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- Communist China
- Rep: 130
Re: Bands/Albums that are held back by their Production
So we've in the past discussed albums with the best production, but there are many groups with great musicians and good songs that are just destroyed by how they were produced. So what are those albums/bands for you?
For me, Jane's Addiction is a band that is mostly unlistenable solely because of it's production. It sounds like demos to my ears, and it's not like Perry Farrel has the cleanest voice to begin with (Porno for Pyros is the same deal).
Some band's first albums, like AIC's Facelift and NIN's Pretty Hate Machine have productiont hat isn't quite as clean as I'd like too. Of course, I like big production, crisp sounds - usually when I complain about overproduction is just a complaint about effects or a prediction of how others would react. Facelift and PHM are great albums, but don't stand up with or fit in with either band's best because of the production, not the songs.
Living Colour and early Faith No More is like that too. Living Colour almost never rocked hard enough because of the way everything was mixed and put together. For FNM, Some of the subtle production changes from Real Thing to Angel Dust are the differences between dated and kinda boring (Real Thing) and timelessly awesome (Angel Dust).
Oh, and Smashing Pumpkins' Zeitgeist has terrible production - but that goes without saying.
Re: Bands/Albums that are held back by their Production
Elastica's self titled album is a bit too polished. Whats funny about that is you feel the exact opposite until you hear the Radio One Sessions material. The songs on that from the self titled disc are just raw and in your face. Thats how people felt about the self titled disc. Once the Radio One Sessions were released, I pretty much stopped listening to the self titled album.
They made Justine's voice too 'glossy' on the record. Go listen to Line Up on the album, and then listen to it on Radio One Sessions. Huge difference.
Eagles Hell Freezes Over's new tracks are almost unbearable. Get Over It could have been a pretty killer track but its just de-balled by its production. Love Will Keep Us Alive just sounds too perfect for my ears. It is a good song, but any live version sounds better.
I love the production of Facelift. Really captured the live essence of the band.
New Young Pony Club's album Fantastic Playroom, while one of my favorite albums this decade, had a subpar mix on the final product. Some chick gave me this album months before its release. When the album finally came out and I bought it, every fucking song sounded different. I lost the original version I had when my Dell comp took a shit over a year ago, and haven't been able to find it since.
Re: Bands/Albums that are held back by their Production
UYI 1&2 had the strangest production. Some songs sound mixed and have heavy bass... others sound very flat and you can barely hear the bass. Strangeeee
Buckethead Decoding The Tomb of the Bansheebot and Pepper's Ghost have great songs, but sound cheap to me for some reason. There's others but I have to go for now
Re: Bands/Albums that are held back by their Production
Been trying to think of some for this, struggling right now but I'd have to say Liz Phair's commercial stuff went bad right away. Her debut indie album was awesome. A song for song counter to Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street. For a taste of how raw it is, listen to Fuck & Run. Then her next album, on a major label, was just too polished & overproduced.
Jewel had some bad follow up albums too.
Re: Bands/Albums that are held back by their Production
Been trying to think of some for this, struggling right now but I'd have to say Liz Phair's commercial stuff went bad right away. Her debut indie album was awesome. A song for song counter to Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street. For a taste of how raw it is, listen to Fuck & Run. Then her next album, on a major label, was just too polished & overproduced.
I love Liz, but its really sad how her career turned out. When she released Whip Smart it was obvious that Supernova was supposed to be the song that sent her career into the stratosphere. While it was a minor hit, it did no such thing. In fact, it played a huge role in derailing her career. She lost her indie cred with that song/album, and never was able to replace all the fans she lost. Her major low point was the self titled album where she tried to be Sheryl Crow. Haven't cared about her much since.
Re: Bands/Albums that are held back by their Production
PHM are great albums, but don't stand up with or fit in with either band's best because of the production, not the songs.
In my opinion this is totally wrong. PHM is their best album in my opinion based on the production. It's kept simple in comparison to overproduction of every single album that came after it. That's why PHM songs sound the best in concert as well. They're able to replicate them best casue they don't have to recreate a mass of production ina live setting. The songs on PHM are amazing but NIN have so many songs that are amazing on other albums that are totally ruined by production. They get too noisy and too busy and it completely takes away from songs. Into the Void is a song that comes instantly to mind. I could list dozens though
I would say that U2's last album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was a tad polished. For an album that was a "back to basics" approach for the band there were alot of layers and synth stuff going on that actually took away from the songs. You only have to hear the demos to see that is the case.
And to be honest CD is maybe the worst production I've ever heard in the sense that the album losses any heart and soul it might've had. It sounds really generic and forced. It sounds liek protools plain and simple. But that's a topic for an entire different section 
Re: Bands/Albums that are held back by their Production
Chinese Democracy goes without saying...umm...there's a few local groups i can think of..Like Fixer.
What gets me though is how bands who put out 3 or 4 albums with crap production and then there's some (Wait For Green) Who put out a debut non major label release with great production.
- dr_love6977
- Rep: 38
Re: Bands/Albums that are held back by their Production
There's a lot of metal bands I can name you that have terrible fucking production. For instance: The first Atreyu album. I'm not going to lie, I liked it. One big problem is it wasn't big enough. If you're going to produce a metal album, you better put some big guitars on there. One guitar on the left, and one on the right isn't going to cut it. On that album, there were only 2 guitars tracked, so if one of them went to play a lead or a harmony, there was no more rhythm being played on that respective side.
Re: Bands/Albums that are held back by their Production
Elastica's self titled album is a bit too polished. Whats funny about that is you feel the exact opposite until you hear the Radio One Sessions material. The songs on that from the self titled disc are just raw and in your face. Thats how people felt about the self titled disc. Once the Radio One Sessions were released, I pretty much stopped listening to the self titled album.
They made Justine's voice too 'glossy' on the record. Go listen to Line Up on the album, and then listen to it on Radio One Sessions. Huge difference.
Eagles Hell Freezes Over's new tracks are almost unbearable. Get Over It could have been a pretty killer track but its just de-balled by its production. Love Will Keep Us Alive just sounds too perfect for my ears. It is a good song, but any live version sounds better.
I love the production of Facelift. Really captured the live essence of the band.
New Young Pony Club's album Fantastic Playroom, while one of my favorite albums this decade, had a subpar mix on the final product. Some chick gave me this album months before its release. When the album finally came out and I bought it, every fucking song sounded different. I lost the original version I had when my Dell comp took a shit over a year ago, and haven't been able to find it since.
i love elastica. good pull! 
