The Chorus.fm Music League Thread • Page 44

I loved letlive in college. I think a lot of that record feels kind of corny to me in hindsight, but it's still fun to revisit those songs.

 

Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes.

 

You really cannot go wrong with the run of albums that starts with '92's Propeller and '04's Half Smiles of the Decomposed, which ended their original run.

They were incredibly prolific - even the Ric Ocasek produced Do The Collapse has some SERIOUS gems on it - that was the album that most of their fans panned because it was actually WELL produced. Lol.

But yeah Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes are the most common starting points. Enjoy!

 

LOL I was thinking perhaps this was the 'reason' they were going for when I listened to it.

Like - "OH - all rock is over-produced and compressed, etc - let's just make it sounds like 4 or 5 guys playing in a room together." But then get it ALL wrong.

That being said - can I please have a few other letlive. song suggestions to listen to so I can compare them to the 2 that are on this playlist??

 

I was surprised not to see any late-era Foxy Shazam on there, but I guess the production doesn’t matter if the songs aren’t good either.

 

Great call, but also great point. There's a few good ones in the muck but I don't know them by name without revisiting all the albums

 

I considered putting something from GONZO on there, that album is full of great songs, but I think the production on that album is 100% purposeful.

 

My other thought was something from the second Nightmare of You album, but I don't know by heart which songs are the best ones and it felt like maybe too niche of a pick

 

I agree, but why? I never quite figured that one out.

 

I was trying to figure out a song from Take The Sadness Out Of Saturday Night, but I ultimately decided that the songs I actually love from that record are the ones that don't sound actively bad.

I was really mad I didn't think of "Mending Song," since that's the one I've actually complained about the most haha

 

I will always defend that album other than the inconsistent volume levels and the last two songs.

 

Yeah, I don't think anything on that Bleachers album sounds bad on its own, but the massive jumps from song to song make the album sound kind of bad or at least weird to listen to.

 

From what I recall around the time it was released, it was in part a reaction to their previous records and how "overproduced" they felt to the band (or at least to Eric) especially because they wrote and recorded them separately as band members, some in England and some in the US. The other part of it was that this was a much more personal record, lyrically, to Eric and about his dad and his relationship to his dad and he wanted it to have the raw and unfiltered feel of the emotions he was putting into the lyrics.

Personally, I love that record, it's my second favorite of theirs behind the self-titled.

 

I appreciate you writing such a detailed response!

When Gonzo came out, I was still young enough that I gave more time to albums that may need to grow on me. Because of that, I definitely have found things to enjoy in it, but I still feel that it’s a case of a band drastically misunderstanding what made them appealing in the first place.

I also think the choice to swap the guitar and bass players was an odd one. It results in some unique riffs like Poem Pathetic, but holds back songs like Brutal Truth and Have The Fun, imo.

 

Most of these don't sound poorly produced to me haha

A lot of great tracks on this playlist

 

My post about subjectivity has come back to haunt this thread.

 

Not exactly an answer to why, but I when I interviewed Daisy (oof) around the time of release, I remember asking if they went with Albini for a reason and he was kind of flippant about the fact that Albini would just come in, hit record, and read the newspaper or something.

 

Yeah, part of why I didn’t pick it was because I go so back and forth on it. Some days I think it sounds muddled and one dimensional, but other days I think Will was actually kinda cooking. It really depends on the song too

 

That fuckin sucks. I can’t imagine paying whatever they did just to get that treatment. I know some bands have had the same issue with Rick Rubin.

 

Totally agree on your last point. An interesting experiment for sure, and could have worked for a few songs, but to do it on the whole record was a little much.

On the other part, I think they understood exactly what made them appealing and were kind of rebelling against that with the record, for better and for worse.

From what I remember reading around that time, probably from Eric, was that they chose Albini exactly for that reason. He could help them setup the room, get the sound they wanted, and then would just hit record and wouldn't mess with things too much, talk them into doing pitch correction, overdubs, and other studio "trickery", he would just let the recording be the recording.

 

This has so far wound up being a huge cornerstone of my voting method. Less a question of whether or not I like song or how it sounds, and more specifically a lot of me asking myself “Would I actually like this song more if it were produced differently?”

 

Two Letlive. songs and from the same album?! For shame

Also, did someone really post a demo? lmao

 

Guess what? I really don’t like letlive apparently lol

 

The demo sounds bad! This is a bad category what do you want from me!