Johnny B
Well-Known Member
Generically speaking, I love guitar rock on vinyl. Anything with really crunchy guitars, like 80s metal, or Judas Priest or Black Sabbath. In particular, I would recommend Judas Priest's British Steel, Black Sabbath's Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the first Van Halen album and AC/DC's Powerage and Highway to Hell.
Early punk rock is good, too. Clean original pressings of The Clash's albums are worth picking up if reasonably priced. If you're into grindcore and can find an original copy of Napalm Death's Utopia Banished, it has way more low-end than the CD.
Also, I think 80s pop tends to sound better on vinyl than CD up until the point where the albums started being longer than 45 minutes. CDs were new, and LPs had been around 30ish years. There are a lot of nice sounding pressings from that time. Of new releases anyway. My early 1980s pressing of Pet Sounds that was made from an obviously damaged tape, not so much. For specific titles, the early Joe Jackson stuff sounds really good, especially Night and Day, Body and Soul, and Big World. Also Squeeze records from the same period. Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair is also really good. I've never heard that on CD, though, so I can't compare. INXS' Kick sounds far better on LP (and cassette, even) than on CD. The CD mastering is really tinny.
I generally prefer reggae on LP as well. In particular, a lot of the early 80s Greensleeves stuff (Scientist, Barrington Levy, Hugh Mundell, etc.) sounds fantastic on vinyl, even the recent pressings. The Jamaican pressings can be a bit rough, but UK and US pressings are usually good.
Pink Floyd on a good pressing sounds amazing on vinyl. The good pressing part is important. There are a lot of mediocre 70s (and probably 80s) pressings out there. I have mid-70s pressings of More and Obscured by Clouds that sound flat in comparison to the original 80s CD versions. The easiest way to get good pressings for a decent price is to buy the reissues from a few years ago. There's a very long thread here about them if you want more info.
Speaking of long-winded bands, the recent Phish vinyl repressings are all better than the CD versions. Especially Lawn Boy.
My wife adds that she thinks contemporary music in a retro style sounds really good on vinyl. Her examples are JD McPherson and Sharon Jones.
Early punk rock is good, too. Clean original pressings of The Clash's albums are worth picking up if reasonably priced. If you're into grindcore and can find an original copy of Napalm Death's Utopia Banished, it has way more low-end than the CD.
Also, I think 80s pop tends to sound better on vinyl than CD up until the point where the albums started being longer than 45 minutes. CDs were new, and LPs had been around 30ish years. There are a lot of nice sounding pressings from that time. Of new releases anyway. My early 1980s pressing of Pet Sounds that was made from an obviously damaged tape, not so much. For specific titles, the early Joe Jackson stuff sounds really good, especially Night and Day, Body and Soul, and Big World. Also Squeeze records from the same period. Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair is also really good. I've never heard that on CD, though, so I can't compare. INXS' Kick sounds far better on LP (and cassette, even) than on CD. The CD mastering is really tinny.
I generally prefer reggae on LP as well. In particular, a lot of the early 80s Greensleeves stuff (Scientist, Barrington Levy, Hugh Mundell, etc.) sounds fantastic on vinyl, even the recent pressings. The Jamaican pressings can be a bit rough, but UK and US pressings are usually good.
Pink Floyd on a good pressing sounds amazing on vinyl. The good pressing part is important. There are a lot of mediocre 70s (and probably 80s) pressings out there. I have mid-70s pressings of More and Obscured by Clouds that sound flat in comparison to the original 80s CD versions. The easiest way to get good pressings for a decent price is to buy the reissues from a few years ago. There's a very long thread here about them if you want more info.
Speaking of long-winded bands, the recent Phish vinyl repressings are all better than the CD versions. Especially Lawn Boy.
My wife adds that she thinks contemporary music in a retro style sounds really good on vinyl. Her examples are JD McPherson and Sharon Jones.