Circa Survive - The Amulet (September 22, 2017) Album • Page 127

Yeah, super awesome recording of it too.

Not sure why it was taken down though! Was in the vein of all their tour docs.

 

Never tell a soul really goes off. Definitely my favorite on the album

 

Turns out this song has actually taken me the longest to find out that it is one of my favorites on the album. The whole record is such a grower and will probably age the best for me. The funny thing about Circa - I think their albums are so accessible. I don’t really find their early stuff to be mediocre and all of their newer stuff progressed to The Amulet with grace, even Violent Waves. There is a solid direction this band is taking and it helps that they seem to be so positive about life and being honest about themselves. Love them for the music and outlook on life.

 

I have only 2 problems with this record. It's muddy and that makes me not always into it, and I listened to it a lot at an unhappy time so it makes me feel pretty low. Maybe I'll just step back from it for a while.

 

The solution to that is to just be unhappy all the time so nothing stands out. That’s what I do so I can guarantee it works.

 

I don't get this being muddy at all. It's the clearest sounding Circa record to me.

 

after a while being sad feels good!

 

There's a good amount of sad to be and a good type of sad needed to stay alert and feeling, this was a different type

 

Second time today a thread has gotten pretty dark

 

I'm legit sad every day

 

this album takes me back to a real nightmare of a time in my life but I still bump it because it's cathartic to work through those emotions and memories

 

BSN is that kind of album for me. Came out during a time when I may have begun to struggle with depression, question my faith, and think of how little I wanted to be in this world

 

how in the world...

 

I don't see any way someone could object to describing this record as muddy. It's a new low in muddiness, even in a catalog that's been consistently marred by subpar production. OLG was kind of muddy, but not this bad.

 

Yeah I really think this is the best sounding circa record. Is that weird?

 

no circa record has particularly great production but this record doesn't sound bad at all. there's a little mud sure but it doesn't negatively impact it whatsoever, the tones are fantastic and the leads and Anthony's vocals sound pristine. It's the rhythm section that gets lost every now and then but again it's not even remotely a destroment and I'm honestly sick of people on this website harping on production that's entirely inoffensive, I've seen it happen like ten times in the last day across multiple albums that don't warrant these extreme responses to production. This isn't Hebrews or some shit we're talking about here

 

I like the production. Its not perfect. But I genuinely like how the guitars sound and their space.

Its head and heels better than their production has been in 10 years imo. Esp with Yip. Thats night and day.

 

The crucial flaw for me on Amulet is that the high end is *extremely* rolled off, which I'm pretty sensitive to. If you ignore that aspect or just EQ it to compensate, I agree -- the production is mediocre and inoffensive.

I still prefer Descensus production among the Yip Circa records (that's no great praise, though).

 

Atmosphere is inherently muddy, reverb smears sounds together. It's part of the aesthetic for a band like circa that's really focused on creating a space for these songs to live in. A dry record with extreme clarity just wouldn't work for this band

 

I honestly don't like the descensus production because there's too much high end so we may just have opposite preferences

 

I’m no production expert and I won’t claim to be, but I’ve never once listened to this album and thought “damn this is muddy.” I understand that the production could be better, but I genuinely don’t understand what some people are hearing.

 

Funny enough Ive thought this whole time there were some high frequencies in spots on Amulet that might should have been tamed. In places on on Stay and Tunnel V. Im very happy with the aesthetic of the album though and the production bolsters that. Does pretty close to exactly what it needed to do for the melodies.

Descensus easily has their worst production imo

And BSN sounds very dry by comparison to their whole discog, esp Ants vocals on it.

 

BSN isn't dry as a whole though but the extremely poor mastering job ruins any sense of depth the mixes had

 

So muddiness is the result of a lot of low-mid frequencies occurring at the same time. Drums, bass, the lower end of vocals, the lower end of guitars, all take up this space and when they're stacked on top of each other with no differentiation things get muddy. Reverb adds to this because as I said it smears these sounds together but that's kind of the point. Mushiness in itself isn't something to be avoided if you're going for a certain sound, but it can be overdone which Yip has been known to do (see: keep you)

 

I meant that muddiness fatigues me on albums in a way, not that I'm complaining about the production. This is one of their better sounding records. Idk if I like the sound over Descensus tho