Today's word of the day is "compression." These albums don't have much compression: "Travelogue", "Both Sides Now", "For the Roses", "Mingus" and Tori Amos' "Boys For Pele".
"Court and Spark" has lots of compression. Remember when I said that in complex passages, "Court and Spark" gets congested and gritty? Imagine that you put "Court and Spark" on at very low volume. You can still hear almost everything because what would normally be a quiet passage was squeezed, or compressed, into an average loudness. What would ordinarily have been loud was also "squeezed" (compressed) into average loudness. It sounds a little like AM radio- gritty and compressed. (A little bit.) Leaving the imaginary volume very low, now put on the "Both Sides Now" cd. The quiet passages can't be heard at all. That's why lots of people say that "Both Sides Now" should be played loudly; it is not compressed. Lama Bruce asked, >>> Jay Newland <edited> says he wanted the album "to sound like the ones I grew up with, like an old Joni Mitchell album -- not compressed to death." What does he mean by 'compressed'?
