Standard MP3 compression (especially at 128 or 256 kbps) crushes the dynamic range of tracks like “Empire Ants” (featuring Yukimi Nagano). In that song, the first half is a delicate, finger-picked guitar and hushed vocal; the second half explodes into a euphoric synth-wave crescendo. In lossy formats, the transition sounds muddy. In FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) , the separation is pristine—every arpeggio and sub-bass swell is preserved exactly as Albarn and co-producer Stephen Sedgwick intended.
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