Best and worst sounding bass songs/albums

[ImaStupidBaby]

Originally Posted by phxlbrmpf

Recently I noticed how great the bass on Sonic Youth's "Dirty" sounded, it's laced with a hefty dose of distortion/overdrive in pretty much every song and it sounds great in the context of the music. There must've been a bit of trickery involved to get that sound.

I also like the bass on sound on Faith No More's "Angel Dust", the album has a wide variety of bass tones and they're all great.

I used to be a pretty big REM fan and still like the bass tone on "Green" and "Automatic for the People", I really dig the "P bass with a pick and a decent dose of treble" sound Mike has going on most of the time.

I must admit that RHCP's "Californication" is a bit of a loser in my book, Flea sounds pretty strange in most of the songs, either he's too honky and middy or the notes he plays are hardly distinguishable. Looks like they hadn't really figured out how to mix the Flea Bass yet, it sounds a lot better on "By the Way". But then again, the overall mix of that record is pretty poor.

Californication is often pointed to as one of the worst offenders of the loudness wars. For good reason.

[JetBlackJazz]

BEST

-Bruford- Gradually Going Tornado
-Rush- Signals
-Yes- Fragile
-Dave Holland- Critical Mass

WORST

-Green Day- Dookie
-Moody Blues- Days of Future Passed
-Everything by the Beatles

[bradjonesbass]

One of my favorites is Bruce Cockburn's Night Train. Rob Wasserman's electric upright is all over it, and the tone is amazing. Pacing The Cage is gorgeous and Rob has a very tasty solo.

[Kmonk]

Good:

I've always liked the bass on The Fixx -Shuttered Room (Red Skies at Night) and The Romantics In Heat (Talkin' In Your Sleep), Robert Palmer Riptide (Addicted To Love) albums.

David Bowie Let's Dance

Worst just about every KISS studio recording (although I do like Gene's bass on the first 2 live albums).

Most Van Halen and Aerosmith albums. The bass is buried so far in the mix that its sometimes hard to hear what was being played.

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by JetBlackJazz

WORST

-Everything by the Beatles

Are you serious? Not that I'm a "Macca fanboy" or something like that. Actually, I don't like the ultra-muffled tone he used for "Day Tripper", but this and this are superb examples of great bass tone from McCartney with The Beatles in my opinion. YMMV, of course.

[ToBorNottoB]

Great: any maiden album up to 7th son

Bad: any maiden album after 7th son.

[tomnomnom91]

My vote for best goes to Michael Jackson's Thriller. Not only are the lines themselves fantastic, but the tone and mix is perfect. The Bad album is a close second.

As for worst... Well, I HATE the bass tone on QOTSA's No One Knows. Pretty good bass line and a good song, but the tone is disgusting.

[tomnomnom91]

Originally Posted by JetBlackJazz

WORST

-Green Day- Dookie

Seriously? I love Dirnt's tone, it's one of my favourites. I guess the earlier stuff is kinda marmite though.

[ronlitz]

Best:
Another vote for Boston/Boston - one of the best hard-rock bass tones ever recorded, and mixed perfectly. Of course, it isn't achieved with just a great bass tone - it's also keeping the kick and guitar from clobbering the bass - an art form in itself. Scholz is the man!

Worst: Too many to choose from!

[Emilym80]

Best- RATM by RATM, The Bends by Radiohead, Moving Pictures by Rush, A Night at the Opera by Queen, The Queen is Dead by The Smiths.
Worst- BSSM by RHCP- I just can't stand Flea's tone... And Feel The Steel by Steel Panther. The bass is really buried in the mix and the tone is completely featureless and bland.

[woodyng]

Best- sgt pepper,abbey road,ANY YES,Fish out of water,live at leeds,any of elvis costello's early albums with Bruce Thomas,the first two Pretenders albums.
Worst...in an offhand way,altho i liked what was being played,i thought a lot of Genesis albums had the bass buried in the mix,especially Duke,as well as and then there were 3....but Mike Rutherford is brilliant.....

[Meddle]

Best in no special order;

Bull of the Woods - 13th Floor Elevators
Sperm Whale - Thrones
Power and the Gloty - Gentle Giant
Third - Soft Machine
The Sky's Gone Out - Bauhaus

And many more...

Worst in no special order;

Gluey Porch Treatments - Melvins
Nevermind/In Utero - Nirvana

[Sethbass]

I always though Stefan Lessard on DMB Crash is really well done as far as bass tones and recording! Another fave would be King's X Faith Hope Love just fantastic start to finish! The worst for me is AC/DC Powerage and Highway to Hell the bass just grates my nerves

[AdamR]

My favorite tones.
early Anthrax albums, Love Frank Bellos grindy tone
STP Core, Cant believe it wasnt mentioned.
Soundgarden Badmotorfinger
Skid Row Slave to the grind is probably my favorite and the only pick player in the group.

Bad, I hate when Duff McKagen using that chorus pedal. Im a fan of his playing but his tone on UYI is pretty bad.

[That Sustain]

Cry Of Love's "Brother" is so burpy. Love that.