Good headphones albums

Susuma Yokota - Sakura
Lemonheads - It's a shame about Ray
Aphex Twin - SAW 85-92 and I care Because you do
Today I've been listening to The Orb's Adventures beyond the Ultraworld. It's good.
Also, Neutral Milk Hotel - in the Aeroplane over the Sea
and my perennial favourites Low, of course - The Curtain Hits the Cast.

Loveless would be cool but I'm enjoying the sensitivity of things right now...hearing the intake of breath before the singer starts the vocal or the hum of the amp before the solo comes in, that's why I'm enjoying Pepper so much and why I figure jazz will sound so great.

Some nice bonkers Aphex would be good too, his drill'n'bass bitz maybe. Or, for sensitivity and atmospherics of singers, the first 45 seconds or so of Mojo Pin by Jeff Buckley are awesome, you can hear the saliva on his lips with a decent set-up. I'd go for the new Beth Gibbons on headphones too. Or that Mark Hollis solo album, cos he recorded it all live with just two microphones, so I guess in a way it's the purest stereo sound you can get.

It's better as a stand-alone piece for sure, but it was on a comp I made of snail-paced moody music, so it wasn't completely taken out of its proper context.

"Some nice bonkers Aphex would be good too, his drill'n'bass bitz maybe"

Floaty-melody-lines Aphex Twin kicks bonkers-drill'n'bass-blitz Aphex Twin's ass for headphone listening. And most any listening, for that matter, ha!

IT'LL END IN TEARS by This Mortal Coil

All the little bits you thought you half-heard before really were there all along!

I have to mention "Loveless"! It sounds great all the time, but best of all walking home on a cold night while intoxicated.

Hm. I might have to try this.

btw: Jazz on headphones never works for me...coltrane buzzing in one ear, the rhythm section in the other, pah!

This is pretty much true. Right now I'd recommend DJ Shadow's The Private Press but I'd also say steer well clear of the first Neu! album...it made me want to jump in the bay.

And Portishead's "Half Day Closing", which does something similar, presumably as an homage. Great track, but a pain in the arse on headphones.

I presume Americans don't call headphones 'cans'? Or do they?

"Transilvanian Hunger" while lying on a cold concrete floor, experiencing heroin withdrawal symptoms.

Yes, overdubbing the various parts by placing the instrumentalists just so in the room and hence, the stereo image. Didn't move the mics in four months of recording.

Mind you, I'd suggest that the stereo spread of a record like that is best enjoyed on suitably positioned speakers, not headphones. I don't rate the headphone experience for soundfield depth, more for detail, texture and intimacy. The isolation of one channel from the other destroys the interference between left and right, so it can often sound flat. Exception: binaural recordings, which are intended for headphone listening.

>"Transilvanian Hunger" while lying on a cold concrete floor, >experiencing heroin withdrawal symptoms.

In the rain, on a cold night. While having the sh*t kicked out of you by angry dealers.

Dittos to Loveless and both Talk Talk albums.

Sigur Ros are also great for headphones.

On a semi-related note, anyone listen to the last Super Furries DVD in DTS? AMAZING.

Plaid's "Not For Threes" is great on headphones, although it tends to make me dance like an eejit in the middle of the street.

Also, Ride's "Nowhere", and the first Calla album.

Spiritualized's Lazer Guided Melodies

ooooops you meant albums......

Not sure how I feel about the new Stereolab and headphones. There is no sound that is duplicated in both the left and right channels. Sometimes this is really interesting to listen to with lots going on, other times I miss having something in the middle of the stereo picture. It's like there's a big valley of silence in the middle of my head.

Anything by the Microphones

Headphone nirvana: Funkadelic's America Eats Its Young, Yes' Fragile and The Yes Album, and Charlie Mingus' The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady.

If your headphones are good at simulating surround, then give The Orb a try too.

Sounds like The Beatles anno 1963 or Amiga Soundtracker music anno 1989 then ;)

to start...

Anyway, "Metal Machine Music" again (and again). And Led Zeppelin, Dig Your Own Hole and (yep) Sgt. Pepper's.

the space created by miking something VERY LOUD and playing it v e r y q u i e t l y.

that was an engineer gag - hey! i'm killing them in the aisles, quit yackin' ya lousy bum!

Steve Roach - Magnificent Void

ProjeKct Three - The ProjeKcts Box Set

Scritti Politti - C&P
Thomas Dolby - The Flat Earth (and his production work for Prefab Sprout)
Telefon Tel Aviv - Map of What is Effortless
(and lots more, obviously)

Another thing headphone listening does is isolate the acoustics of the recording from the acoustics of your listening space. There's a lot of experimental electronic stuff (Denis Smalley, Bernard Parmegiani, Francis Dhomont, ...) in which the different "virtual spaces" are juxtaposed and layered. And there are some binaural effects (illusions of 3-D space) that really only work on headphones, because they rely on feeding different spatial cues to each ear.

And while it's not really the point of the thread, headphones listening for me is the only way I can listen to music REALLY LOUD at home, although I do this very rarely, so as to avoid damaging my ears.

United Staes of America
Refely - 9 Cliches
EeL - Little Prince
The Aprils - Astro, Pan-da, Space Dream Bathroom
World's End Girlfriend - The Lay Land Lie
Vince DiCola - Til All Are One: Transfromers The Movie Score

Not the most popular Tribe album, but I think the beats are the most subtle.
Perfect for the phones! Keep it Movin!!!

otm.

My favorite headphones experiences are when the song sounds entirely different from listening on regular speakers, like on Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" -- all kinds of bizarro sounds hidden in there, including a kettle going off and being moved off the burner, etc.

otm

...unless you wanna share 'em with someone you love.

Or annoy someone you hate, for that matter.

wire - 154
brian eno - another green world
can - future days
kraftwerk - minimum-maximum
brian wilson - smile
boredoms - vision creation newsun
animal collective - feels
gang gang dance - god's money
bark psychosis - codename: dustsucker
max tundra - mastered by guy at the exchange
broadcast - the noise made by people
out hud - street dad
the books - thought for food
kelley polar - love songs of the hanging gardens

Stephan Micus - To the Evening Child

Terje Rypdal and the Chasers - Blue

cause of the old stereo gimmick (singer on the left, guitar on the right etc..)

i listened to the first three peter gabriel records last night through headphones and they sounded great. i never get tired of solsbury hill.

Ted Nugent's first album (particularly "Stranglehold")

Flying Burrito Brothers, Gilded Palace Of Sin (you can hear Gram Parsons coughing and snickering on "Christine's Tune")

Particularly "Only You" is a headphone classic.

Also I'd have to mention First Narrows or Submers by Loscil. Both of these are brilliant.

Resurrect, again.

Every album sounds better on headphones.

This is not true I'd say. Mono albums from the 50s/60s sound better on other equipment.

Superpitcher - Today (mix)
Aphex Twin - Hangable Auto Bulb
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Cecil Taylor - Nefertiti...
Stravinsky - Orpheus
Todd Edwards - various

All headphone classics in my world.

Low's Drums and Guns
Anything by Cobblestone Jazz
Hermann Baumann's Perspectives (not because of any technical wizardry, but because headphones force me to concentrate more on the music, and bring out the sound of Baumann's horns).

Anything by Cobblestone Jazz

really ? gosh. i have really struggled to get through the 23 Seconds album .. too dry for me (so far - the penny may drop in a few days of course)

Paris Hilton- Paris
Kylie Minogue- Fever

I'm very serious.

Anything by Cobblestone Jazz

i have a tiny mat johnson playlist on my mp3 contraption. 'return of the zombie bikers' 12" and 'india in me'. more subtle than you might imagine, especially with a whopping set of muffs wrapped round the head.

new ulver album! and the last album too. so beautiful. great sound.

lambchop - is a woman
geto boys - grip it!
pole - 2

Low's Drums and Guns

-- Daniel, Esq., Tuesday, September 18, 2007 12:49 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Cannot second this enough. Best headphones album (and probably best album, period) of 2007 for me.

Low's D&G thirded.

also, one from last year: Trentemoller's The Last Resort - rediscovered thanks to better headphones.

uh, earphones axshoowally. but anyway.

Low thirded.

Also Panda Bear's Person Pitch is astonishing on headphones, particularly in urban surrounds. It makes sense even more.

Cluster's Zuckerzeit and Sowiesoso.

i have really struggled to get through the 23 Seconds album

I didn't even know the debut disc -- 23 Seconds -- was about to be released in October. Great news! (Also great because I'll be able to grab it on eMusic, as it's being released on the Wagon Repair, contrary to earlier rumors). I can't imagine it's "dry," given the way Cobblestone Jazz records its music, but I'll obv. reserve judgment until hearing the disc. In any event, thanks for the heads-up!

Ricardo Villalobos' Fabric 36 mix sounds pretty outstanding on headphones.

whatever you're listening to w/weed amirite

Keith Fullerton Whitman!

At least Playthroughs

I didn't even know the debut disc -- 23 Seconds

as expected - it is quickly growing on me (proper stereo listening next week - cant wait!). despite my initial reservations, i keep finding myself choosing this over everything else in the pile, which is surely a good sign.
there are some fantastic parts across the 2 cd set, but the 45 minute live track does take a while to kick in.

the new Chrome Hoof record (Pre-Emptive False Rapture) is phenomenal through headphones

TALK TALK

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love, esp. 'Waking the Witch', esp. if you're on something.

-- Bryan (Bryan), Monday, January 6, 2003 10:30 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

Britney Spears Blackout

I fucking love my SR60s but my ears hurt after listening to anything for 15-20 minutes. Dunno if they're trebly or what.

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love, esp. 'Waking the Witch', esp. if you're on something.

-- Bryan (Bryan), Monday, January 6, 2003 10:30 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

-- Surmounter, Friday, April 18, 2008 11:51 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

i disagree on the mark hollis album. it is probably the most beautiful thing i ever heard, but painfully intimate to my ears. i usually put it on very loud, which of course works out fine since it isn't a very loud record, and then i listen to it sitting on my balcony. living in sweden, i can only listen to it about 6 months a year. it has been a long winter......

Why did I not listen to Neon Golden on headphones before? This is the best record ever.

Cornelius.

A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step

L.A. Woman

Daily Operation

Matthew Dear's Black City is something i can't listen to without cans. ((Re-posting from previous snafu)).

...And for the purposes of the Nebraska Man-esque ILM search engine, i'll include "head phone", headphone, headphones, & "head phones".

Animal Collective - Feels

Current 93 - All The Pretty Little Horses

Physical Graffiti

The deluxe reissue of The Sophtware Slump is on Spotify and sounds completely gold through my Beyerdynamics today, especially the synths and mellotron on the coda of "He's Simple, He's Dumb, He's The Pilot".

Cornelius.

*love* Point on 'phones.

Someone mentioned The Final Cut upthread but not Psychic TV's Dreams Less Sweet, the other great album made with holophonics. There's a track on that where it sounds like you're being buried alive because you're having earth chucked onto you and the level of it is rising. Pretty scary.

not sure about some of the choices above, Point and Feels are too full on for my liking, no room to breathe. Point is too loud as well. And all of the Matthew Dear productions i've heard just sound *bad*, not heard that LP though.

my favourite headphone albums right now are

Moritz von Oswald Trio - Horizontal Structures: a cavernous sounding record, makes your head feel like a bowl

Bruno Pronsato - Lovers Do: best sounding techno album i've heard in ages, a real intricacy and light touch to the acoustic drums and a spacious mix. Fantastic sound design

Mark McGuire - A Young Person's Guide: entrancing layering and tones, instrument separation and stereo imaging are great

Grails - Deep Politics: just a really well recorded band, with a full, dynamic sound. They get it

headphones are the Yuin PK-2s, which are my favourite portables ever. Grado in earbud form

i wouldn't want to hear the ending of Point through headphones.

Maybe not the whole of Point, but I'm now listening to "Point of View Point" and it sounds spacious and gorgeous!

Colour Haze, All

And all of the Matthew Dear productions i've heard just sound *bad*, not heard that LP though.

― merked, Tuesday, August 23, 2011 11:43 AM

With all its congenial faults, Black City a more varied aural depth than i've otherwise witnessed from anything listed within this thread (or otherwise). Floyd's "Dark Side" is a touchstone for headphone addicts, and i sicken upon the loquacious aplomb of its high regard. Step back. The only thing i've heard that "tickle(s)s my ears" (thank you, turkey) from the last 24 hrs of auditioning everything i could DL from this post are noted, but IMO are a shadow of Dear's latest.

Listen to it as pedantically as you wish; take the dire conditions of acute lugubriousness, three hours prior your normal wake-up time, or the worst hangover of the century, and massage your brain into a condition you're least expecting.

Other notes.

Bruno Pronsato is a gratefully received heretofore unknown album, so to Global Communications, Grails (stoner-twizz), and Mark McGuire (drone), but they nowhere "twist yer head" like Low's emotionally-charged Drums and Guns or Cornelius' emphatically rendered Point.

In fact, i've heard several other fantastic albums for the first time because of the above recommendations. In my ten years here, this is the singular best thread on ILM that's acquainted me with such a multitude of musics otherwise unbeknownst. But, make no mistake, they are not necessarily grand for their headroom dynamic; they excel at pure musicality, and not so much, for the headphone-ability.

Please identify more albums that MUST be hear on headphones, or, otherwise, because so much great stuff is being revealed from this topic.

It's interesting to me that 'Drums and Guns' by Low has appeared a few times in this thread. As much as I love that album I've never been too impressed with it through headphones. Some of the stereo panning is too extream i.e. vocal's hard panned to the left and all other instruments in the right.

I interpret that divergence as the essential dichotomy of the piece. To me, the "separation" you speak of is of its own means; a discussion, of sorts.

Yeah, I appreciate that it's an integral compositional aspect of the album. Don't get me wrong, on my stereo the album sounds amazing. As such it was one of my first picks when I recently bought some Grado's and I was shocked at how hard the album was panned.

cannot listen to that one on headphones and even on speakers I find it trying - so it mostly gets played on my little ipod boombox

It's notoriously loud, isn't it?

In Sides by Orbital needs to be heard on headphones. I remember nearly getting whiplash the first time I heard Out There Somewhere part 2 start on headphones.

vespertine

Caribou: Swim

Andorra is also great through headphones; the layering is exquisite, and the textures are amazing.

____Tom Petty - Wildflowers____

Crystal clear and punchy with a dose of summery warmth.

____DJ Quik - Rhythm-al-ism____

Layers upon layers of eargasmic smooth.

____Pole - Steingarten____

Extremely boomy lows with intricate noises and blips over the top. The perfect album for my new ATM-50s.

spirit theyre gone, spirit theyve vanished -avey tare/panda bear

^ not studio headphones! You'll lose your hearing.

?

Fucking hell, the Nicolas Jaar.

The atoms for peace album makes way more sense as a headphone experience.

Call it New Age if you like, but Suzanne Ciani's Seven Waves is pretty great on headphones.

I got some really nice IEMs and one unanticipated side-effect is that I'm way more drawn to great sound design now - Tom Ellard's "Rhine", the Pinch & Shackleton LP have both gone from very good to immortal works of genius for me.

Modern Vampires of the City.