Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age Of Wireless -flac- -

Perhaps the most beautiful track on the album, it features a chime-like melody played on the Synclavier II. In MP3, those chimes sound like tiny bells. In FLAC, they sound like points of light exploding in a dark room. The stereo image is holographic, with Dolby’s vocal sitting dead center, slightly dry and intimate, while the "crash" of the drums is pushed far back in the mix. The difference is the difference between looking at a painting behind glass and standing in the room with the canvas.

This post focuses on experiencing the album in format—because an album this layered, this analog-synth-rich, and this meticulously produced deserves to be heard without the brittle compression of MP3s. Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless -flac-