has anyone here listened to it much.. I only just heard it..

I'm pretty shocked.. I've always liked thursday musicaly.. and their last album did have a cool character to it at times.. but they've always been a little lacking productionwise in my opinion..

anyway.. I heard Dave Fridman was producing it.. and while I don't know many albums he's done.. the ones I do know were fairly well produced..

well.. I'd have to say this album is well ummm less than ideal? To my ears it sounds like it's had some pretty damn extreme clipping done over the whole thing (including the quiet parts).. though.. having said that.. it's not actualy the loudest album I've ever heard.. my only explanation is that they purposely went for this sound..

I have always seen David F. as a 'vibe' guy, rather than a "hi-fi" or "technically proper" type.

I think he did a terrific job on this record.

It is bold and focused and utterly uncompromising in approach.

Something this band needed to do at this point in their career, IMHO.

I hope they sell a zillion.

Best regards,

SM.

So it's like a "Feldman" production?
Tim

funny, i just made a post about this in the "what albums would you remix" thread. i was greatly dissapointed. it's almost like they said "hey, lets use every effect we have in this studio, and lets use it too much"

i was so shocked when I heard it...I've never been a huge fan but have one of their previous albums. I found the vocals to be mixed unbelievably low and the pumping throughout to be very worrying, even in these 'loudness war' days

....the new thursday album, imho, is their best sounding one for sure.........i always thought their other releases sound a little "clinically" .

Example: "standing on the edge of summer", i really like the tune, those drums i dont like thouheh



cheers

i'm not sure that it's a production issue...i think it might be the bands fault. IMHO, it's all very disappointing material and that's the main reason why i don't like the album. the music was fine for their early albums but the band needs to change a lot in order to impress me... that singer needs to learn how to ACTUALLY sing, and they need to write better material! the one area that i think the band has been very impressive lately is in their live show!

I haven't heard the record yet...just the last 30 seconds of the single a few times on the radio so I'm not gonna comment on whether the whole record is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or whatever but I dug what I heard.

It's not my place to do that kind of thing anyway...I wasn't there...nor was anyone else and so really, we have ZERO idea as to what actually happened in the sessions, what the band was sounding like coming off the tracking room floor or what their vision for the record was.

But from where I sit there's been some utterly fukkin' perturbing recent trend here on GS recently of people trashing records & taking what amount to cheap digs & potshots while doing the "Monday morning quarterback" routine on whatever record.

The threads on the new Tool record & RHCP are stunning examples of that mob mentality and this looks like it could be another one in the making.

It's one thing to talk about and discuss a record...but to start all that "I could've done better" and "what were they thinking 'cause that's lame" **** is just plain STUPID and makes ya'll (anyone who's spewing that kinda junk) look like an idjit who never progressed out of the back bedroom.

And really...THAT'S about as lame as you could get.

Maybe the bands, producers, labels & all the other parties involved with the record(s) are 110% happy with the fruits of their labor...if they weren't happy then they probably wouldn't have released the record in some ****-state just to do it now would they?!?

Peace,

I was always impressed with thier drums in the past (maybe it's that ayotte kit w/ maple rims all around) and despite the fact that that guy is aalways off pitch, I think the vocals have a sense of emotion and just a "sound" that's really unique also... but a friend of mine played this record for me several weeks ago and I agree with most here. I thought it sounded clicky and pumpy and just uncomfortable to listen to. But they've never been a band that sounds great on record. I've heard some of their older recordings and those were terrible. They did come out with a unique sound though.

Wow. I have been wondering if this was going to be a topic on here.
I honestly have to say that I think this is their worst release yet. Full Collapse was great. War All of the Time was pretty darn good. The songs on this new album I really do not care for all that much. Add on top that everything above like 7kHz is severly distorted and the bass guitar is twice as loud as the lead vocals.

I have been rather dissapointed. People need to lay off of the L2 plugin a little.

Jay Kahrs - Well said. It's pretty unprofessional to go around trashing people's work in a public form. It's a small world and chances are you may bump into these people at some point...

- Greg

a 5 song "demo" for this album leaked about a year ago and is easily my favorite thursday material. sounds completely unmixed and dull, yet somehow seems to destroy anything else they're put out. it proves that the band can still write good songs, but somewhere in the production process they try to take it overboard and throw as much feedback and distortion and synths and vocal layers as they possibly can.
the version of "autumn leaves revisited" thats on the demo blows the city divided one out of the water.

nobody in this thread is really trashing anything, as a matter of fact it seems like more people like it then don't? i'm sure you could find much worse on some thursday message board any day of the week.

I really liked Full Collapse and loved War All The Time (heck, I even liked thir low budget first realease from 98) but the new album was really off both songwriting and production wise. I didn't like the sound at all and I didn't listen to it over and over like I did the last album. Part of the problem is the music, it seems they changed their sound, but not in a very good direction. The arrangements and the mixing are also very cluttered. I hope their next release is better.

+2 on what Jay Kahrs said..


Thanks for getting to the heart of it.

Everybody's got these subjective, pre-conceived notions about what sounds "good", or how they "like the drums to sound". How ridiculous.

Eff it.

So the cymbals sound like hyper-compressed trashcan lids? So what? You think Fridmann's deaf? Ever listen to Soft Bulletin? That stuff is positively wacky, and it's genius.

Hell, I guess I'd want the RMS levels to be down another 3dB, but that's, like, every record I've bought in the last month, save Donald Fagen's The Nitefly.

agreed. when those demos came out, i was soooo pumped. they were dry and pretty much unmixed, but the actual music itself was great. they made a lot off changes in this record for the worse, IMO.

and about trashing the record, its just opinions. so a lot of people thought the band and producer could have done a much better job. we're not ganging up on anyone. we jsut all happen to agree that we dont like the sound. the one thing i ALWAYS keep in mind about the music industry, is EVERYTHING is subjective. there is not right and wrong. everything is an opinion. albums sell by what the listener likes, and we're all listeners who happen to have the same opinion on this record. to say that we could do better just means that in our heads, we know we can do what we want to make it sound more pleasing to us. i would have used less effects, for starters. would that make it better overall? i dont know. would i enjoy it more? yes.

Your avatar looks like a penis.

this is more than simple distortion on the mixbuss....i am listening to the new thursday release right now.......Fidmann really is a Genius...............maybe the guys at sterling took it too far on this one......

I havent heard the new record, but I dont think thursday has ever had a stellar recording. It goes with the vibe of the band.

I think with a cleaner more polished recording you'd hear the band doesnt offer much for songs. I wouldnt want to hear the singer super autotuned and everything gridded out, because their songs arent catchy enough, instead I'd rather hear a cool vibe and think it was a little lo fi.

Then again I havent heard the new one...

yes it does.

i totally agree!

ive been a thursday fan since full collapse--i love almost all of the songs on the new thursday cd, but i just cant stand the production! i cant listen to more than a few songs on the cd in a row before i have to turn it off.... its ridiculous!

i understand having a new cd have a different sound or whatever, but... making it so its hard to listen to...?? im sorry i was really disappointed in it.

This thread has been going for a while but I am chiming in since I have been trying to listen to the record a lot this wek. I agree with Jay about GS getting silly about bashing records, but I think this record is worth discussing.

Who ever made the decisions, it was an interesting set of them. The fact that a very talented and successful producer teams up with a great major label melodic rock band and the decision is made to mix and master the record like a late 90s Norwegian Black Metal record is kind of fascinating. The record is completely brutal sounding. It sounds almost like there is L1 on every channel. I assume they had and OK budget and all the decisions were intentional.

I am all for artists and producers making daring decisions, but unfortunately for my tastes I can not listen to more than 3 songs in a row, even quietly in the car because of the ear fatigue and I can not listen to more than a couple minutes on good studio monitors. It just hurts. I love the band, and dig the performances and all the parts and arrangements, I am just really curious why they went for the black metal mix and master. This is one of the most sonicly agressive records I own, and I own lots of black metal.

I dont believe he was calling it genius...he said he couldnt listen to it for more than 3 minutes at a time...thats not genius.

And I believe he means brutal as in the overheads on that cd will kill your hearing for high frequencies.


perhaps this is why they are currently not signed?