Hi-Res Downloads

96kHz/24-bit FLAC, Reprise/Warner Records, (supplied by www.highresaudio.com)

It’s an unlikely pairing in anyone’s book: Billie Joe Armstrong, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of Californian punk band Green Day, teamed up with indie jazz/pop princess Norah Jones. Their Foreverly collaboration is a reinterpretation of Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, a 1958 Everly Brothers’ album of traditional country songs. Foreverly was released four weeks before Christmas: I doubt they ever imagined it might serve as something of a valedictory to Phil Everly, who sadly passed away on January 3rd at the age of 74. It’s a charmingly playful recreation of the Everly’s rootsy ballads famously characterised by closely entwined vocal harmonies, Jones’ honeyed and breathy vocal quality marrying surprisingly well with Armstrong’s more aggressive, nasal style. Recording quality isn’t spectacular, but it’s a cut above many run-of-the-mill commercial offerings. JB

Sound Quality: 78%

Hi-Fi News Lab Report

While this media is certainly rendered at 96kHz, its content is also evidently filtered at ~26kHz (slightly higher than if this were a 48kHz upsample). Bursts of ‘signal’ do occur >30kHz but are these compression/downstream artefacts? PM