Albums Massacred by Engineering?
 

In the age of remastered classics, provide a list of albums that have been massacred by engineering. I'll start: PJ Harvey's 'Rid of Me' was butchered by Steve Albini. The engineering is so muddy and flat that is chokes all of the dynamics out of PJ Harvey's masterpiece. She was smart to release '4-Track Demos', as it demonstrates the power of her song-writing and, more importantly, her performance. I reach for '4-Track Demos' 9 out of 10 times over 'Rid of Me'. I'd LOVE to hear a remastered version of 'Rid of Me'...

Um, RID OF ME is my favorite PJ album, mostly because I love the raw, live, in-your-faceness of the recording.

Big Black and Shellac rule but Albini is such a shitty producer.

Sorry, 'engineer'.

But he's such a sweet, gentle man.

By the way, has anyone ever noticed that Eno's records sound like shit? What dumbfuck recorded those? Just kidding about that too.

But really, contender for worst recording in the history of the world has to be S-K's THE WOODS. Years later, I'm still pissed at the terrible, terrible choices made on what could've been one of their best albums.

The Woods is indeed one of my all-time worst, why didn't they just keep John Goodmanson? I would also like to nominate Radiohead The King of Limbs! Damn thing sounds like it was recorded under water, and the live versions like From the Basement are crackling with subtlety and nuance that is entirely lost in production :(
Hey, Steve can't win em all, but if I wanted him to record a gutted, ethereal punk album with crisp and not overpowering drum work and simple, live-feed distorted guitars, all balanced with good vocals, there is no one else BETTER than Steve.

Exhibit (a)


Exhibit (b)


Exhibit (c)

I dunno, I kind of liked the recording on King Of The Limbs. Lotus Tree and Bloom sound especially great.

As for Albini another great sounding album is Surfer Rosa. Very few people can get drums sound as good as he did.

Metallica's Death Magnetic album sounding frigging awful. There's evidence of why compression in music is a very thing bad thing.

On headphones yes, on the stereo no. I was listening to Feral Tree at the MTA stop waiting for the lightrail (the station is in the middle of a freeway) and with the cars passing by they began to sync up with the track, it honestly had me start tripping!

It seems it was produced for the small speaker sound, but I'm a ghetto-blasting Angeleno fo life ;)

Speaking of Nirvana, the production of Nevermind really is an overkill in polishing their sound. I like to think that Butch Vig tried to purge the shame with his lo-fi turn in producing EJSTNS.

Wow, we REALLY disagree. I've said it before and I'll say it again, based on the work he did on Sleater-Kinney's "The Woods", I think Sonic Youth should bring in Dave Fridmann to produce their new platter [if there IS one]. I LOVE the way that record sounds...live, raw, blown, and about to come off the tracks at any moment [see the jam section of 'Jumpers']. If Fridmann could capture SY's live energy on record it would simply be amazing.

"'Wilderness' and most of 'What's Mine Is Yours' sound like prime Sleater-Kinney, as does much of the rest of The Woods. Fridmann's presence is far from disruptive; you can hardly hear him in the mix, except for a little sludge in the low end-- a nice substitution for a bass player. Instead of weighing them down with single-mic'd Flaming Lips drums or Delgados density, he simply steps out of the way and allows them to sound larger, louder, and looser."

Allow me to submit to you evidence of my opinion regarding Rid of Me versus 4-Track Demos. Just take a listen to the 4-Track Demos version of "Yuri G" and compare/contrast it to the Rid of Me version:

4-Track Demos "Yuri G" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKoyFZKVJR4

Rid of Me "Yuri G" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHI0Pnac91U

Now you tell me which version is more alive and vital. Face it, Albini blew it.

I face nothing.

I think both versions have their own charms. Thankfully we live in a world where I don't have to pick one over the other.

---

To each their own regarding THE WOODS.

All I can say is when I first got it, I thought I had recieved a damaged disc. I considered writing to the lable until I read a few reviews and learned that the awful, sucky, shitty, poopy, pissy sound was diliberate.

I agree, I also thought my first copy was defective (it was a download) until I bought a legit copy and found the same troubles.

^

Dude, let's hook up, find the master tape, steal it and see what we can salvage.

You down?

Or we could wait a decade for them to re-master and re-release it like Carrie did on her NPR blog back in 2009 for the extended cuts that weren't released on The Spells Age of Backwards original EP ;)

The sound on The Woods is deliberate. If you can't even get that, you are morons of the highest order.

Oh, we've already conceded it was intentional, however that doesn't negate how intentionally crappy it is.. There is a world of difference between a low-fi sound and pure shit mixing

Oh, I see!

I just thought there was something wrong with the studio's control board.

Never mind. THE WOODS sounds great.

i'm down with the woods

but rid of me and in utero are great albums that sound stupid as hell

PJ Harvey's words..."4-Track Demos...was partly encouraged by Steve Albini. He loved the demos for that album so much he thought they should be out there and I tended to agree with him."

THANK GOD AND THANK PJ!!

^ So releasing the 4-tracks was Albini's idea?

Can we now admit he's a genius?

i love Albini
i love the way Rid of Me sounds. Pod might be my favourite album ever

they're recorded really quiet but they sound fucking immense

I think that we did, and for those hating I think they are admitting it by default ;)

Sister...

*Runs away*

I'm very surprised nobody mentioned Raw Power yet!




Who in the hell had the awesome idea to record Ron Asheton's bass and James Williamson loud ass guitar on the same track? (probably super coked out David Bowie) This made the bass pretty nonexistent in the louder songs. Despite all this, it's one of my favorite albums ever. The reissue did make it sound better.. but there were mistakes made here that couldn't be repaired.

I agree. I LOVE the tunes from Sister, but I by no coincidence do not own it, I didn't dig the production either. Of course, I also have Screaming Fields of Sonic Love and the rest of those tunes on various bootlegs ;)

Washing Machine, 1000 Leaves and Sonic Nurse are not only the best produced Sonic Youth albums, but indeed some of the best ever recorded and produced!