You can hear the weariness in Brooker’s voice—a tenor that always sounded like it was shouting through a rainstorm. In compressed formats, that voice blends into the wall of sound. In FLAC, the separation is stunning. Robin Trower’s guitar (before he left for his own power-trio fame) slices through with a razor’s edge on Whisky Train . The lossless format refuses to let the drums collapse into the bass; B.J. Wilson’s snare drum has a physical thwack that MP3s swallow whole.
The search for is not an act of snobbery; it is an act of preservation. Procol Harum wrote songs for thinking people. Their lyrics (courtesy of Keith Reid, the non-performing lyricist) are filled with Spanish galleons, bankrupt gamblers, and pale-looking people on strange staircases. Their music is a tapestry of classical counterpoint and raw R&B. Procol Harum - Greatest Hits -1967-1977--FLAC-
Matt Godbolt is a C++ developer living in Chicago. He works for Hudson River Trading on super fun but secret things. He is one half of the Two's Complement podcast. Follow him on Mastodon or Bluesky.