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Your Favorite Album Production


whales

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There's been plenty of discussion about what people like/don't like about the production of California and other Blink albums, so I thought it would be fun to see what everyone's favorites are. I've recently been enjoying Proper Dose by TSSF a ton for it's very specifically chosen sounds and mixing direction, which is a new one for them. An example of an album that I love but would change some things up on is Life's Not Out to Get You by Neck Deep. Love the album, but sometimes the mixing bothers my ears.

Not sure if there's already a thread for this kind of thing, so direct me towards it and delete this if so!

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Blink - Self Titled

Linkin Park - Meteora

Motion City Soundtrack - CTTM

Taking Back Sunday - Tidal Waves

Modest Mouse - Good News

Red Hot - Stadium Arcadiam

Queens of Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf

+44 - WYHSB

Boxcar Racer 

 

Self Titled it's honestly my favorite production of all time... There's so many little details to my favorite genre and favorite band. It's still ahead of it's time production wise

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When it comes to blink, I'd choose smiley face & Enema. Boxcar Racer, +44 and the first AVA album are great when it comes to production too.

Big fan of the production from December Underground by AFI. Chuck by Sum 41 isn't the most polished sounding album but I love how raw it sounds. Kinda like the production from Bad Religion's "The Dissent of Man". Always been a big fan of the production of Sex Pistols album too. Sounds more like a 90's album than a 70's album in my opinion. Strange for a punk rock band of the 70's to have a very good quality sounding album. A Beautiful Lie & This is War from 30 Seconds to Mars sound really good too IMO.

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Talking about recent stuffs, Will Yip's production on Floral Green by Title Fight is amazing.

Not so recent: Untitled, Clarity, MCS, Pinkerton especially for how the drums sound, and I'm big into the Mike Sapone sound like Deja Entendu, Science Fiction, the Sainthood Reps demos, his Crime in Stereo stuff. 

Not blink/pop punk related: Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits is such a good sounding album. The remixed edition of Sgt. Pepper's that came out last year sounds great too. And anything Chris Walla did with Death Cab is incredibly well done. 

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It would be convenient to clarify some concepts before start, but let's get it simple: I'll understand production as the sum of the artistic production itself + EQ-mixing + mastering. Just to not get too muddier here. In no particular order and not caring about genres/eras:

- Pet Sounds, by The Beach Boys. Produced by Brian Wilson. I think he even got better when produced the single Good Vibrations. He was a total master in terms of dynamics. Thinking about it, and about what he was able to achieve (also other producers and bands of those years, of course), and just when recording techniques and studios were technologically light years away from what we have now... it just blows my mind.

- For Emma, Forever Ago, by Bon Iver. Produced by Justin Vernon. Basically recorded in an isolated house at the mountains. Initially conceived as demos, those recordings ended up being the final album, except for some little arrangements ere and there, which were lately added on the studio. Noting else was altered or changed. Not even re-recorded.

- In Utero, by Nirvana. Produced by Steve Albini. In its recent 20th anniversary re-release, I loved to hear the Albini's mixes for Heart Shaped Box and All Apologies, which were re-mixed by Scott Litt for its original release. About this record and its production I like how the band turned off their backs to Nevermind's sound, just to offer a rawer/thrasher/punker? version of themselves, but keeping a warm core and sound.

- A Night At The Opera, y Queen. Produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen. The album itself was a total landmark. And although the production, itself, was nothing new (it was heavily influenced by the production of albums like IV by Led Zeppelin), they, somehow, were able to twist that a little bit more. Multi layered vocals and instruments, mixed in a way that sounds pretty natural and wide. The sound on that album, today, still sounds fresh and real.

 

About more modern records, although this is an unpopular opinion for the old-school fans of blink, I think Enema Of The State was nearly achieving the perfect spot for blink IMO, but finally it got fully engaged on the volume war, so that's the reason why I'd preffer Dude Ranch's production over it, probably. Is not like Dude Ranch is not over peaked, but due to its more simpler approach and 'darker' sound, it's less evident. so the album breathes a little bit more.

Also, I like too Motion City Soundtrack's Commit This To Memory. Still amazes me how Mark was able to do that and the PAWS record and now, well.

I agree about Clarity too. Sweet songwriting there, strong album and really good approach on production.

Also, I really like Green Day's Dookie/Insomniac production. I think on Dookie they achieved their best sound.

 

Overall this is my take on this subject. There are other aproductions I like, of course, but thinking about them, and others which are, at least, as well produced as those. The same applies for modern ones. Understanding how moder stadards apply now, and how some artists avoid that, there are some good productions out there. In this regard, and in my opinion, the battle now is not that much on the 'artistic' side, which is important, of course, but on the 'volume' war side of the story. Because you can have a record which has been produced artistically to your taste, or being really interesting and good, but being also ruined by an outrageous mixing and mastering.

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On 11/3/2018 at 3:54 AM, Kay said:

Clarity - Jimmy Eat World

probably trombino's best album. @Kay, you know that his work with JEW on static prevails was the reason mark and tom asked him to do dude ranch, right? which is a shame; not trombino's genre. the production of dude ranch (and the mix, and the mastering) is god awful. i wish they had someone on it who rocks the genre, like ryan green.

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1 minute ago, daveyjones said:

probably trombino's best album. @Kay, you know that his work with JEW on static prevails was the reason mark and tom asked him to do dude ranch, right? which is a shame; not trombino's genre. the production of dude ranch (and the mix, and the mastering) is god awful. i wish they had someone on it who rocks the genre, like ryan green.

I knew they were fans of static but not that they asked trombino for that reason

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Just now, Kay said:

I knew they were fans of static but not that they asked trombino for that reason

indeed this is true; was told by the boys themselves. static is also where tom stole the (now endlessly overused) half step up from. "pathetic," "dick lips," "violence" etc. i think he thinks it's being clever.

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On ‎11‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 2:38 PM, Elisa said:

Talking about recent stuffs, Will Yip's production on Floral Green by Title Fight is amazing.

Not so recent: Untitled, Clarity, MCS, Pinkerton especially for how the drums sound, and I'm big into the Mike Sapone sound like Deja Entendu, Science Fiction, the Sainthood Reps demos, his Crime in Stereo stuff. 

Not blink/pop punk related: Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits is such a good sounding album. The remixed edition of Sgt. Pepper's that came out last year sounds great too. And anything Chris Walla did with Death Cab is incredibly well done. 

Chris Walla is amazing. He did the tegan and sara record "the con" . they made a sweet making of movie of that record and it's super interesting. I love how versatile yet cohesive that record sounds!

He also did the follow up record which also sounds superb!

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35 minutes ago, daveyjones said:

pet sounds is godly. and yes, i think dookie is the best green day ever sounded.

Indeed.

I must add something. Specially with old releases, when they get remastered you can get a pretty diverse palette of versions. Taking as example Pet Sounds, or Stg. Pepper if you will, or even A Night In The Opera, for example, there are tons of versions released. I mean: tons. The original ones, the remasters that have been happening over the years and anniversaries and what not... that fact can 'ruin' a record, for those who care about sound. The artistic production -being that the recorded songs themselves-, is someting that is not gonna change, but hell... dependind on how the record is remastered (or even remixed, which is something I don't like, because you are changing the original concept), you're gonna get different ends.

So, for example, DCC is a company well known for its releases, some of them getting much beter mastering than, even, original ones. They have done some of the best re-releases of albums such the ones mentioned above. They just don't mess with compression, levels or EQ.

What I mean with this is that, the same record can be judged very different depending on the mastering. But that, itself, is not going to fix mixing mistakes or blurryness and muddyness, so to say.

And talking about Dude Ranch, I had no idea blink asked Trombino to produce it after hearing Static Prevails. That explains it all.

 

Edit: I mean, production is a hell of a theme. It's a very complex subject, specially when we talk about how someone perceives the overall production of an album.

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1 hour ago, Ghost said:

Specially with old releases, when they get remastered you can get a pretty diverse palette of versions. Taking as example Pet Sounds...

it's funny, i did not think i would, but i love the 1997 stereo mix (supervised and approved by brian wilson, despite him being deaf in one ear) as much as the original mono mix. a good comparison:

https://cosmomusic.ca/blogs/2016/08/jimmys-classic-album-review-the-beach-boys-pet-sounds-mono-vs-stereo

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yeah, agreed on pet sounds, and the 97 stereo remix is wonderful.

i love the nightfly by donald fagen... production-wise, it can't be beat. it was meticulously recorded, as fagen (with walter becker, and their engineers) were famously crazy about audio quality. aja's probably the better reference for SQ (and it was recorded analog), but nightfly's an early digital recording that sounds absolutely crisp.

transatlanticism by death cab is a real headphone album that almost transports you to another world. i think weezer's white album was interesting production-wise... the drums sound so crunchy (weird word, i know), and the cymbals so loud... it really makes for a fun listen compared to their other albums (ric ocasek's production isn't mind-blowing). in more recent records, i think the production/mix/mastering on tame impala's currents was a new level (though it's incredibly loud, i think for an album like that, it matches well artistically).

as for records already mentioned, i agree that EOTS and CTTM are some of the best-sounding punk rock records ever. untitled by blink is a real masterwork too

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GREAT topic idea, @Whales!

My favorite album productions are:

The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds

Daft Punk, Random Access Memories

Fleetwood Mac, Rumours

Green Day, Dookie

Sufjan Stevens, Illinois

Tyler, the Creator, Flower Boy

Weezer's White Album

New Order, Power, Corruption & Lies

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