Production of TGEA

[leviticus]

What is everyone's opinion on the production quality? It is my biggest complaint. Perry, on this album, contrary to popular opinion is not the weakest link... It is Costey. There is no space between instruments and layers. There is no distinction. Anyone agree? Disagree? I wish it was produced more like GGU.

[Kajicat]

I hear what you're saying.
I think Perry performed well on this album too. He can't really pull it off live anymore, but in the studio they find a way to make it sound good.

I expected more out of Costey as well. Sometimes the wall of sound is just too much.

[Pandemonium]

What is everyone's opinion on the production quality? It is my biggest complaint. Perry, on this album, contrary to popular opinion is not the weakest link... It is Costey. There is no space between instruments and layers. There is no distinction. Anyone agree? Disagree? I wish it was produced more like GGU.

I'm not a big fan of the production and absolutely agree with your opinion on how it sounds, but I don't think much of the blame falls on Costey. From what I read between the lines, he was more of a organizer/traffic manager due to the way the various elements of the album were put together. Building songs in the studio when there's no even close to finished version that the band as a unit have previously played on often results in over-tweaking and piling on "neat" sounds and effects that serve only to obscure the guts of the basic tune. That's why every song off TGEA so far sounds vastly better and more direct live than on the album. You listen to Costey's production with Muse, he gets that big modern rock sound with them but the songs breathe and have a more direct punch likely because the band *do* flesh out their songs to near-finished quality *before* they go in and record 'em.

[Hokahey]

I thought it was great. Lots of subtle layers, tweaks, noises etc. It's definitely more nuanced and interesting to listen to than Strays.

[ESY]

Said it before - this is a headphone record. Listen to it on a good set of cans and it just comes to life. There is just so much detail but a lot of it gets lost when heard out loud. The only song that I think is really dense is ETTL (and the most TVOTR ish), but again, on headphones it works.
I think for a modern record it sounds fantastic.

[CaseyContrarian]

What is everyone's opinion on the production quality? It is my biggest complaint. Perry, on this album, contrary to popular opinion is not the weakest link... It is Costey. There is no space between instruments and layers. There is no distinction. Anyone agree? Disagree? I wish it was produced more like GGU.

Agree, and hope to contribute more to this thread when I have a bit more time. Kudos for introducing the topic for discussion.

[Fitzy]

Said it before - this is a headphone record. Listen to it on a good set of cans and it just comes to life. There is just so much detail but a lot of it gets lost when heard out loud. The only song that I think is really dense is ETTL (and the most TVOTR ish), but again, on headphones it works.
I think for a modern record it sounds fantastic.

I agree - The first 3 songs are great to get lost in, and Twisted Tales has some really cool sounds bubbling around, especially in the intro. I'm satisfied with production side of things over all.

That said, I would argue that Strays' production had more "power" and sheer impact (and, curiously, sounds more like a Muse record than TGEA does).

[jptm]

while i'm OK w/the album as a whole; i gotta say when listening w/other new music---too much compression. which confirms that this is truly a 'headphones' album; because it doesn't sound as 'tinny' when listening with headphones as opposed to on a good stereo...

[trevor ayer]

yup the production on this record is HORRIBLE .. what kind of producer tells stephen perkins to play a strait rock beat or puts all these stupid pop chorus's in all these songs .. janes never used to have a chorus .. now its all these big dramtic britney spears chorus's verse chorus verse chorus bridge verse chorus blah .. i like that they cleaned up the real sounding instruments but they added a lot of stupid shit that we are supposed to accept as innovative at the expense of what made janes great. i have had it with this record, it sucks so bad as is, i decided I am remixing the entire record to make it listenable .. i am 3 songs in and when u edit out the shitty choruses there is some great stuff in there .. will post soon ..

[JOEinPHX]

In comparison to:

1. Strays
and
2. Trust No One (also done by Costey)

I would say this is an improvement over those. The record doesn't sound 90s, but it's not 2000s either. You can tell it's been polished a bit, but it doesn't sound totally plastic. I wish the range was a little more dynamic. It's a lot of either low volume textures or really loud guitars. i wish there was a little more in between

But it's decent. For a band that did so much of the record in the studio (and without a doubt did quite a fair bit of copy/paste), it doesn't sound as generic as it could have.

I wish it sounded more like a live band, but not a lot of records sound like that anymore, unfortunately

[NYRexall]

For a band that did so much of the record in the studio (and without a doubt did quite a fair bit of copy/paste), it doesn't sound as generic as it could have.

I wish it sounded more like a live band, but not a lot of records sound like that anymore, unfortunately

That's because digital is the standard method of recording in today's day and age, and completely saps the music of its vitality and warmth. What you get is an album that is tweaked, tinkered with, sterilized and Pro-tooled to death, resulting in a flat, one-dimensional sound.

Not saying TGEA sounds like all of these things; on headphones, it does sound pretty incredible. But it's obvious that it's a product of its time, patched together with technology and sounding like no one was in the same room with each other at the same time.

Two big examples of recent "big name" bands recording live to tape and in the same room with one another are Zeitgeist (Smashing Pumpkins) and Wasted Light (Foo Fighters). Even if both of those records are among each band's more inferior efforts, they both sound incredible because they were recorded properly, with no studio trickery, Pro-tools, or vocals "e-mailed" to the fucking band to paste onto a finished song.

[CaseyContrarian]

Mostly agree. But you can make digital records that don't sound as cut and pasted as TGEA. Some of us do it all the time. Tape is great, but it's all gonna get dumped onto a computer eventually, either in the sequencing or mastering stage. A true analog recording is very rare these days, outside of the hermetic confines of Steve Albini's ass.

I think the real issue here is that Costey puts so much lip gloss on everything that it could never, ever sound spontaneous or vibe-y. The music is the sonic equivalent of what Dave looks like now: overly made-up and fussed over.

I like the record just fine for what it is.

For a band that did so much of the record in the studio (and without a doubt did quite a fair bit of copy/paste), it doesn't sound as generic as it could have.

I wish it sounded more like a live band, but not a lot of records sound like that anymore, unfortunately

That's because digital is the standard method of recording in today's day and age, and completely saps the music of its vitality and warmth. What you get is an album that is tweaked, tinkered with, sterilized and Pro-tooled to death, resulting in a flat, one-dimensional sound.

Not saying TGEA sounds like all of these things; on headphones, it does sound pretty incredible. But it's obvious that it's a product of its time, patched together with technology and sounding like no one was in the same room with each other at the same time.

Two big examples of recent "big name" bands recording live to tape and in the same room with one another are Zeitgeist (Smashing Pumpkins) and Wasted Light (Foo Fighters). Even if both of those records are among each band's more inferior efforts, they both sound incredible because they were recorded properly, with no studio trickery, Pro-tools, or vocals "e-mailed" to the fucking band to paste onto a finished song.

[NYRexall]

Steve Albini

Big Black

[Jasper]

I loved Big Black when I was about 15. Best album was Atomizer.

I probably still have the beat up cassette somewhere.

[Matz]

I think the real issue here is that Costey puts so much lip gloss on everything that it could never, ever sound spontaneous or vibe-y. The music is the sonic equivalent of what Dave looks like now: overly made-up and fussed over.

isn't that the guys that mixed and mastered it's fault and not Costey's?

[Kajicat]

I think the real issue here is that Costey puts so much lip gloss on everything that it could never, ever sound spontaneous or vibe-y. The music is the sonic equivalent of what Dave looks like now: overly made-up and fussed over.

isn't that the guys that mixed and mastered it's fault and not Costey's?

I'm thinking the same thing. Costey produced it but wasn't who mastered it, was he? Think you're right.

[CaseyContrarian]

No.

I think the real issue here is that Costey puts so much lip gloss on everything that it could never, ever sound spontaneous or vibe-y. The music is the sonic equivalent of what Dave looks like now: overly made-up and fussed over.

isn't that the guys that mixed and mastered it's fault and not Costey's?

[leviticus]

Listening on Spotify with crappy headphones at work, sounds better this way.

[guysmiley]

Mixing isn't that bad, its the artist that kill it for me. Not digging it other than a few guitar solos here and there. Sounds like a wannabe "now cool already done" 80 pop band.