Favorite Albums for Car vs. Headphones vs. Home Stereo
(Someone asked me what my favorite Depeche Mode album is, and I realized that my answer varies depending on whether I’m listening in my car, on my headphones, or on my home stereo—three different choices for three different aural environments. Thus, this list. The differences have less to do with the songs, I think, since I appreciate all (or nearly all) of them, than with how suitably the albums are mixed and leveled for the ambience of the road, the sealed listening space of my earbuds, or the open listening space of my living room. I only included performers whose albums presented me with a real and immediate distinction; in other words, my favorite Van Morrison album, in any listening environment, is Astral Weeks, so he’s not represented here.)
Leonard Cohen: The Future (car) / You Want It Darker (headphones) / Songs of Leonard Cohen (home stereo)
COIL: Horse Rotorvator (car) / Time Machines (headphones) / The Ape of Naples (home stereo)
Depeche Mode: Music for the Masses (car) / Violator (headphones) / Black Celebration (home stereo)
Brian Duffy: Plastic Planet [by Modified Toy Orchestra] (car) / Nothing [by System Error] (headphones) / Silfurberg [by Modified Toy Orchestra (home stereo)
James: One Man Clapping (car) / Laid (headphones) / Seven (home stereo)
Alison Moyet: Upstairs at Eric’s [by Yaz] (car) / Hometime (headphones) / Essex (home stereo)
New Model Army: Vengeance (car) / Impurity (headphones) / Thunder and Consolation (home stereo)
Roxy Music: Avalon (car) / For Your Pleasure (headphones) / These Foolish Things [by Bryan Ferry] (home stereo)
David Sylvian: Tin Drum [by Japan] (car) / Manafon (headphones) / Secrets of the Beehive (home stereo)
Talk Talk: The Colour of Spring (car) / Spirit of Eden (headphones) / Laughing Stock (home stereo)
Tom Waits: Closing Time (car) / Mule Variations (headphones) / Rain Dogs (home stereo)
Stevie Wonder: Signed, Sealed & Delivered (car) / Innervisions (headphones) / Songs in the Key of Life (home stereo)
— April 28, 2023