Those guys really have a way of being evocatively melodic in a way no one
else seems to even try. Aphex Twin does a good job on a few tracks per
release, but can't keep it up for 13 tracks the way Plaid can.
Dancers is perhaps the best exemplar -- unexpected, but emotionally
exciting chord change after chord change.
I splurged and got the 24-bit WAV files and I think that's how they should
be heard -- punchy and dynamic and spacious. Haven't blind-tested them
against 16-bit wav (or MP3) but if you're going to shell out for the album,
I have to think it's worth the splurge.
I wonder why Warp releases 24-bit WAV files but only 16-bit FLAC files.
FLAC encodes 24-bits just fine; in fact the first thing I do when i
download them is convert them to 24-bit FLAC.