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Post by Sean without an H on Sept 21, 2006 22:55:17 GMT -5
Yeah, it was Best Laid Plans... I had listened to various live recordings and free downloads (notably Plenty and Age After Age, both of which I thought were very well-produced) before I bought the album itself (incidentally, last year via ebflo mp3 while I was in India). I thought it was my mp3s after awhile, but I got a regular copy and it's not much better. The music just feels, I don't know, flat... like the producer turned all the instruments and vocals to the same volume. No dynamics or anything... which is really weird, b/c in terms of instrumentation, I love more stripped-down productions like this (a la no fancy bells and whistles). From what I've heard, there seems to be similar issues on the free Gravity Love tracks (which btw are amazing acoustic... just check out some of the bootlegs on indieriver.net from the SPA in the round shows). I love the production on Sandra's othe records, esp. Gypsy Flat Road... I still think that's my fave CD overall.
Phew. On Eric Peters, I've grown to love his records, but I think I got burned by Miracle of Forgetting. Great songs, I just thought you NEVER EVER heard his voice clear... it all sounded like it was recorded live and/or through AM radio. I didn't really go back to it until I heard Bookmark, and got a clear feel for his voice, which is also amazing. I was worried all of Scarce would be like that, b/c he uses the effect on the first song, but thankfully it's not. Maybe it was just a fad... like Derek Webb's 3am recordings on ISTUD and vocal doubling on EVERYTHING on Mockingbird (from the little i've heard on bootlegs, this album sounds amazing live with his full voice). I guess I'm all for experimentation, but sometimes I feel like what I thought was the essence of the song (from live recordings/demos) completely transforms in production... and not for the better.
Okay, now that I've officially made a music dork of myself, time to go back to Marx. Yay capitalism.
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Post by Sean without an H on Sept 21, 2006 22:59:02 GMT -5
Oh, and about Andrew Peterson... I enjoyed that record (incidentally bought b/c of Bebo's being on Watershed), but now can totally understand the production issues... kinda hit and miss (Let me sing & No more faith are great, spare change is, well.... "yeah yeah", haha). I don't think I really got what production could do until I heard Love and Thunder... one of the most amazing sounding, timeless, coherent movements of music I've heard in a LONG time.
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Post by Greg adkins on Sept 21, 2006 23:18:49 GMT -5
Yeah, it's not that "Clear to Venus" is bad by any stretch. If I could make a record that good, I could hang it up and call it a day. I guess when compared to the sounds of "love and thunder" and "carried along", it just seems... out of place somehow.
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Post by Sean without an H on Sept 21, 2006 23:36:04 GMT -5
I'll have to go back and listen to it, now =) (maybe I'll road trip with it). I'm inclined to agree with you. By the way, have you ever listened to Justin McRoberts? I was just listening to his independent CD Trust, and it reminded me of good production. His albums always have a very sparse but very organic feel to the production... usually acoustic and/or piano with some form of non-traditional percussion... phew, it's good, and good lyrics too. Anywho, has anyone else experienced McRoberts?
PS on EP... maybe burned isn't the right word... I think "taken off guard" is better. My taste for varied production has grown since I first listened to that record.
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Post by darthminister on Sept 22, 2006 10:06:10 GMT -5
it's been awhile since I've thrown anything out there but I haven't had time or money to really update my music. Here's some stuff that I've recently found...
Peter Bradley Adams - Love it, Love it, Love it! Folky, self produced album that sounds great.
Jon Black - good fun, folky guitar stuff... nothing great, but fun to listen to
John Black - found this guy on accident looking for Jon Black, but I like some of his stuff too. He's got a rock edge to him but the vocals are hit n miss
Jill Phillips - i have to be in the mood for this slow stuff but when i'm in those moods, it's great background music.
Between the Trees - The Story and the Song .. i like what i've heard from this album. similar to Switchfoot, The Fray, The Afters, etc.
Brandon Heath - I'm with Backstageguy.. i like this guy. It sounded Beboesque to me before I read backstageguys review on him above.
Heyyy.. that's it. Enjoy
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Post by whipple on Sept 23, 2006 2:43:08 GMT -5
On Andy Peterson albums - I think that the 'off-ness' about Clear to Venus was perhaps the coherence of the other albums. Think about it, Love and Thunder begins and ends with the exact same sort of progression and piano part (albeit transposed a key). Also interesting (speaking of music dorkiness), is the fact that Love and Thunder ends on a C major chord in the key of G without resolving, and the beginning of the next album, Behold the Lamb of God, resolves the chord as if the whole of the thing had never stopped.
Carried Along, Love and Thunder, Behold the Lamb of God, and even the Far Country have a completeness about them, but still retain an incompleteness that leads you forward - especially in the last notes of Love and Thunder and the heartbeat ending of The Far Country. Clear to Venus seems more a collection of scattered afterthoughts in comparison, but a good one at that.
On the production side of things, I think I was so enraptured with the lyrics of Age After Age, that I completely ignored any production. But I will agree that overproduced albums that eliminate all the quirks and personality aren't as easy on my ears. They have to work harder to draw me in. However, listening to Cameron Martin Cochran's "Diary, A Days," I must say that there's another side. His breathy vocals all but disappear in the circus of sounds, although it is a wonderful, artistic cacophony, almost like a brook babbling.
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Post by Greg adkins on Sept 23, 2006 7:05:01 GMT -5
You need to write a book of poetry.
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Post by Sean without an H on Sept 23, 2006 11:40:18 GMT -5
... and he should join the board =) haha.
Yeah, I've heard production used really well too... I guess w/ so much bad stuff, when it's used well, it makes me excited... like Sara Groves' "The Other Side of Something" (Listen to the track "All I Need" and tell me how that could work better with just an acoustic or piano), or Share the Well (live it's amazing, but the album is phenomenal). Sandra's new album feels a lot more varied than the last one (picked it up at the concert last night & drove home with it)... I think what Best Laid Plans feels like it's missing is some BASS. It almost feels like they dropped the base EQ completely and cranked the treble up. Not bad, I guess, it just feels like my ears get tired after awhile.
And great observation about Andy's albums... I never noticed the chord progression resolution thing, but phew are you right about their flow... I listened to Clear to Venus last night on the drive too, and ... it does feel more like a collection of songs, albeit as you said a very good one.
And Gypsy Flat Road is still amazing... pick it up if you haven't yet (all her stuff is on iTunes now... including Builder and the Architect, which btw is both self-produced very well and an amazingly atmospheric hymns record.)
PS Gosh I feel like I write a lot... sorry bout that
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Post by Sean without an H on Sept 23, 2006 11:41:33 GMT -5
PPS I forgot about the new Jill Phillips record... I need to pull it out again soon... and check out those Between the Trees guys. They're in my iTunes shopping cart for soundclip appraisal now =) Thanks for the recommendation, darthminister
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Post by Whipple on Sept 24, 2006 15:19:46 GMT -5
Greg, don't know if I told you or not, but I am.
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