The Dynamic Range Day Award

The Dynamic Range Day Award is given annually to a great-sounding, dynamic album - proving
that music doesn’t have to be crushed to be popular and successful.

And the winner of the 2013 award is…

“Blunderbuss” by Jack White (DR11)


 
To read a discussion of why this album is such a worthy winner, please click here.

Steven Wilson’s superb “The Raven that Refused to Sing” came a very close second !

The other nominees this year were:

  • My Bloody Valentine – “MBV” (DR11)
  • Steven Wilson – “The Raven that Refused to Sing” (DR9)
  • Ólafur Arnalds – “For Now I Am Winter”  (DR11)
  • Mumford & Sons – Babel (DR8)
  • Ben Harper with Charlie Musselwhite – Get Up! (DR9)
  • Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Americana (DR8)
  • Orbital – Wonky (DR8)
  • Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man In The Universe (DR9)
You can hear tracks from many of these albums in this Spotify playlist:




The My Bloody Valentine album can be heard here

For even more great-sounding dynamic records from 2012, check out this list.

Last year:

The winner of 2012′s award was Björk for “Biophilia”

(The winner needs to have an overall DR rating of DR8 or more)

The winner of 2011′s award was…

 

Elbow, for “Build A Rocket, Boys”

Watch a video of Craig Potter – Elbow’s keyboard player, mixer & producer – accepting the award on behalf of the band here.

A truly worthy winner, this album sounds superb and is crammed full of outstanding songs and performances.

Proving that great music can (and should !) be full of dynamics, the album overall measures DR8 with the TT Loudness Meter, with individual songs measuring DR10 or DR12.

Measurements are only ever a guide though, and to re-enforce this point, several tracks are as loud as DR6. In the context of the whole album, these huge moments just emphasise the emotion and power of the music – dynamics used as they were meant to be.

Elbow, we salute you !

More about the Dynamic Range Day Award

The idea of the award is to show that dynamic music can be both popular and successful, confirming that the so-called Loudness Wars are a myth – a modern fairy-tale.

Any of the nominees would have made a worthy winner – our hope is that more bands will follow their example.

Watch a recording of the live announcement

To see the announcement, click here

 

The full list of nominees was:


Laura Marling – “I Speak Because I Can”
LCD Soundsystem – “This Is Happening”
The Coral – “Butterfly House”
Elbow – “Build A Rocket Boys !”
Massive Attack – “Heligoland”
Neil Young – “Le Noise”
Mumford & Sons – “Sigh No More”
Four Tet – “There Is Love In You”
Norah Jones – “…Featuring”

Chosen by the Dynamic Range Day Panel 2011


Charles Dye, Simon Askew, Big Al Wagner, Jake Jackson, Nick Watson,
Friedemann Tischmeyer & Ian Shepherd

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