- Love Hate -2016- -flac- 2021 - Michael Kiwanuka

Famous as the theme for Big Little Lies , the instrumental intro is a test for any high-end sound system.

Similarly, “Cold Little Heart,” which opens the album, functions as an overture of existential dread. The famous string arrangement, which swells from a delicate arpeggio to a cinematic crescendo, benefits enormously from FLAC’s extended frequency response. The bow hair on the cellos, the metallic decay of the guitar, and the subtle panning of the backing vocals are rendered with a transparency that transforms the track from background music into an event. Kiwanuka’s lyric, “Did I ever love you? / Did I ever need you?” becomes a diagnostic tool. In lower bitrates, the lush production might obscure the sharp edges of self-doubt. In FLAC, the beauty and the pain exist in separate, audible channels, mirroring the album’s title. Michael Kiwanuka - Love Hate -2016- -FLAC-