Not all of these are panpot fiestas -- they just work better in an intimate, straight-to-the-head way: · R.E.M. - Chronic Town (especially the first, second and last tracks)
· American Music Club - Mercury
· Rare Air - Hard to Beat
· Soul Coughing - El Oso (n.b.: never play "Maybe I'll Come Down" when you can't)
· Concussion Ensemble - Stampede
· The The - Mind Bomb (only side 1)
· Jeff Buckley - Grace (probably one of the best-produced chanteur albums ever, leads off with two Gary Lucas tracks, best CD to test headphones using the openings of "Lover You Should've Come Over" and the title track) A couple of the albums above really only need headphones for the first track or the first few. This is especially true for:
· Deltron 3030 (effing amazing album but the heavy stuff gives way to more relaxed tracks and the headphones can come off)
I had the audacity once to attempt to perform Lover You Should of Come Over solo at an open mic. -Ouch. I really enjoy that album though, it's been years since I've listened to it because I used to listen to it too much. If you're a fan, you might consider checking out this old post: http://hubski.com/pub?id=27073 wherein the lyrics for the song Hallelujah are discussed, including the versus Buckley omits. It's a cool discussion imo.
You are brave to have tried. It seems so simple when you rehearse, and then you realize you have to convey demure observation and full cri de coeur within two minutes, then do it again. If you fail to turn it back down again and oversell the opening lines of each section, people just tune out. Oh, and the range. Yeah, he had a magical range. His father was a good song writer and performer, but Jeff was leagues better. I also love the jokes on the Live at sin-é disc.
They say there is a fine line between brave and stupid. No such line here, this was just stupid. I have no where near the range to pull that song off. Live at sin-é is fantastic. I'm going to post something from it now.
Haven't listened to El Oso through headphones as I only have an mp3 copy, but I have an Irresistible Bliss CD that always sounded great to me through headphones. I feel like a lot of the intimacy of certain Soul Coughing tracks, combined with the quality of the vocals loses a little something when played through speakers, or at least my speakers.