best production

[Colin]

well, i hear a lot of complaining about the production of eisenhower on this board. so i wanna hear what you would consider to be a excellently produced album. be that a well-produced album, particular song, or a band who have been putting out fine produced albums for many years.

i would have to say that radiohead is one of my favorites.

[hoby]

Holy compression ratio, now there's a massive topic!!

Before I go crazy with a list, I gotta ask: "Can you define well-produced"?

Are you talking about a production that perfectly captures the artist's intent? Or a production that achieves a specific goal (move a lot of units)?

Or by "well-produced" do you really mean "well-recorded"?

Not really knowing where to start,

hoby

[tyler]

Radiohead, TV on the Radio, Caribou, Andrew Bird, Broken Social Scene...

[Phrazz]

Hmmm...best-sounding, best-selling, or best-smelling are our criteria?

How about Exile on Main St., Physical Graffiti and Dark Side of the Moon. Oh, wait, I'm sorry...that last one didn't move too much copy (*grin*).

Frankly, I believe Eisenhower is a production masterpiece, but it probably won't sell as many units as Exile. Unless a meteor falls from the sky first.

I like Mermaid Avenue going with the Matthew Ellard theme. Flaming Lips also have masterful productions, especially if you're talking about technique (and they move the units). MMJ "Z" is absolutely flawless (and widely popular across many genres, but that's more the scope of the musical style versus production technique or popularity).

How about Sgt. Pepper's? Ok, I'm going way back in the time machine (maybe that's too much work).

I agree that Radiohead are tops in the production category, and so is J5.

-Phrazz

[BeatingHippies]

I have a weird thing about production. I always hate it when an album sounds too perfect. It irkes me because music should not be perfect. I love those little flaws that prove to you what your listening to is real.

It's the same reason why I love live music.

That being said I don't like an album to be full of errors. A little mistake here is cool but an album full of crap is just a crap album. You follow? I hate it when people just go crazy with the equipment to make themselves sound like Jesus' band.

Recently on the NPR program all songs considered they interviewed Joe Boyd. You've never heard of him I'm sure, but his credits speak for themselves. I would strongly reccomend a listen to this as he goes pretty in depth about the wide world of production. Also, it has lots of cool music.

[tim]

when i think of "older" production, lee perry and berry gordy jump to the front of my mind because they're essentially responsible for two genres of music i love.

as for more "recent" music, elliot smith- xo, wilco- yankee foxtrot hotel and james murphy's stuff through lcd soundsystem, are all works whose production i've really enjoyed.

[r.c.]

AsSadAsItIsToSay; I have not even spinned my E-hower disc yet. Cannot tell whether or not I have found the right space or time, mood or desire to finally hear "The Production". I alreadly know what they
are playing, and have an intimate anticipation of how they will not only play but also sound. Reviews from reliable sources, -this board, convey not only what to expect but also take all the mystery and anticipation away. Yes! Without even listening to "the album" that Lara so kindly "comped" me last New Years' Run in NoHo- thanks BAM-; that sits still wrapped in plastic on my stereo, is going to SHINE - i can't wait> ? It would be a crying shame if thier (our) album did not GLOW; There was a
very long time spent after the recording on the PRODUCTION and finally the release to the point that I feel it might just be too polished.
Maybe I am just waiting for an opportunity to share my first round
listening experience with some friend(s) I knew back in the good old day when The Slip played a 'GIG' not like today when they put on a 'SHOW'.
Believe it or not...I not only miss those days, but I miss you guys & girls.

[diesel]

Dave Fridmann's work is awesome, especially with the Flaming Lips 5.1 surround albums.

and John Leckie who made MMJ's Z and Radioheads the Bends did nice work.

[BrentW]

Zeppelin, take your pick. Altough I prefer the albums that are made out of like one session, giving them the more live appeal. Then again, I don't listen to very many commercially released "albums" these days. Mainly live shows.

[putty]

I don't really think about the production side of things. but my favorite albums of all time probably go hand in hand with good production

MMJ - At Dawn and Z
Dylan - Blood On The Tracks, Desire
NY - On The Beach and Zuma
Rubber Soul
Sticky Fingers/Exile/Let It Bleed
Natty Dread
Bowie - Hunky Dory
Automatic For the People
All of the Wilco albums

[Colin]

for hoby:
the term well-produced doesn't mean does it meet a certain criteria. "does it sound clean enough?" its more about the purpose and you can tell by musical instincts what a band was trying to achieve and did they get there point across. does it also create an atmosphere or sense. its a personal opinion more than anything else. is it a great album or not?
take BSS. they get that delicious, grainy, cassette sound while not sacrificing audio quality.
radiohead are experts at using odd sounds and noise without overdoing it [idioteque]. both them and wilco edit songs in production to create odd time and other tweaks. much like the dropped 4th beat on airplane/prim shortly before they make the transition to the slow part. i may be mistaken, but it sounds like the cut beat was done in production, not in studio - based on the little hints in the sound.

note: a great song can easily be ruined by production

ill take "love your abuser" - title track to the album by lymbyc systym
love the song but later towards the end they compress the kit to a distorted sound which to almost makes it sound out of time at points which really throws me out of the song.
"truth skull" may be the best produced song off the album. very smooth transitions and excellent use of background noise.


my favorite produced albums are done by TORTOISE. trts's john mcentire is genius in his use of manipulated acoustic drum sounds. as a drummer, i was blown away by the ability to take actual drum, which i had mistaken for electronic drums in many cases, and make unheard of sounds. the production is great because it is some of the most innovative stuff ive heard in a long time... and it keeps getting better!

[booher]

I'm going to agree with Putty, and say that Wilco's effects and electronic sounds are really supposed to be there and sound great for what they add to the music. I think some of the aspects of the production in Eisenhower wasn't exactly necessary. CoD, Even Rats, and If One Of Us Should Fall, especially.

As far as a studio standard? Steely Dan - Aja

[BeatingHippies]

It's funny that you say that about Wilco. It's obviously true and if you watch I am Trying To Break Your Heart you see just how hard Jeff had to fight to get some of the more electronic apects to stay in the songs.

But if you read any Tweedy interviews lately he shits all over the idea of music being electronic and heavy production. He seems to regret that time in his life.

YHF does indeed have amazing production. All hail O'Rourke!

[Colin]

great video of glen kotche [drummer of wilco]


http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/glennkotchelong.html

[tyler]

It's funny that you say that about Wilco. It's obviously true and if you watch I am Trying To Break Your Heart you see just how hard Jeff had to fight to get some of the more electronic apects to stay in the songs.

But if you read any Tweedy interviews lately he shits all over the idea of music being electronic and heavy production. He seems to regret that time in his life.

YHF does indeed have amazing production. All hail O'Rourke!

Part of what I love about Wilco's work is that every album achieves a different direction. YHF was obviously pretty avant-garde, but it fits. Ghost is Born retained some of that avant-gardeness (end of Handshake Drugs, intro to Wishful Thinking, end of Less Than You Think (although that's crap) come to mind) but overall the album has a much cleaner sound to it than YHF. Muzzle of Bees at the start always reminds me of nice simple 70s folk, good music to drive through the country on a summer day to. And now Sky Blue Sky is a really clean album throughout, very 70s influenced with that sorta soul/R&B sound going on. Although with that one I'm only judging based on one listen via the night they streamed it on the website and a few mp3s I grabbed from blogs. (Also some incredible solos by Mr. Nels Cline on that album--he was a great addition to Wilco.)