At the Risk of Sounding Like an Old Fogie…
January 15th, 2008 by jeff
…why does music sound so bad these days?
Before you start making with the wise cracks, this has nothing to do with the quality of bands or even the quality of songs. There are a BUNCH of new bands I really like with songs I love. It’s just the way they choose to SOUND on record.
It’s like they spend $20,000, $30,000, $50,000 to sound like someone recorded them live in a garage on an old four track machine.
Today, I heard some new songs from the Magnetic Fields. I don’t mind the songs. Not my favorite stuff ever, but it’s catchy. I saw them on no less than three different blogs and their new CD is being reviewed by everyone (New York Times, Washinton Post, etc). The problem for me is that the record sounds like CRAP! The instruments at times are barely recognizable and there’s so much reverb on it, you can barely tell what’s going on with anything including the drums.
It’s like Phil Spector puked the production.
I really like Arcade Fire and The Broken West. The Broken West, in particular, is one of my favorite CD’s of last year. But, that damn thing is almost impossible to listen to. It wasn’t recorded in the 60’s, but you’d think it was except for the fact that it is about 5 decibels louder than anything else on my iPod.
Arcade Fire’s CD, Neon Bible, has some really great songs on it and SOME interesting production, but it went too far for me.
Even Mute Math’s self-titled CD that I love so much drives me NUTS at times because the drums are mixed so far up front and are incredibly frenetic. It distracts from some really amazing melodies and otherwise tremendous songs. Stewart Copeland was all OVER the place on Police records, but it was never obtrusive to the point that it messed with the song. He knew when to reign it in.
I’m not sure who is doing production for a lot of these bands, but you CAN over produce and not just in that cheesy Nashville Christian music way that makes everyone sound like Stepford Wives for Jesus. When the production begins to distract from the songs and the musicians, what is the point?
Oh, and you kids get off my damn lawn too!!!
Cool down, Grandpa, you’ll have to change your Depends. If you’re good I’ll take you to Denny’s for the Early Bird Special and I’ll even get them to puree it for you.
Honestly, though, with what little knowledge I have of the music world, I’d have to agree with you.
Oh, you don’t know the half of it. Back when music was good, we’d crank up the Victrola, kick off our spats and do the Lindy like there was no tomorrow. Of course, the Kaiser put an end to all that …
@Rebecca: BAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!! Would you finish the evening by the fireplace reading the latest serialized Fitzgerald in Collier’s?
God I’m such a nerd.
Those damn kids with their long hair and their complicated shoes…
I think in one or two reviews The Magnetic Fields were compared to early Jesus & Mary Chain. JAMC had tons of reverb and distortion, but the key was they knew how to mix in a lovely melody along the way. There are some songs from JAMC where the feedback punctuates the music and I can’t imagine the song without such feedback.
Psychocandy is a great album. =)
And I agree with all the rest of your post!