This is not about content, as just sound. The B&B thread brought this to mind.
I always like "Black & Blue" very much.
"Tattoo You" much for the same reasons: the clarity, very crisp.
Same for "emotional rescue"
I like "Some Girls" for different reason: I think they were going for a more mono-like sound. Punky, garage, and they got it.

Ones I don't think came out so well:
Goat's Head Soup - the songs sound more ambitious than the recording allowed. I can really hear that on "Can you hear the music", and "Silver Train" and "@#$%&" are weak. "Heartbreaker" too.
IORR sounds like there was a big Afghan rug thrown over the proceedings.
"December's Children" has some of those bad sounding songs on it. Odd panning placement where maybe the drums were over on the left; overdone pinging Also I think engineers were still learning how to mike certain instruments.

BEST...very hard to pick, but I'll go with Let It Bleed
WORST...very easy, Dirty Work

There are 4 best for me; Beggars, Bleed, Sticky and Exile.

Beggars Banquet is a wonderful sounding album, all those acoustic guitars comes out very crisp and clear.

How could I forget "Banquet"? They got bold.
"Parachute Woman" and "Street Fighting Man" are brilliant.
When Keith discovered the famous open tunings, that wasn't all he happened upon. Capoes was another great addition to the arsenal.

Yes, Tattoo You and Emotional Rescue at the top.

As for B&B, despite its resurgence to respectability in terms of songs etc, I don't think it sounds any better than it ever did. Some sort of cloudy soup mess.

Never sounded terribly good to me. Better than Dirty Work though...

Tattoo You sounds great because of the mixing. Would you say Goats Head Soup sounds as one of their best? Because TY has songs from those sessions. But the mixes are completely different. Regardless, it is one of their finest. For some reason Let It Bleed and Emotional Rescue have always been the two best sounding LPs. Exile, with all of its murkiness, sounds fantastic to me - and very clear. Everything is clear on that LP. Beggars has a fantastic clear sound that is dirty yet crisp. Sticky Fingers and Black And Blue, although two completely different sounding albums, have essentially the same sound mix wise going on - a bit flat on the high end yet very clear. Bridges has some great mixes/sounds on it. And I've always loved Undercover's sound.

Worst? Dirty Work. Steel Wheels is too clean. Voodoo Lounge is too wanting to sound dirty while being too clean. Some Girls is too clean. I love the sound of GHS and IORR, the haziness helps make the albums, but when held up to the standards of the mixing and mastering of LPs like Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Beggars Banquet, Exile, ER and TY, well, they both suffer greatly.

Best: Black & Blue

Worst: Doesn't exist



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-11-09 21:10 by vudicus.

All of them.

Interesting that Tattoo You is (to me) one of the best sounding albums, given the variety of old sources it was drawn from (which we didn't know at the time). The album is consistently crisp and sharp. I also love the mix on Exile.

It seems like the production style and the actual sound recording / mixing + mastering are being confused here.

As far as pure sound quality goes .....

Best :

1) Beggars' Banquet

2) Main Offender ............. (Richards solo) ..... VERY WELL RECORDED .......... Many people do not recognize this fact.

3) Sticky Fingers

4) Let it Bleed


Worst :

1) A Bigger Bang ..... Compressed Dynamic Range ; High and Low Frequencies Brick-Walled ..... if you will.

2) It's Only Rock 'n' Roll ...... You almost need to look for the original Japanese Vinyl. The second choice would be the recent Japanese SA-CD ..... (SHM) from Universal . The Virgin CD is not that great but,many will prefer it to the standard,regular CD Universal version and/or the CBS CD.

3) Various '80's and early to mid '60's Albums

4) Goats' Head Soup and Exile ..... kind of weird sound (each in its own way) but,not really technically bad sound.

best albums.

exile
beggars banquet
let it bleed
sticky fingers
tatoo you

very good albums

out of our heads
satanic majesties
between the buttons
goats head soup
its only rock and roll
undercover
a bigger bang
some girls
aftermath


average albums

rolling stones
black and blue
emotional rescue
steel wheels
voodoo lounge
bridges to babylon

poor albums

dirtywork
rolling stones vol 2

Best - Out of our Heads
Worst - Undercover

2 1 2 0

Worst? Emotional resue hands down.

Are we talking about the same thing here ?? The original poster posted : "This is not about content, as just sound." .

Regarding sound quality, 'Bigger Bang' is the worst to me. Way too loud, no definition of anything. At the end you just get a massive headache and the impression that all songs are the same.
2nd worst sounding albums would be Exile and Some Girls bonus tracks. Too bright and very flat sound with all dynamics gone. Even if the content is good I can barely listen to these songs because of their sounding.

Best: TY. Worst:EOMS.

Quote
Stoneage
Best: TY. Worst:EOMS.

Actually EOMS is a bit murky, it has to be admitted.

Some say it adds to the atmosphere.

It's not surprising considering the circumstances.

Quote
GravityBoy

Quote
Stoneage
Best: TY. Worst:EOMS.

Actually EOMS is a bit murky, it has to be admitted.

Some say it adds to the atmosphere.

It's not surprising considering the circumstances.

Everything is clear on Exile. It has a fantastic sound to it.

Er.. no.

EOMS is a great album. Maybe the best. But I'm not sure that the murky sound is the main reason for that. A bit clearer (and deeper) sound wouldn't have killed the album.

Aftermath
tattoo you

I think the worst recored Stones album has to be Got Live If You Want It. The next live album Ya Ya's is a masterpiece. But the difference in quality between them both is night and day.

As far as studio recorded albums I'll go with dirty work. I do get what others are saying about Goats Head Soup. But with GHS I think that was the sound of that eras. Just like when I put on Englands Newest Hit Makers, it has the sound os that era.....