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General Vanessa Carlton Discussion / Mini review of the album
« on: May 28, 2011, 03:42:35 am »
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.
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
I found a mini review of the album, thought you guys might wanted to check it out.
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