One of my favourite albums across all genres, love production, mix… the percussion and strings, and both artists & recording engineers job is outstanding.
Not single-genre on this album, closest to reggae (as per the thread) being “Excuse Me Mr.” and relatedly “Burn One Down”.
Got to have a listen to a 24/192 Vinil-rip and definitely gear used were tuned, a pro job. Original Redbook is really good.
This album is my reference, to instantly spot if a given gear chain is brighter to my ears than should be for me to stand it, and where it puts the bar regarding dynamics and pace.
On tracks like Fight for Your Mind hi-hat, cymbals, even the snare attack, will instantly tell… should be just riiight on the spot, without losing detail or “bite”, nor getting harsh; neither “losing” focus on big transients, i.e. when toms and kick overlay on cymbal hits.
Excuse Me Mr. is equally useful to “gauge” gear: the rim/hi-hat fill that leads the intro should be as equally well detailed, without ever sounding aggressive the slightest, same goes with the overhead crashes.
This song is a great showoff of nicely recorded and produced percussion instruments and effects, with incredibly good taste in solo spacing: lots of really good uncluttered passages to easily analyze instruments in isolation & compare plus more overlapped or busy parts, which will tell us how good in dynamics the chain is, and what are its pace qualities.
Drums in this album sound outstanding.
Bass work too. Usually subtly blended in the low end, but keeping plucking/slide detail, never “one-note”.
A good system should shine through this album, which looks like Gold to Me.