Playlists
Tidal has the complete list including technical tracks. We are not able to publish the tech tracks to the other platforms unfortunately (we tried). WIth Apple though you can upload the tech tracks for your own use and create a playlist combining the two, so that is an option if you so choose.
If you have any questions please feel free to reach out.
2027 Playlist Liner Notes
1. Brandi Carlile - Uninvited (Newport Music Festival 2026)
Primary Focus: Vocal Position • Dynamics • Atmosphere • Separation • Raw Emotion
Brandi delivers a powerful and emotionally charged version of Uninvited, taking you on a journey from quiet vulnerability to explosive vocal intensity. There should be a raw emotional connection between the vehicle and the listener. As the track reaches its peak intensity it should remain composed with space around the instruments but still raw and extremely emotional. Take note of the energy, dynamics and attack in the guitars and vocals throughout the course of the track.
Emotional Connection
The listener should experience anticipation during the quieter moments and feel the emotional release when the performance opens.
2. Norah Jones — “Black Hole Sun” Live
Primary Focus: Vocal Texture • Intimacy • Tonal Accuracy • Space
This track which was recorded right after Chris Cornell’s passing relies on emotional restraint rather than spectacle. Norah’s vocals should occupy a stable, believable position with a natural sense of space surrounding her.
Listen carefully to the infamous texture in Norah’s voice, her breath, the long piano decay, and low-level information. The system should reveal the vocal sibilance and sultry feel without making the recording overly warm.
Emotional Connection
The system should allow the listener to stop thinking about the original version and become absorbed in this intimate heartfelt interpretation.
3. Hot 8 Brass Band — “Sexual Healing” Chef Soundtrack
Primary Focus: Brass Tonality • Rhythm • Instrument Separation • Energy
This recording should feel alive! The individual horns should occupy recognizable locations while still functioning as an ensemble. The presentation should have width, depth, and enough separation that the listener can follow individual musicians within the group.
Listen to the tonal differences among the brass instruments. Trumpet, trombone, saxophone, percussion, and the tuba should not collapse into one generalized “horn” sound.
The foundation should have weight and movement without becoming bloated.
Emotional Connection
This track should make sitting still difficult.
The system should communicate the joy, swagger, spontaneity, and New Orleans street-band performance.
4. Tenacious D — “Wicked Game”
Primary Focus: Vocal Realism • Guitar Texture • Image Focus
The stripped-down nature of this performance exposes tonal and imaging problems quickly.
The voices should remain individually identifiable even when they blend harmonically. Guitar should have believable size and body rather than becoming an overly warm or even tiny harsh image.
Listen to string attack followed by the resonance of the guitar body.
Jack’s harmonics should combine musically without losing the texture of his voice.
Emotional Connection
The performance combines sincerity with the unmistakable personality of Tenacious D. A revealing system should communicate both.
5. Stephen Wilson Jr. — “Stand By Me” Live at the Print Shop
Primary Focus: Vocal Realism • Guitar Body • Room Information • Emotional Presence
This performance is an exercise in human presence. The vocal should appear solidly positioned with a believable human scale.
Listen beyond the performer for the acoustic signature of the room. Pay attention to the contrast between guitar-string attack and wooden body resonance.
Wilson’s vocals contain texture, grit, breath, and dynamic variation that should remain intact.
Emotional Connection
This should not sound like polished perfection; its power comes from vulnerability and authenticity. Can you close your eyes and see him sitting on a stool in front of you?
6. SYML — “The War”
Primary Focus: Atmosphere • Low-Level Resolution • Depth • Dynamic Development
The soundstage should convey layers rather than simply left, center, and right positions.
Listen for information occurring behind the primary vocal plane and for the perceived depth to change as the arrangement develops. Low-level atmospheric information is important.
As additional elements enter, the system must maintain clarity rather than allowing ambience, bass, and vocal information to mask one another.
Emotional Connection
The recording should create isolation, vulnerability, tension, and eventually scale. The space between the tapping of the piano keys is almost as important as the notes coming from the keys.
7. Leonard Cohen — “Hallelujah”
Primary Focus: Vocal Timbre • Center Image • Texture • Naturalness
Few voices reveal tonal-balance problems as readily as Leonard Cohen’s. The vocal should have a convincing center position and appropriate physical size.
Avoid interpreting excessive chestiness or low-frequency energy as vocal “weight”, it shouldn’t be too heavy or warm just a balanced lower scaled male vocal
The layers of Cohen’s voice, the fundamental, texture, consonants, breath, and natural rasp should coexist while the supporting instrumentation should complement rather than obscure the vocal.
Emotional Connection
Successful reproductions should draw attention toward the meaning and delivery rather than toward the location of the drivers in the audio system.
8. Bria Skonberg — “Egyptian Fantasy”
Primary Focus: Brass Realism • Transients • Ensemble Placement • Micro dynamics
This selection provides an excellent opportunity to evaluate the reproduction of acoustic instruments. Listen to clearly established instrument locations and believable spacing between performers.
Images should have dimension rather than appear as points on a line. Brass and reed instruments should sound lively and energetic without becoming harsh or bity.
Listen to the beginning of notes, their harmonic development, and their decay.
Emotional Connection
The track should communicate musical playfulness.
9. Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds — “A Pirate Looks at Forty”
Primary Focus: Multiple Acoustic Guitars • Vocal Identity • Stage Organization • Texture
This track challenges a system’s ability to reproduce several similar sound sources without blending them together. Each performer should maintain an identifiable location. The guitars should occupy their own acoustic spaces while remaining part of one performance.
Listen for differences in picking technique, string tone, guitar-body resonance, and playing dynamics.
Similar instruments should sound similar because they are guitars, but different because they are different instruments played by different musicians.
Emotional Connection
The performance should feel relaxed, communal, and spontaneous—like musicians sharing a song rather than executing a studio production.
10. J.S. Bach — “Toccata & Fugue in D Minor” Don Dorsey
Primary Focus: Low-Frequency Extension • Scale • Layering • Dynamics
This selection asks the system to reproduce size and complexity simultaneously. The presentation should feel expansive, big and fast rather than localized around individual speakers.
Large-scale information should extend beyond individual sound sources while maintaining structure.
Listen to the relationship between midbass and subbass and how they remain focused and not bloating.
Bass extension should provide foundation and scale without overwhelming.
Emotional Connection
The piece should feel dramatic, imposing, and dynamic. The sub should be deep, solid subsonic information
11. Mötley Crüe — “Kickstart My Heart”
Primary Focus: Attack • Speed • Rock Dynamics • Separation Under Load
This is controlled chaos!! Midbass Madness!! Snare Attack!
Even with dense guitars and high energy, the Vince Neils vocals should remain identifiable, and the overall presentation should maintain organization.
Listen closely to kick drum impact, snare attack, cymbal energy, bass guitar, and distorted guitars.
The challenge is maintaining separation when many instruments occupy overlapping frequency ranges and space at high energy.
The system must be fast enough to stop one transient before reproducing the next.
Emotional Connection
This track should feel dangerous, fast, and exciting. If it sounds polite, something is missing. If it sounds like undifferentiated noise, something is missing.
12. Sleep Token — “Euclid”
Primary Focus: Full-System Integration • Layering • Dynamics • Emotional Resolution
The final selection brings many of the playlist’s challenges together. Listen for the evolution of the stage as the arrangement grows.
Vocals and quieter elements should maintain their identities even as increasingly dense layers enter the presentation.
Evaluate piano, vocal texture, ambience, bass foundation, percussion, guitars, and large dynamic passages as parts of a single musical structure.
This is an opportunity to evaluate whether the system remains coherent from quiet intimacy through full-scale production.
Emotional Connection
Allow the song to develop. With Euclid the objective isn’t simply to identify individual sounds. It is to determine whether all of those sounds ultimately become one emotional event.