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Vanessa Carlton => General Vanessa Carlton Discussion => Topic started by: fantastical on May 28, 2011, 03:42:35 am
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Hi, I've been a longtime lurker on here.
I found a mini review of the album, thought you guys might wanted to check it out.
(http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4843/nessazd.jpg)
Ok, mini-review of the disc. I've listened to it for the past two days. It's been a rough disc. It definitely doesn't grab you straight away. It has a very dreamy sound throughout the CD, and is very analog sounding, and I'm not sure that's a good thing...it definitely deters from the disc at first, but I've partially grown to the sound. On some tracks I just want to crank the treble up to be able to "hear", but I've not and listened to it as-is.
I Don't Want To Be A Bride - one of the 'hits' on this disc. It incorporates a great mix of drums, acoustics, and the children's choir. The analog sound on this track works great!
London - this song sounds like it's been recorded ocean side, (probably just the analog hiss however), and opens very slowly, with a great build up to the chorus. One of my favorites on the cd.
Fairweather Friend - the best produced track on the disc in my opinion. The layers sound natural and the vocals are clear through, and she incorporates the children's choir in this one again.
Hear The Bells - a dark and haunting song. It sounds straight out of a 70s-ish science fiction movie (perhaps). Lots of echo going on. The piano sounds like it was recorded in a large hall, and there are lots of layers of instruments and vocals. Overall, I like this song, it's unique and reminds of a trip on acid (not that I've ever done that -- but I think the song might be good to trip to if you're into that)
Dear California - I love the grungy muddy plugged guitar in this one, along with the uppity drum beat. It's a catchy tune that oozes 70s era. Some cool layers with vocals and instruments that really spread across the "stereo" spectrum.
Tall Tales For Spring - this sounds most like the old Vanessa to me, I would compare it to a song like Prince, piano driven, with a good drum beat in the background. Production on this one is great too, with clear vocals, almost no analog hiss. It also does have it's dreamy sounding parts with echoes and layers too.
Get Good - decent track, very melancholy.... though not one of my favorites. This might work better live in concert.
The Marching Line - this track is used in the making of video. Very mono sounding, but I kind of like it. Again, it has the dreamy sci-fi bridges, and it sounds very rough cut and demo-like.
In The End - definitely my least favorite song. I love the way it starts with some awesome strings, but then......it's downfall begins. The press kit didn't include any lyrics to any of the songs and the lyrics are very hard to understand since they are buried beneath a piano and string arrangement with heavy reverb with more than a dash of analog distortion/flatness. This song sounds like it was randomly thrown on the CD as a filler and was recorded with a Playskool tape recorder. I guess it's an interesting way to end an interesting disc. If it had a bit more production value, especially with the vocals, it might be a lot better.
Overall, this disc won't be for everyone, and I don't see any of the teeny-bopper "A Thousand Miles" fans jumping into it and loving it. It also ends with you wanting more. The disc only clocks in at 37min20secs.
Also, Amazon now lists the release date as July 26th.
http://www.alanismorissette.info/viewtopic.php?t=51449&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=45
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Wow.
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Jealous of that guy!
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fantastical - Thanks for sharing the review you found.
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Another one...
Next month, piano songstress Vanessa Carlton will return with her first album in four years, Rabbits on the Run. I was lucky enough to get an early listen to the album, and I can positively say that it is very, very good.
Completely self-financed by Vanessa herself, and recorded analog style on tape with producer Steve Osbourne (KT Tunstall, Peter Gabriel), Rabbits on the Run is the least-commercial and most organic sounding record of Carlton’s career. The piano-pop you’re used to from her can be heard again on the album’s lead single “Carousel”, but for the most part, Rabbits on the Run is far more abstract and atmospheric.
There’s a multitude of different styles on the album, but they’re all woven together to create one, cohesive body of work. The gorgeous “Dear California” sounds like a 1970s road trip condensed into a summery song, while “Tall Tales For Spring” contains one of the most enrapturing melodies Vanessa’s ever created. “Hear the Bells” is one of the album’s standouts, with haunting production and an eerie, ethereal vocal delivery.
The beautifully honest “I Don’t Want to be a Bride” is another shining moment, with Vanessa singing about not wanting to tie the knot (as you probably gathered from the title). “But I don’t wanna be a bride / apologies to your mother / I wanna be your girl / and spend this life with you / but I don’t wanna wear white / when you know it’s too late for that / but can we keep the ever after?”
The album’s ominous closing track “In the End” is just downright unsettling. Backed by a chilling orchestra and vintage keys, Carlton’s filtered vocals echoes through like something you’d hear in some kind of bad, lonely dream — it’s something you won’t understand until you actually hear it for yourself.
Rabbits on the Run marks a true evolution for Vanessa Carlton. She’s retained some of her old pop sensibilities, but overall the record really takes her sound into a whole new sphere — both vocally and sonically. Long time fans should appreciate the maturity and growth in her sound, but most of all, Rabbits has the opportunity to attract a whole new group of Carlton lovers, who may have previously found her old music too poppy.
Rabbits on the Run drops on June 21st through indie label Razor & Tie. Check out the music video for the album’s first single “Carousel” below.
http://www.theprophetblog.net/preview-vanessa-carlton-rabbits-on-the-run
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Very interesting : ). I think the first guy missed the point of In The End
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as most people miss the point of V herself.
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Wonder why they're all hatin' on In The End.. I think it sounds interesting.
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Haha. One review where the person really didn't like the album, and another who thought the album was great. HAha. I'm sure it's great. I love the songs I've already heard. :)
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Wonder why they're all hatin' on In The End.. I think it sounds interesting.
The second person said "unsettling" which I take as a compliment though! I think if you felt nothing then it would be an awful song. It seems to be one that will give us chills!
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Wonder why they're all hatin' on In The End.. I think it sounds interesting.
The second person said "unsettling" which I take as a compliment though! I think if you felt nothing then it would be an awful song. It seems to be one that will give us chills!
Exactly! Vanessas unsettling doesn't make it awful. Maybe it will be kinda like She Floats
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Wonder why they're all hatin' on In The End.. I think it sounds interesting.
The second person said "unsettling" which I take as a compliment though! I think if you felt nothing then it would be an awful song. It seems to be one that will give us chills!
Exactly! Vanessas unsettling doesn't make it awful. Maybe it will be kinda like She Floats
yea or the wreckage, which is morbid and beautiful!
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If it's anything like The Wreckage/She Floats, I'm sure I'll be a big fan of "In the End" :)
These reviews make me so excited for the album and at the sime time really bitter since we now have to wait another month.
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Wonder why they're all hatin' on In The End.. I think it sounds interesting.
The second person said "unsettling" which I take as a compliment though! I think if you felt nothing then it would be an awful song. It seems to be one that will give us chills!
Exactly! Vanessas unsettling doesn't make it awful. Maybe it will be kinda like She Floats
yea or the wreckage, which is morbid and beautiful!
Yeah... I think that's why they don't like In The End. Or at least, that's what they (meaning people who've already heard it) say in their review.
I think it's a dark song. After all, V mentioned that it was a slowed version of TTFS
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The first thing I thought when I see this was "great, a leak" but then I swa that was a review. I really need to hear the album now! waiting another month is not an option for me, I really need to hear this album XD
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Thanks for sharing - I want the album already!! Do we know who the lucky guy is, who got to listen to ROTR?!
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is very analog sounding, and I'm not sure that's a good thing...it definitely deters from the disc at first, but I've partially grown to the sound. On some tracks I just want to crank the treble up to be able to "hear"
analog hiss
very rough cut and demo-like
the lyrics are very hard to understand since they are buried beneath a piano and string arrangement with heavy reverb with more than a dash of analog distortion/flatness
recorded with a Playskool tape recorder
These comments are a bit concerning. But I don't hear any of this on 'Carousel'...?
Sarah xx
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Trust V.
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Maybe the vocals are supposed to be that way for that song.
And Vanessa said she wanted it to be like her early demo days of recording & what not so for someone saying it sounds "demo like", that isn't surprising to me.
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Hearing the sample tracks I don't think the first reviewer was too too far off track with his comments. Except on In the End, I feel like it'll be pretty majestic.
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Hearing the sample tracks I don't think the first reviewer was too too far off track with his comments. Except on In the End, I feel like it'll be pretty majestic.
I love the sound of it!! :)
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Judging from the new clips it does have that analog sound but I don't hear the issues the first reviwer complained about, they all sound pretty awesome :3
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Judging from the new clips it does have that analog sound but I don't hear the issues the first reviwer complained about, they all sound pretty awesome :3
Because you're listening to a 48kbps horrible quality mp3 sample. There's no detail in the samples.
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Judging from the new clips it does have that analog sound but I don't hear the issues the first reviwer complained about, they all sound pretty awesome :3
Because you're listening to a 48kbps horrible quality mp3 sample. There's no detail in the samples.
wouldn't that make them sound worse to us then?
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The low quality encoding on the amazon samples masks the details of the tracks.
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Judging from the new clips it does have that analog sound but I don't hear the issues the first reviwer complained about, they all sound pretty awesome :3
Because you're listening to a 48kbps horrible quality mp3 sample. There's no detail in the samples.
wouldn't that make them sound worse to us then?
That's what im thinking too... ???
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The low quality encoding on the amazon samples masks the details of the tracks.
ahh, that makes sense.
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Yikes. Let's pray and hope for the best. The tracks that stand out most to me are Bride, Dear California, The Marching Line, and In The End.
If the analog sound is as bad as the reviewer said, it would've been nice if Nessa recorded in regular studio quality for certain songs. I would really like to hear Bride as an upbeat pop track for radio (even though it's perfect as it is, but I'd still like to hear it played on mainstream stations if you know what I mean?)
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okay, that first review came from a person on alanis morrisette's website, and they are all very mean. I am almost in tears, my heart is pounding about some of the things people have said. I think we should all join just to cuss them out! i didn't write anything about how she is not what they say she is because I just can't find the words. maybe someone else could articulate better than I.
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okay, that first review came from a person on alanis morrisette's website, and they are all very mean. I am almost in tears, my heart is pounding about some of the things people have said. I think we should all join just to cuss them out! i didn't write anything about how she is not what they say she is because I just can't find the words. maybe someone else could articulate better than I.
How are we mean?
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You just have to remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion. We're here because we love and support her to no end. I don't care what anyone else's opinion is. Same goes with movies. I like to have my own. There is no sense in arguing with anyone, stay drama free. It was put out there, the word was spread over there. Those who want to hear will listen and buy the album or they won't.
Nh.com was built to avoid spammers, negativity etc. Let's keep it that way. They have their home to love AM (I love her too, btw) but it's best to stay out of it.
We all know V doesn't make music to be famous, she does it because she loves it.
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thanks for the words :) that's one reason I didn't respond right away because I knew the anger would pass and reason would come back to me. I like all sorts of music too, but I do get upset when people attack others on a personal level. Plus I'm very hot-headed at times (ask my husband, lol). I took a personal offense to it because I identify with Vanessa on a lot of things in her music and I can't understand why others don't! eh, just me being me which is not liking when others don't like and tear down what I love.
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just to clarify as well... I was joking when I said lets go cuss them out. Like I said, after the initial anger wore off, I'm reasonable enough to understand that people have different opinions. I was angered by someone saying she is a bitch. I was angered when people put down all three of her albums because I feel they are equally wonderful, but in their own unique ways. Someone said she has shown no growth, which is BULL honkey if you ask me. But that's just the thing, like you said eclv, we all have our own opinions, I just don't always appreciate when others don't agree with me hehehe ;D
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Yikes. Let's pray and hope for the best. The tracks that stand out most to me are Bride, Dear California, The Marching Line, and In The End.
If the analog sound is as bad as the reviewer said, it would've been nice if Nessa recorded in regular studio quality for certain songs. I would really like to hear Bride as an upbeat pop track for radio (even though it's perfect as it is, but I'd still like to hear it played on mainstream stations if you know what I mean?)
OK, to throw this topic back on track.
I'll add that it's not only the analog sound (which don't get me wrong, totally works on some tracks)...the quality of the songs differs from track to track. You'll go from crisp, clean vocal tracks on one song, to muddy and flat sounding vocals on the next track (and by flat I mean the way the vocals were processed/mixed -- not her singing). It just doesn't flow right. I wonder if they're doing some extra work on the disc before the release....I did notice the advance disc has slightly shorter run times on the songs....and In The End is almost 20 seconds shorter than the Amazon.co.uk listed length (although, who knows how accurate the Amazon.co.uk listing is)....
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Yikes. Let's pray and hope for the best. The tracks that stand out most to me are Bride, Dear California, The Marching Line, and In The End.
If the analog sound is as bad as the reviewer said, it would've been nice if Nessa recorded in regular studio quality for certain songs. I would really like to hear Bride as an upbeat pop track for radio (even though it's perfect as it is, but I'd still like to hear it played on mainstream stations if you know what I mean?)
OK, to throw this topic back on track.
I'll add that it's not only the analog sound (which don't get me wrong, totally works on some tracks)...the quality of the songs differs from track to track. You'll go from crisp, clean vocal tracks on one song, to muddy and flat sounding vocals on the next track (and by flat I mean the way the vocals were processed/mixed -- not her singing). It just doesn't flow right. I wonder if they're doing some extra work on the disc before the release....I did notice the advance disc has slightly shorter run times on the songs....and In The End is almost 20 seconds shorter than the Amazon.co.uk listed length (although, who knows how accurate the Amazon.co.uk listing is)....
i'm curious to know what you thought about "carousel."
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Just remember, there are ridiculous and rude people on EVERY website - I also belong to a Lady Gaga fansite, and Britney Spears fans used to come on our site and bash Gaga 24/7; and then we'd do it to them, and the cycle would continue. It's sooo not worth it: people should just stick to their artists and their sites and leave everyone else alone. I also met Vanessa for about .5 seconds, and she definitely wasn't a bitch; she said "hi" to me when she really wasn't obligated to at all (it was at the Ann Taylor mini-concert, RIGHT before she started playing) so whoever's calling her a bitch obviously doesn't know her and is just trying to rile people up. Regardless of the reason (maybe the person is jealous, maybe he/she's just a sociopath), it's not worth dignifying with any of your attention. We're better than that :)
Based on the samples we've heard, I think these mini-reviews are pretty solid. I mean, I enjoy hearing something a little different, but part of me is always going to wish songs like Bride and FWF received a more typical pop production.
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Just wanna add about the whole analog thing, when the previews for Carousel were out, it didn't sound like it was in a studio at all. But the iTunes version does.
Rabbits On The Run is going to be available for preorder on iTunes tomorrow still right? If so, maybe we'll get HQ previews!
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Just wanna add about the whole analog thing, when the previews for Carousel were out, it didn't sound like it was in a studio at all. But the iTunes version does.
Rabbits On The Run is going to be available for preorder on iTunes tomorrow still right? If so, maybe we'll get HQ previews!
tomorrow what?
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Just wanna add about the whole analog thing, when the previews for Carousel were out, it didn't sound like it was in a studio at all. But the iTunes version does.
Rabbits On The Run is going to be available for preorder on iTunes tomorrow still right? If so, maybe we'll get HQ previews!
That's definitely true, when I first heard the preview I thought it was too rough-sounding, but the iTunes version sounds very "clean." I assume this is the same case.
Where did you see that it would be available for pre-order tomorrow?
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I'm super pumped to listen to this on vinyl. I feel like that's how this album should always be listened to. I can just imagine listening to it, record going, sun drenched, loving the summer nights. That may have sounded really lame but that's what I think of, haha.
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If the analog sound is as bad as the reviewer said, it would've been nice if Nessa recorded in regular studio quality for certain songs. I would really like to hear Bride as an upbeat pop track for radio (even though it's perfect as it is, but I'd still like to hear it played on mainstream stations if you know what I mean?)
There's no such thing as "studio quality" or even "broadcast quality". Vanessa wanted to record onto tape, much like she probably did on C'est La Vie/Papa. She could have recorded anywhere she wanted, so obviously this was the sound she wanted, and it cost her more to do so. 2" wide analog tape was the standard for decades. People still record on tape, and then dump to Pro Tools or Nuendo or Cubase. I've worked with all of these formats and they do NOT sound the same. There are pluses and minuses using digital and analog, and yet they both sound great. There are dozens of things that make an album sound the way it does, from the mics to the room the instruments are recorded in to the mastering. An album can be messed up at any point, but these days, it's usually digitally squashed to death during mastering or even mixing.
Dan
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The low quality encoding on the amazon samples masks the details of the tracks.
That makes sense, but I remember thinking that the carousel preview on amazon sounded really grainy while the real one sounds nice...so if I stick by that logic then the songs will sound even better than they do on the previews? lolz
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Well from what i hear on the Amazon clips "In the End" sounds amazing... and creepy. It gave me a bizarre nightmare a slow acid-trippy like nightmare. But i love all the clips. And i was lucky enough to hear IDWBAB in Starbucks on the last day of school *.* hee hee hee
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I read somewhere that the preorder it would be available for preorder on iTunes on May 31st. Let me try and look it up.
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I guess I saw it on the website because that's where it's taking me on Google, but it doesn't show it anymore though.
If you want to see it on google though: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&source=hp&q=vanessa+carlton+itunes+preorder+may+31&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=9b40c92e3693f9d6&biw=1082&bih=699
If that doesn't work, google "Vanessa Carlton iTunes preorder May 31"