While listening to a new album, I thought something was wrong with my sound system. After comparing old and recent recordings from the same bands, I realized that music is produced differently now.I think it's gotten worse now. It used to be musicians played live to promote record sales. Now they have to practically give their music away and then play live to make some money.
http://www.npr.org/2009/12/31/122114058/the-loudness-wars-why-music-sounds-worse
Perhaps, they release crap recordings to encourage people to go to shows?