Myra’s Infinite Playlist – A Beginner’s Primer To Yacht Rock HiFi

Shuttered restaurants. Cancelled spring break plans. A looming recession.

Yup. It’s been a rough month. 

The global spread of the coronavirus and the new “safer at home” measures that have impacted much of the world have cast a pall of uncertainty and fear across our communities, and the globe. And of course, cabin fever. Wicked, stifling cabin fever.

The antidote? Well, there is no antidote, per se. The best we can do is abide by the “S”-s that our experts have drilled into our heads: social distancing, sheltering in place, and sanitizing. But I find that the malaise of being stuck in one’s home, confused about the world and bummed about the economy, can be mitigated by channeling some of my other favorite “S” words… sun, sea, and of course, sailing. On a yacht.

When I’m feeling down, a helping of Hall and Oates, a touch of Toto, and a dollop of Doobie (multiple interpretations encouraged) can really pull me out of a funk and get me tapping my feet again as the world burns outside. I’m of course talking about Yacht Rock, the musical genre encompassing “soft rock” from roughly the mid-1970s to the early 1980’s (as defined by Wikipedia) and often sung by men with impressive mullets and/or mustaches (as defined by me). Hall and Oates, Toto, and the Doobie Brothers are frequently found on Yacht Rock playlists, as is Kenny Loggins, Boz Scaggs, Looking Glass… the list goes on and on. Yacht-a, yacht-a… yacht-a.

So here is my very own Yacht Rock playlist for beginners on Qobuz, guaranteed to have you humming and channeling beach vibes from your sadly cancelled vacation that you were supposed to take next month.

by Myra Katt

Myra’s “Smooth Sailing Ahead” Yacht Rock Playlist – For Yacht Rock Beginners!

Editors Note: Myra swung by AH-HQ and sat down with a few current audio products in for review. We listened to every possible version of each song curated for this playlist on Qobuz. That setup currently consists of a pair of QLN Signature 3 or Sonus Faber Olympica Nova III, LTA amplification and a dCS Bartok acting as a source and streamer. What you see above is the best sounding version of each song we could find. With the exception of Dancing in the Moonlight, we were pleasantly surprised at all the quality recordings that were available from this era of music – including the Steely Dan track of course. The track by King Harvest is decent, but some alternate versions had some sound quality issues pushing it away from higher fidelity. Still, in the name of a good pick-me-up we decided to leave the track as part of the overall take on genre.