50 of the best hi-fi albums for audiophiles

By Andrew Murphy 11 days ago

How many do you have?

It was supposed to be so easy. We didn't even set ourselves the task of picking the absolute, definitive best
50 albums for audiophiles – and in reality this is just a selection of records from a collection of hundreds or
thousands – but still it felt close to deciding which of your limbs you'd least mind being torn off by a bear.

We did, however, manage to compile the below list of 50 records (and a little further listening for each) we
feel span genres, styles of production and sonic character rather well. If nothing else, they'll give your hi-fi a
workout and, hopefully, broaden your musical horizons at least a little.

Radiohead – Hail To The Thief (2003)

Following a pair of heavily electronic-infused records in Kid A and Amnesiac, Radiohead here effectively
returned to being a five-piece guitar band without forgoing the experimentation or genre blurring that made
the aforementioned records so comprehensively seminal. Plus initial vinyl pressings played at 45rpm for
additional willfulness points.

Miles Davis – Bitches Brew (1970)

Miles Davis made his opinions on the term fusion as a descriptor for this period of his music stingingly
clear. Nonetheless, Bitches Brew blended modal jazz with, essentially, a rock rhythm section to rebirth the
fomer's position as the wildly influential genre it had always been.

Buy it on Amazon: Miles Davis Bitches Brew

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless (1991)

Arguably the poster album for shoegaze, Loveless is a masterpiece combining elephantine riffs with
dream-pop haze, awash with reverb and overdriven guitars - and complimented by an equally iconic sleeve
of cherry-drop psychedelia.

Buy it on Amazon: My Bloody Valentine Loveless

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (1975)

Can you really call yourself an audiophile if you don't own a copy of Wish You Were Here? Well, yes, of
course you can, but most audiophiles own one regardless.

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The Beatles – Abbey Road (1969)

There are of course more experimental and, some might say, more interesting Beatles albums than this.
But even if we disregard any sonic value in terms of production, Abbey Road in particular is (if nothing else)
proof that 'straightforward' pop music can and should be art.

Buy it on Amazon: The Beatles Abbey Road

Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (2013)

If you're going to get Nile Rogers in, then a compressed and radio-friendly recording is never going to cut it.
Recorded largely using live instruments, Random Access Memories is one of the few chart-topping dance
albums that facilitates, in fact demands, deeper listening.

Like this? Try Tame Impala Currents

R.E.M. – Automatic For The People (1992)

Alongside the preceeding Out Of Time, Automatic For The People is one of the two R.E.M. records with,
arguably, the most mainstream pop sensibilities. Where others can falter in combining hits with poignancy,
however, Berry, Stipe, Buck and Mills here created a timelessly beautiful and pensive record.

Like this? Try Idlewild Warnings/Promises

The Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin (1999)

Their being so prolific has made The Flaming Lips' discography difficult to navigate for those who are only
now being introduced, but The Soft Bulletin is a sonic photograph of the band at their best: an expansive
and eclectic pallet of musical and lyrical brilliance.

Stevie Wonder – Innervisions (1973)

An innovative melting pot of funk, gospel and soul, Innervisions is a record whose production toes the line
marvellously between precision and abandon with ballerina-like poise.

Buy it on Amazon: Stevie Wonder InnervisionsLike this? Try Curtis Mayfield Superfly

Frank Sinatra – In The Wee Small Hours (1955)

So smooth and smoky is In The Wee Small Hours, it paints sonically the same picture of streetlights and
cigarettes adorning the sleeve.

Marvin Gaye – What's Going On (1971)

Does Gaye's soulful satin vocal, soaring as it does above What's Going On's spacious jazz- and blues-
drenched arrangements, belie somewhat this remarkable record's themes of social injustice? Or does it
elevate those messages beyond the realms of the archetypal political concept record?

Gustav Holst – The Planets

We could imagine Holst leaving us a nasty Facebook comment when he saw The Planets on this list, given
how much he despised its popularity. Our apologies Gustav, but few classical suites cover so broad a
spectrum of mood and tonality as this. Some have theorised The Planets also serves as an allegory for the
tumult of life itself.

Eric Bibb – Spirit and The Blues (1994)

Though his father took him out of school early, Eric Bibb could hardly have had a better education in terms
of music, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bob Dylan and Taj Mahal. Spirit and The Blues is a virtuoso
catalogue of Bibb's signature slide and fingerpicking playing, and blues- and gospel-steeped vocal.

Sigur Rós – Takk... (2005)

Inventing a language is usually the terrain of six-year-old girls at a sleepover but, the fact is, Jónsi's writing
of the lyrics for many Sigur Rós songs in "Hopelandic" still doesn't detract from the beauty or grandeur of
the band's music. Which is testament to how truly brilliant it is.
Buy it on Amazon: Sigur Rós Takk...

The Congos – Heart Of The Congos (1977)

One of the finest roots reggae albums of all time, and undoubtedly Lee 'Scratch' Perry's finest hour-and-26-
minutes. If ever there were a place to begin with Jamaican music, this is it.

LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening (2010)

There are those who believe James Murphy worked out the algorithm for chart-bothering indie music and
created LCD Soundsystem in its image - but something so calculated would not explain the digital-with-
analogue glory and wit of their three albums. Here's to hoping Murphy's forthcoming return matches up to
this, the last LCD studio album.

Lewis – L'Amour (1983)

When this private press was picked up by a collector at a Canadian flea market and subsequently shared
online, the mystery of the man known as Lewis caught the imaginations of record lovers as much as the
music itself. Rumours circulated he was a con artist who fled Los Angeles after not paying for L'Amour's
photo shoot, or that he was actually an extra-terrestrial. Lewis remains a mystery, but the merits of his
velveteen croon certainly do not.

Buy it on Amazon: Lewis L'Amour

Nils Frahm – Spaces (2013)

"I see this release more as a field recording project than a live record," Frahm writes in his sleeve notes for
Spaces. Audiophile-wooing experimentation isn't restricted to the music on this ambient-cum-modern-
classical album, either: "Some concerts were recorded on old portable reel-to-reel recorders, some on
simple cassette tape decks. Some were roughly recorded on the house engineers' mixing desks, and
others were more advanced multi-track recordings." Let him in, he's one of us.

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Lubomyr Melnyk – Rivers & Streams (2015)

Our consistent lauding of this Ukranian continuous-music pioneer is really rather fitting when you think
about it. It's usually best not to think when listening to Lubomyr Melnyk, however, rather meditade and bask
in his ambient glory.

Buy it on Amazon: Lubomyr Melnyk Rivers & Streams

Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood & The Rajasthan Express –

Junun (2015)

Paul Thomas Anderson documented the recording of this collaboration in his film of the same name, so
you can actually follow the album being created. And what a group it is collaborating: Israeli guitarist Shye
Ben Tzur, Radiohead creator-in-chief Jonny Greenwood and Indian ensemble Rajasthan Express recorded
Junun in the latter's home state, with Nigel Godrich's light-fingered production letting the sounds of nesting
birds and surrounding streets permeate a fusion of musical culture that perhaps oughtn't work but
absolutely does.

Boards Of Canada – Tomorrow's Harvest (2013)

Boards Of Canada's blend of field recordings with often ambient synth lines has inspired a hoard of
software plug-in developers who'd seek to emulate their immediately recognisable signature sound.
Perhaps Tomorrow's Harvest isn't always the most accessible of records, but it's an intriguing and affecting
listen.

Kiasmos – Kiasmos (2014)

While Ólafur Arnalds' piano compositions are often more minimalist than those of label-mate Nils Frahm,
alongside Janus Rasmussen in Kiasmos he created a classical-inspired house record that is at once a
departure and unmistakably his. Though live sets are largely comprised of knob-twiddling, the record was
produced with live instruments that give Kiasmos its own sonic bent on the ever-expanding house music
landscape.

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Nina Simone – Baltimore (1978)

Another record the artist would possibly balk at us including, the recording of Baltimore was not a
particularly enjoyable time for Nina Simone, who seems to have disagreed with pretty much everything jazz
producer Creed Taylor decided to do. Astonishingly, she ended up recording her vocals for the album in a
single hour-long session.

Buy it on Amazon: Nina Simone Baltimore

Dr. Dre – 2001 (1999)

"And when your album sales wasn't doing too good/Who's the doctor they told you to go see?" Effectively,
2001 is a sonic argument as to why Dr. Dre is widely considered one of the world's finest composers of hip-
hop beats.

Buy it on Amazon: Dr. Dre 2001

Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music For Airports (1978)

Brian Eno's fascination with complexity born of simplicity is spotlighted marvellously on Ambient 1. For its
second track, for example, Eno simply recorded each 'ah' sound and left them to loop with varying delays
to create a cavernous, overlapping soundscape that in our minds remains one of his finest ambient
compositions.

Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (1992)

It's difficult to comprehend, but Richard James has claimed blissful ignorance to any of the classical or
electronic artists by whom he appeared to have been influenced while creating Selected Ambient Works.
Regardless, there is a definite otherness to the record that, despite its apparent forebears, keeps it from
being at all derivative in a way that tempts us to believe those comments are true.

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Darkside – Psychic (2013)

We have Will Epstein largely to thank for the existence of Darkside. It was he who recommended multi-
instrumentalist Dave Harrington when electronic musician Nicolas Jaar was searching a third musician for
his live band while touring his album Space Is Only Noise. Psychic is an exploration in genre and
instrumental arrangement that is sonically unparalleled by anything else we've heard.

Buy it on Amazon: Darkside Psychic

Biffy Clyro – Infinity Land (2004)

This is the last album before Biffy Clyro made the switch to chart-topping anthemic rock, and Simon Neil
has admitted to wilfully toying with his audience. There's the electro intro to album opener Glitter and
Trauma, designed to trick listeners into thinking they'd bought the wrong CD, a choral precursor to the
record's most acerbically raucous track There's No Such Thing As A Jaggy Snake, and the hardcore
intro/outro sandwiching what is in essence a pop song in The Kids From Kibble and The Fist Of Light. It'd
be pure gimmickery if Infinity Land wasn't such an incredible album, full of melodic beauty meshed with
angular guitar riffs and obscure rhythmic patterns.

Buy it on Amazon: Biffy Clyro Infinity Land

FKA Twigs – LP1 (2014)

Nominated for the 2014 Mercury Prize, where it was pipped by Young Fathers' also-brilliant Dead, LP1 is a
meld of electronic experimentation and sharp-tongued lyricism juxtaposed with Tahliah Barnett's almost
angelic vocal.

Buy it on Amazon: FKA Twigs LP1Like this? Try M.I.A. Kala

Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral (1994)

Were there a mob family dealing in industrial music, Trent Reznor would be its Godfather. This is probably
Nine Inch Nails's best-known work, though even those who've never heard the name before now might
recognise Hurt, which Johnny Cash covered for his 2002 album American IV.

TV On The Radio – Return To Cookie Mountain (2006)

TV On The Radio appeared to be in less experimental mood on their unexpected latest album Seeds, the
first since multi-instrumentalist and co-songwriter Gerard Smith died of lung cancer in 2011, but Return To
Cookie Mountain is the record that really gets to the heart of band. Recurring themes of alt-rock, gospel,
hip-hop and electronic music are interspersed with so many other genre influences you'd probably need
your toes as well as your fingers to count them all.

The Mars Volta – Deloused In The Comatorium (2003)

In many ways, the story of Deloused In The Comatorium begins with At The Drive-In's last record before
they split: Relationship of Command. "One of my only regrets out of anything I've ever done is the way that
record was mixed," says Omar Rodríguez-Lopez. "People think that was a raw and energetic record, but
what they're hearing is nothing compared to what it truly was before it was glossed over." He righted those
wrongs on Deloused, producing the record himself, alongside Rick Rubin, and in the process creating a
record that almost 15 years later still feels like being punched square between the eyes. Punched with
such technique and craftsmanship, however, you can't help feeling admiration as you fall to the floor.

The White Stripes – Elephant (2003)

Would Elephant still be one of the finest garage rock records ever written if it weren't for the dirt beneath its
fingernails? But don't read lo-fi here as recorded-in-a-teenager's-bedroom: read it as raw, in the best
possible way.

Buy it on Amazon: The White Stripes Elephant

Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath (1970)

There are more modern metal albums, such as Slipknot's debut, that could easily have made this list, but
this particular record is proof that it doesn't take eight distortion pedals and a double kick-drum to create a
petrifyingly heavy sound. As entrenched in psychedelia as it is heavy metal, we defy any first-time listener
to Black Sabbath to guess it is now 50 years old.

Buy it on Amazon: Black Sabbath Black Sabbath

Toots & The Maytals – Funky Kingston (1972)

As far as whacked-out reggae goes, there are few purveyors on par with Toots & The Maytals. This is the
group's first record made with producer Chris Blackwell, who tailored their sound for an international
audience without sacrificing their roots-inspired signature.

Charles Mingus – Mingus Ah Um (1959)

Between 1950 and 1960, Mingus released more than 20 albums. But it's Mingus Ah Um - packed with
compositions written for or about his musical heroes, such as Lester Young and Duke Ellington, as well as
less affectionate figures, such as Orval E. Faubus - that is the most consistently dazzling.

Like this? Try Thelonious Monk Underground

Neil Young – Unplugged (1993)

With so many superlative live records from which to choose, and indeed so many studio albums by Neil
Young, you may wonder why we chose this to represent both. Listen to Like A Hurricane without getting
goosebumps and perhaps we'll consider changing it.

Buy it on Amazon: Neil Young Unplugged

Cut Chemist – The Audience's Listening (2006)

Cut worked for 18 months on this, his first solo LP, having left both rap group Jurassic 5 and Latin funk
outfit Ozomalti. Those bands, of whom he was a founding member, hold a few clues as to the eclecticism
of his influences. The Audience's Listening is not merely a collage of regurgitated samples over scratched
hip-hop beats - on it you'll find samples diverse as Quincy Jones, Boards Of Canada, Jefferson Airplane
and beat novelist William Burroughs.

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Mogwai – The Hawk Is Howling (2008)

A lot of the material for The Hawk Is Howling was written for a Colombian film soundtrack, though it was
never used. As such, it lies somewhere between the OSTs and studio albums that make up the rest of
Mogwai's heady catalogue, conceptually diverse but never disjointed. If for no other reason, who wouldn't
want to spin a record with pieces titled I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead, or Scotland's Shame, or I Love You, I'm
Going To Blow Up Your School. Absurd brilliance.

Ghostpoet – Shedding Skin (2015)

Obaro Ejimiwe picked up the 2011 Mercury Prize for Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam, his debut
album as Ghostpoet, and recieved similar critical acclaim for his second, Some Say I So I Say Light. They
set a blueprint for his almost-performance-poetry sitting moodily atop stark electronic arrangements that
was all but torn up for this record. He introduced a backing band, effectively making Ghostpoet a four-
piece, that gives Shedding Skin more the feel of a post-punk album than hip-hop or electronica, allowing
Ejimiwe greater scope to explore his undoubted musical and creative talent.

Buy it on Amazon: Ghostpoet Shedding Skin

Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004)

Among the plethora of astonishing facets to Funeral is it took only half a year to record. Produced and
engineered by the band themselves, that's half a year to record an army of guitars, pianos, synthesizers
and organs, xylophones, violins, cellos and horns, harp, percussion and vocals - and then turn it into one of
the finest albums of any genre to be released this side of the millennium.

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The Blood Brothers – Crimes (2004)

The Blood Brothers' post-hardcore noise isn't for everybody's taste, but its intensity, and the fact they've
succeeded where so many artists fail in traslating that to a studio recording, is the kind any audiophile
ought be able to appreciate. This is probably their most diverse and so probably least divisive record, with
breakneck scream tracks broken up by what (by Blood Brothers standards) you could almost list as pop
songs or ballads. Crimes is unpleasant, but violently creative.

Buy it on Amazon: The Blood Brothers Crimes

Thundercat – Drunk (2017)

It'd be criminal to pigeonhole Thundercat as a virtuoso bassist. Drunk is Stephen Bruner's third solo studio
album, showing off songwriting that ranges from somber to comical and spans enough genres to make him
a fusion artist. Though 'fusion' is insufficient to properly describe his sonic mastery.

Buy it on Amazon: Thundercat Drunk

J. S. Bach – Brandenburg Concertos

This collection of concertos written for Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg (though there's no
evidence he ever actually heard them) really acts as a gateway drug to Baroque music. Bach here gave
solos to each orchestral family of instruments, so in hi-fi terms it's about as comprehensive a workout as
you'll find in terms of detail and tonality.

Like this? Try Beatrice Rana Prokofiev & Tchaikovsky Piano Concertos

Percy Sledge – The Percy Sledge Way (1967)

The title of this album really says all you need to know about the record: it's a collection of 11 songs made
famous by other soul and R&B stars, done in that oh-so iconic Percy Sledge way. It's majestic and
effortless, infusing each with the heartache conveyed in apparently every note he ever sang.

Mbongwana Star – From Kinshasa (2015)

Hypnotic, exciting and at once recognisably Congolese yet unlike anything else we've heard come from
thriving Kinshasa, Mbongwana Star's debut album is really only world music in the sense it doesn't come
from North America or Europe. Like many of the albums on this list, you can't be entirely sure it came from
this world at all.

Buy it on Amazon: Mbongwana Star From KinshasaLike this? Try Konono No1 Congotronics
Queens Of The Stone Age – Songs For The Deaf (2002)

If stoner rock were a video game, Josh Homme would be who you'd have to defeat in its boss level. On
Songs For The Deaf, Queens Of The Stone Age ramped up the intensity somewhat while retaining their
effortless sunglasses-in-a-darkened-room chill, writing some of the heaviest and off-beat-est riffs on any of
their six albums to date.

Blakroc – Blakroc (2009)

Blakroc began when Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Damon Dash began listening to Ohian garage-blues
rock duo The Black Keys and got in touch with the idea of pairing them with rapper Jim Jones to make an
album. Story goes that Mos Def interrupted a session and ended up recording with them as well, and over
11 weeks an army of artists including Ludacris, Q-Tip and RZA contributed to a truly unique rap record.

Buy it on Amazon: Blakroc Blakroc

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Boatman's Call (1997)

As with many of the other artists on this list, we could have pinned the tail on the Nick Cave record to
decide which we'd include. In being entirely piano-led The Boatman's Call was a bit of a departure from
Cave & The Bad Seeds' records to that point, with arrangements framing perfectly its frank and often
sombre lyricism.

David Bowie – Blackstar (2016)

You almost thought we'd left Bowie off the list, didn't you? What better way to round off this group of 50
albums than with Blackstar, a Tony Visconti gem on which Bowie's creative genius is complemented
gorgeously by jazz saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his quartet. Quite a way to go out, in all senses.

Buy it on Amazon: David Bowie Blackstar

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