Priscilla Ahn – A Good Day
Put those Patricia Barber and Eva Cassidy albums away, and give something else a try.
For those unwilling to forgo female vocalists as part of their audiophile heaven, Priscilla Ahn’s debut is a good way to expand your repertoire.
Issuing the album on LP for the first time, Mobile Fidelity strips away the merciless compression present on the CD and leaves Ahn unsquashed. The perky, Pokemon-esque singer paints a rosy soundscape, with arrangements often resembling those of It’s a Beautiful Day. Ahn’s purity of tone and delicate phrasing should make vocal aficionados swoon, and while the top end crushes that of the digital version, it’s still slightly on the hot side. This one will undoubtedly score more points with the vintage tube crowd than those that own ultra-resolving systems.
Another bonus: The pressing includes three bonus tracks not on the original CD. Keeping in character with the rest of the album, yet more sparsely arranged, they possess fairly little dynamic range, allowing seven tracks to fit on a side without compromising fidelity.