It’s can be nice, sometimes, to sit back and simply let the full production of a track wash over you, to be immersed in a wide soundstage that’s packed with instruments and information for you to soak up. However, there is also nothing quite like hearing a great acoustic track.
Strip away all the bells and whistles, and music immediately sounds more intimate, encouraging a greater connection between listener and artist. Great acoustic tracks allow you and your system to peer in and dig out the subtlest and finest of details and deliver tone and texture the like of which you haven’t heard before.
Our team of expert reviewers have dipped into their box of tracks to pick the acoustic test tracks that they use to highlight a system’s abilities, or shortcomings.
What are your favourite acoustic tracks? Let us know in the comments below…
Fast Car – Tracy Chapman (Tracy Chapman, 1988)
As predictable as it might be, there’s no getting away from the fact that Fast Car is one of the greatest acoustic tracks of all time.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I have heard it emanating from our test rooms while our reviewers have been putting hi-fi kit through its paces. It’s hard to resist, especially if you’ve got a talented pair of speakers sitting in front of you.
The track is a catchy mix of folk and pop, and there’s even a sprinkling of rock for the chorus. It’s an emotional story about one person’s desire and dream to leave their current circumstances for a better life, and there's real beauty in the way Chapman delivers emotion in her vocals. You can really feel the hope and yearning in her voice, and any decent system should be able to communicate this.
Add to the mix the delicate guitar playing where you can hear subtle details such as fingers sliding over strings, and contrasting drums that explode into life during the chorus, and you’ve got an awesome switch of tempo and a great test of dynamic versatility.
Words by Andy Madden
Take On Me – A-ha (MTV Unplugged: Summer Solstice, 2017)
I first stumbled across this track whilst doing a recce of the Bristol Hi-Fi Show a few years ago. I can’t remember the exact system I was listening to at the time, but I distinctly remember thinking that although the tune was familiar, I had never heard this particular version before. So I pulled up a pew, sat down and proceeded to be blown away.
I suppose because the video for Take On Me is so iconic, you sometimes forget about the actual song itself, the lyrics and composition, so to hear it stripped back to just a vocal, piano and a guitar gave me a newfound appreciation for Morten Harket.
His vocal is beautifully controlled and shows some extremely subtle dynamics, while the natural texture of each instrument shines through. An intimate performance that’s just as memorable as the track’s original 1984 music video.
Words by Andy Madden
S P E Y S I D E, Bon Iver (SABLE, fABLE, 2025)
Bon Iver’s comeback track after a five year hiatus delivered all of the raw emotion I’d hoped it would, and that’s mostly down to the raw, minimalist acoustic production.
This track features minimal instrumentation, with an acoustic guitar taking an equally important role to singer/songwriter Justin Vernon’s delicate and emotionally charged falsetto vocals. Everything is underpinned by a sweeping viola that is woven in throughout the song.
It’s a dynamic showcase, with moments of near silence permeated with Vernon’s harmonised vocals. It’s a delicate balance, and it requires a system that can handle low-level dynamics with finesse for the track to truly shine. Furthermore, the stripped-back production is best served by headphones, earbuds or speakers that lean towards the natural and un-coloured end of the spectrum.
I have used this track to test soundbars, speaker packages and smartphones, as it’s a sure-fire way to find out if a product knows how to handle nuanced dynamic shifts and convey emotion.
Words by Lewis Empson
Old Churchyard - The Wailin’ Jennys (Fifteen, 2017)
If you have looked for folk music tracks on streaming services, then you have most likely come across the Wailin' Jennys. The trio is known for their stripped-back approach, and Old Churchyard from their most recent 2017 album Fifteen, is no different.
It begins with the soft drone of an accordion, setting the foundation for the intimate track to build upon. One voice is introduced, delivered with remarkable expression and delicacy. Then the rest of the vocal harmonies are added gradually; and it’s then that the hairs on your arms will truly stand to attention.
The sense of closeness brings you back to a time when music was one of the only ways we could share stories, as the song is a version of a long-told folk tune that has survived for generations.
The barebones approach will certainly not make for a floor-shaking sound experience, but it should challenge your sound system even more as it calls for a good level of subtlety and refinement.
Words by Robyn Quick
Dancing on My Own – Robyn (Radio 1 Live Lounge Vol. 5, 2010)
I first heard this version of Robyn’s electro-poppy floor-filler in the car, and even listening to it through the subpar speakers in my Vauxhall (that’s Opel for our non-British readers) Astra I was almost moved to tears, such was the quality of Robyn’s performance.
Ditching the pop backdrop for simply a piano and her bare vocal was a genius move and one that completely transforms the emotional intensity of the track. Slowed down, the vocals shine and hit you like a sledgehammer. The delicacy of her tone and the piano play paint such a vivid picture that your attention never wavers. It’s truly heartbreaking to listen to, but in the best way possible.
A word of warning, though. This version of the track is impossible to track down on streaming services, so you’ll need a copy of Radio 1 Live Lounge Vol. 5, which was released in 2010. Kings Of Leon also covered this track for the Live Lounge, and although not quite up to the level of Robyn’s performance, it’s still definitely worth listening to.
Words by Andy Madden
Hurt – Johnny Cash (2002)
Johnny Cash’s rendition of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt remains the cover to end all covers.
With nothing but an acoustic guitar and a single death-knell of a piano stroke chiming under the 70-year-old country legend’s croaking voice, Cash’s rendition was such a powerful and poignant reinvention that it is often misattributed as his own original composition.
While the excellent Nine Inch Nails original employs the more industrial, eerie soundscape which was to define much of 1994’s The Downward Spiral, Cash’s cover stripped everything back, spotlighting the bleak nature of the central vocal performance and its accompanying lyrics of despair and regret.
For a cover that’s actually quite a long way from a wholesale reinvention, it’s striking just how much Cash’s reinterpretation affects the track’s mood and message. Trent Reznor sounds as though he is still fighting his demons; the wearier Cash – more confessional yet composed – seems to have accepted them.
Words by Harry McKerrell
Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) – Green Day (Nimrod, 1997)
![Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) [Official Music Video] [4K UPGRADE] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/CnQ8N1KacJc/maxresdefault.jpg)
I’ve lost count of how many times I have seen and heard this track used in a nostalgic montage. It tends to be used to help add a layer of emotion to a major sporting occasion, or it’s inserted to try to reduce the audience to tears near the end credits of a TV programme. But I never get bored of it.
The track kicks off with just an acoustic guitar and Billie Joe Armstrong’s instantly recognisable tone holding the track together, but it’s the injection of slow, sweeping strings into the performance which really elevates it to another level.
They rise and fall, complementing Armstrong’s expressive guitar playing. It all rolls along at quite a rate of knots before the guitar starts to slow before fading to black right at the end. It’s a real test of fine detail, timing and low-level dynamics which can be tricky for even the most capable of hi-fi systems.
Words by Andy Madden
Free Fallin’ – John Mayer (Live at the Nokia Theatre, 2007)
John Mayer loves playing the guitar. In fact, his attachment to the instrument as a teenager became such a concern for his parents that they enlisted the services of multiple psychiatrists to diagnose what they perceived to be an increasingly unhealthy obsession.
Whether you love Mayer or loathe him, there’s no denying that those isolated hours of adolescent practice paid serious dividends. The man’s guitar work, even among credible blues and rock circles, is held in truly high regard; it’s a talent onto which the spotlight fully shines during Mayer’s 2008 live album Where the Light Is.
Recorded at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, the concert features Mayer performing as part of a trio and an full-scale band, but it’s his acoustic opening salvo – particularly his acclaimed cover of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ – that really merits close attention.
Petty’s tune was already a well-worn classic, but the acoustic Where the Light Is rendition gives it an intimate melancholy and vulnerability that now feels lacking from the original recording. Wherever John Mayer goes and whatever he does, his most beloved tune may end up being one originally penned by somebody else.
Words by Harry McKerrell
Change – Big Thief (Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, 2022)
Big Thief have been a major player in the modern alternative scene since the release of their 2016 album, Masterpiece. Over the decade since, the band has gradually embraced a more acoustic, earthy sound than their indie folk beginnings foretold. Their recordings are often roomy, littered with characterful imperfections, and feel – to put it simply – very real.
Of course, a no-frills recording makes a solid live performance all the more essential. Thankfully, Big Thief have no trouble in this department, and Change from Dragon New Warm Mountain I believe In You sees the band shine as a unit, by way of a simple, heart-rending arrangement.
The recording style does much to serve the song, with a substantial kick-drum delivering a healthy dose of room ambience, while close-up vocal harmonies and Buck Meek’s trembling guitar solo contribute a sense of vulnerability and emotional potency.
“Would you smile forever, never cry,” sings Adrienne Lenker – not very easily while this tune is playing.
Words by Ioan Hazell
Michael Hedges - All Along the Watchtower (Watching My Life Go By, 1985)
Michael Hedges is one of the quintessential acoustic guitarists of his time. Featuring an atypical style, for me, he did to acoustic what Eddie Van Halen did for electric guitar in the ’80s.
His revolutionary style features heavy percussive elements and atypical, at times outright bonkers, tunings; even now, there really has been nothing else quite like him. He was also a stellar live performer to boot, as evidenced by the above video.
But despite his diverse portfolio, which kept evolving right up to his tragic death in 1997, for most people it’s his iconic cover of Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower, especially the performance from his Live on the Double Planet album, that gets recognised.
In true Hedges style, it sees him masterfully use a mix of percussive slapping on the guitar, which is in an atypical D A E E A A tuning, and left-hand hammer-ons and pull-offs to create an enthralling, dynamic rendition of the classic song that is entirely unique.
And the version captured on Live on the Double Planet is a personal favourite. It captures the nuance and dynamism of his playing in a way most other recordings, including the studio version on his Watching My Life Go By album, fail to match. I highly recommend any guitar player or fan of the song give it a listen if you haven’t already. You won’t be disappointed.
Words by Alastair Stevenson
MORE:
29 of the best tracks for testing bass
12 of the best folk and indie songs to test your system
11 of the best instrumental test tracks to give your hi-fi a vocal-free workout
The ultimate music tracks to test your hi-fi system
Our pick of the best hi-fi systems for every budget
