Savage Playground.... About the production

I finally recevied my cd yesterday and listened a few times then and then again a few times today.
My following comments don't relate so much about the songs on the album but more the production qualities, and i'm just wondering what all your thoughts are... yes, even yours LONDON.
Maybe i look to much into this sorta stuff, but i;m just wondering what others think, or if they have thought about this at all.

Before reading my comments please note that i haven't been reading any reviews, hardly any interviews, haven';t downloaded any tracks ... the first spin was my definite first listen. I wanted it to be a total surprise and virginal experience.

I also dont' want the following comments to be taken negative, cos after all i'm not sure what the intention of the band was in regards to the production, but soon after putting the cd on the first thing that jumped out at me was the production. I had to check that someone hadn't been playing around with the settings on my stereo, becasue it was definitely not what i was expecting.

I'm not sure if it's my ears or just my cd but to me the dynamic range and clarity of the album seems very low.
Distinguishing between instruments sometimes seems very difficult, like there is a tidal wave of sound coming at me but through a think fog. I'm not really sure how to explain it, but i thought the prodcution would have been a bit more crisp and definded.

I know sleaze can sometimes benefit from a dirty sound but i feel this is different. I am wondering if the album has suffered from excessive compression that some modern producers like to enforce these days.

To me, the top end of the sound seems to be missing (ie cymbals, rides, high hats in the drumming), to the point where i want to raise the treble level, but then when i do this the guitars and vocals become distorted and too high and grating.

Now i dont expect a band like crashdiet to have the pure production of someone like chrils laney, or sound like a HEAT album, as i dont think that sound would suit them, but at times i find the production detracting from the album. Sometime si'm getitng the feeling i'm listening to an analogue recording from the early 80s.

Keen to know all your thoughts, or whether you think i am just imagining things.
... and LONDON, i'd be interested to know if these were the prodcution values you guys were after, of this was more driven by the production team.

As metioned, I'm not trying to be critical or negative but just really interested to knwo a bit more about the aim of the production, and the opinions of others.... so please be gentle with me.

I agree with what you say. Which is why I said also that I am split about the production, with the difference that I usually don't give a wet shit about production.

I am split, because I get this "compressed" feeling aswell, and I don't like it. But I appreciate the spntanious, and not too "thick" sounding way it's recorded, so thats what I like, therefore split.


but yeah, I don't know. production is like the last thing I judge about an album so.. I don't really care at all haha

Actually, I thought it was just me. I totally agree. The first thing I checked was all my cables on the stereo. When you turn the record louder, you get all those inputs from all the instruments. The drums sometimes seemed to be too high mixed, I don´t know. But otherwise you kinda become pretty crazy if you have too much to do with somethink like the perfect sound. And you listen to a result over and over again, and it never really suits. It´s like the sound on stage, but it´s much harder with mixing a record. The producer shows you the result and you think "It´s already mastered?", but yeah, something is kinda missing, although the album is amazing. After a while you habituate to the sound, but my first expression was, the mids (fuck, I don´t know the right word in english) are not mixed up that well.

Agree here too. Sometimes, especially on some songs and different bits it's a bit annoying. It's like certain things get hidden behind other noises and stuff.
Basically, sometimes I think it sounds a bit too "dirty" or well "bad quality" like.

I would also like to know what someone like Peter thinks about it all

Hmmm... i defenitly agree with all of you... everything i was thinkin about the album is already writin above...

I agree.
Was hoping for a more greasy production.

Wow... I thought I would be shot down for posting that but glad to see I'm not the only one who sees a few issues with the production.

I'm not intending it to be a put down of the album but just something I wanted to raise. After all, it coulda been the sound the band were aiming for, just not what some of us were expecting.

Gen wild, and even the ep that billion dollar babies released last year, showed us that sleaze can be successful with a slick and dynamic production, but it seems the production team has gone with a production style more consistant with some dirty punk or early 80s metal, or even that or a live studio session.

I think all of these previous comments have summed up my thoughts and questions to the t..

The production is definitely different. I'm stuck wondering if this is because of the guys desire and deliberate want for the dirty sleazy sound or if it is just a by product of new production techniques. Everything just sounds kind of muddy. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has a concern or comment about it. I'm all for rough and raw sounding sleazy songs, but to me this just has a different sound. Not a necessarily bad sound but a different sound. It is one of the few times that I have actually cared enough about the song quality of an mp3 to desire the actual cd to have a better sounding product.

i am curious about how it wil sound on vinyl.

mrs v. viper wrote: i am curious about how it wil sound on vinyl.

I'm really excited to hear this as well

The production of the album interests me as well, I know they wanted to do a raw sounding album and I hear that in the instruments but as for all the big vocals and other stuff it's almost like a big production album. They bridged a gap here that I haven't heard before it's a great album and I think the production sometimes adds a bit of a mystique to the sound...

Of course I might be the only one thinking this way...

I think that as usual we get hear demos soon and their demos rocks too!