Amazing Albums (With Bad Production) and Vice Versa...

Aichuk · 12-12-2013, 06:18 AM

Amazing albums that would a masterpiece if the music production was better. And also, bad albums that are enjoyable mainly due to the great production work.

Keep in mind the time the album was released. You can't expect 1910's album to have amazing production compared a 2000's album. So basically keep your choices relative to their time.

LoathsomePete · 12-12-2013, 06:49 AM

First album where I really noticed the horrible production was Metallica's ... And Justice for All where it was just so muddled I really had a hard time listening to it all the way through. Besides "One" and "Harvaster of Sorrow" I really can't stand that one, but I think enough people still consider it to be a classic that it doesn't really matter to them.

I've also heard from other people who disliked Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city that the production was good enough to warrant a few more listens, and I do recall enjoying that aspect more than the lyrics, but not enough to make up for the disappointment I felt.

Taxman · 12-12-2013, 08:13 AM

Guides By Voices- Bee Thousand. A great album anyway but it would be one of the best from nineties if it was produced at all. I know the lo-fi thing is the main point but still..

**Frownland** · 12-12-2013, 12:32 PM

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band's "Trout Mask Replica" is atrociously produced, and Frank Zappa can make a great sounding album as producer, so it could be intentional. To be honest, it does fit the music and it's hard for me to imagine it being made in any other way.

Ninetales · 12-12-2013, 02:21 PM

dat production.

Theres quite a few black metal bands/albums that sound they were recorded in a warehouse or some shhit. Adds to the effect and I like it tbh

Screen13 · 12-19-2013, 05:50 PM

One of my choices is not an "Amazing Album", but I will give Humble Pie's Eat It a shout here. Possibly the most expressive of their albums, although not definitive like Performance: Rocking the Fillmore or Smokin', it had four sides of their world: 1) The Rocking, 2) The Blues/Soul, 3) The Acoustic (Returning to the Town and Country era), and 4) Live Pie. After nice two song start-up, the album was seriously marred on the first album on several tracks with Steve Marriott's vocal being on one speaker resulting in a bad time for headphone listeners - this list includes Is It for Love, Drugstore Cowboy, Black Coffee (The US single, I think) plus most of the rest of Side Two. True, Pie albums were meant to be blasted enough to break leases, but this left one of Rock's greatest voices very buried under in the mix at times although it blends in a charm when the Blackberries back up - at that time they were sometimes seen as an actual part of the group and rightfully so.

Even by the standards of the day, the first album has a slightly muddy mix that sometimes has the Bass a little too high for the music (although with me, it just could be the headphones which rock but enhances the Bass levels), possibly by not having enough time to properly mix the mega dose of songs, maybe by Marriott's ears failing under trying to achieve an epic while forgetting the intimacy that won them fans, maybe it's drugs, maybe all of the above, and album two showed more extremes on Side Four. Thankfully, Side Three actually works all the way and sounds focused, possibly suggesting that Marriott should have took this route again as their next album, Thunderbox, was a worryingly listless and not so inspired album, as the well-traveled band needed a rest with the laid back style of songs like Say No More and Beckton Dumps fitting. Sadly, the badly recorded concert on Side Four recorded in Glasgow featured a singer that sounded like that all of his earnings went up the nose - on a great night, Steve Marriott had the power of a classic Soul shouter, on Eat It's Side Four, he sounds like a rabid granny who formed a tribute band after hearing Rocking the Fillmore...ie a parody of what the Pie could be on stage although the harmonica driven jam on "Roadrunner" was nice. Production-wise, it sounded that not enough care was put into the recording or that the venue was not right for such an event highlighting at their faults by that time...whatever the case, it was a pretty sad side.

What could have been Humble Pie's double epic turned into their falling from grace that could have been saved, but sadly it was not to be. Some great songs and attempts at actually once more opening up their music beyond the Boogie that made them in The US had a sorry production on most of it.

12-12-2013, 06:18 AM	#1 (permalink)
Aichuk Music Addict Join Date: Sep 2013 Posts: 91	Amazing Albums (With Bad Production) and Vice Versa... Amazing albums that would a masterpiece if the music production was better. And also, bad albums that are enjoyable mainly due to the great production work. Keep in mind the time the album was released. You can't expect 1910's album to have amazing production compared a 2000's album. So basically keep your choices relative to their time.

12-12-2013, 06:49 AM	#2 (permalink)
LoathsomePete Cardboard Box Realtor Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Hobb's End Posts: 7,648	First album where I really noticed the horrible production was Metallica's ... And Justice for All where it was just so muddled I really had a hard time listening to it all the way through. Besides "One" and "Harvaster of Sorrow" I really can't stand that one, but I think enough people still consider it to be a classic that it doesn't really matter to them. I've also heard from other people who disliked Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city that the production was good enough to warrant a few more listens, and I do recall enjoying that aspect more than the lyrics, but not enough to make up for the disappointment I felt. __________________ Last.FM 101 Albums That May Not Change Your Life, But I Really Like And You Might Too

12-12-2013, 12:32 PM	#4 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,541	Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band's "Trout Mask Replica" is atrociously produced, and Frank Zappa can make a great sounding album as producer, so it could be intentional. To be honest, it does fit the music and it's hard for me to imagine it being made in any other way. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

12-12-2013, 08:13 AM	#3 (permalink)
Taxman watching the wheels Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Finland Posts: 470	Guides By Voices- Bee Thousand. A great album anyway but it would be one of the best from nineties if it was produced at all. I know the lo-fi thing is the main point but still..

12-12-2013, 02:21 PM	#5 (permalink)
Ninetales Music Addict Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: livin wild Posts: 2,179	dat production. Theres quite a few black metal bands/albums that sound they were recorded in a warehouse or some shhit. Adds to the effect and I like it tbh

12-19-2013, 05:50 PM	#6 (permalink)
Screen13 Music Addict Join Date: Jan 2010 Posts: 1,388	One of my choices is not an "Amazing Album", but I will give Humble Pie's Eat It a shout here. Possibly the most expressive of their albums, although not definitive like Performance: Rocking the Fillmore or Smokin', it had four sides of their world: 1) The Rocking, 2) The Blues/Soul, 3) The Acoustic (Returning to the Town and Country era), and 4) Live Pie. After nice two song start-up, the album was seriously marred on the first album on several tracks with Steve Marriott's vocal being on one speaker resulting in a bad time for headphone listeners - this list includes Is It for Love, Drugstore Cowboy, Black Coffee (The US single, I think) plus most of the rest of Side Two. True, Pie albums were meant to be blasted enough to break leases, but this left one of Rock's greatest voices very buried under in the mix at times although it blends in a charm when the Blackberries back up - at that time they were sometimes seen as an actual part of the group and rightfully so. Even by the standards of the day, the first album has a slightly muddy mix that sometimes has the Bass a little too high for the music (although with me, it just could be the headphones which rock but enhances the Bass levels), possibly by not having enough time to properly mix the mega dose of songs, maybe by Marriott's ears failing under trying to achieve an epic while forgetting the intimacy that won them fans, maybe it's drugs, maybe all of the above, and album two showed more extremes on Side Four. Thankfully, Side Three actually works all the way and sounds focused, possibly suggesting that Marriott should have took this route again as their next album, Thunderbox, was a worryingly listless and not so inspired album, as the well-traveled band needed a rest with the laid back style of songs like Say No More and Beckton Dumps fitting. Sadly, the badly recorded concert on Side Four recorded in Glasgow featured a singer that sounded like that all of his earnings went up the nose - on a great night, Steve Marriott had the power of a classic Soul shouter, on Eat It's Side Four, he sounds like a rabid granny who formed a tribute band after hearing Rocking the Fillmore...ie a parody of what the Pie could be on stage although the harmonica driven jam on "Roadrunner" was nice. Production-wise, it sounded that not enough care was put into the recording or that the venue was not right for such an event highlighting at their faults by that time...whatever the case, it was a pretty sad side. What could have been Humble Pie's double epic turned into their falling from grace that could have been saved, but sadly it was not to be. Some great songs and attempts at actually once more opening up their music beyond the Boogie that made them in The US had a sorry production on most of it.