sting and in a local small club venue with his jazz quartet.

You go, my man! Out and about with the live sounds of some of the best!

I like to trot it out now and then, often with a fire in the fireplace and a good single malt.

I like your style!

[wkhanna]

Yeah, I've been on a search for the "definitive" Carmina Burana recording for some time, and still haven't pulled the trigger. I'll be interested if you have any further thoughts.

This is considered by many to be the ‘definitive’ performance. But I have not yet had the opportunity to judge it other than hearing it over my Magnum Dynalab FM tuner.

[wkhanna]

Dan (PewterTA) & I listened to this last night at his place. He shared my impressions feeling this may be the cleanest, quietest most dynamic version he has heard. The performance itself is crisp, moves with vigor and deserves attention.
It sounded real good on his system, too!