There are some really good licks in there guitar-wise, but the mix on this record sucks. On T.V. Eye The guitar is all the way to the left. The bass is always to the right, and it’s pretty crappy. The drums and vocals are almost exclusively panned left as well. If I were listening at a barbecue or some kind of sleep depravation clinic, maybe it wouldn’t make much of a difference, but the mix while listening on headphones is really distracting. Ultimately it just makes the guitar too quiet and the shitty bass too loud.
The moodiness on “Dirt” just doesn’t land. There’s something to be said for being sparse, but this just sounds empty. I don’t know what it’s supposed to evoke. It kind of makes me want to listen to the Doors…who really pull this kind of thing off. And again, the bass guitar sucks crud face.
1970 is a great Detroit sounding song…lots of guts…but the bass sucks when the guitar solo kicks in. They should have sax in every song.
There’s almost a pre-80’s non-hair metal thing going on here.
The last two tunes kill it pretty well, but on the whole, I won’t be going back to this. There’s better disjointed sloppy rock out there. MC5 for instance if you want to keep it in the same city.
Listening to Lambchop directly after this is like switching from a 300 thread count bed sheet to a 600 thread count bed sheet. You can sleep on both and do pretty well, but once you’ve felt the difference in a 600 thread count, you don’t ever want to go back. Now, that may be just because I am listening to these back to back. I think I do like this Lambchop record a lot. The instrumentation is quite sweet. I love the guitar and piano on the new cobweb summer. I like this dude’s voice too. A bit like Smog…and I like Smog better, but this is great too. Good Hammond B3 organ throughout. Okay, I’m listening more and I take back the Smog thing. I’m really liking the subtlety of this record.
Okay, I’m still listening and some of it’s kind of corny. Autumn’s Vicar is making me want to kick my dog because she’s about as cute as this song. Don’t worry, I won’t do it, but that’s how gross I think this song is. It’s like something I wrote it’s that bad. Okay, 45 seconds have passed and holy shit. What the hell is this? Who put this on their favorite list? The next tune better blow my freaking mind or else I’m going to give someone the frowning of a lifetime.
Caterpillar is one of the best songs I’ve heard in a long time. Here is a good place to compare the mixes on both albums. The acoustic guitar on this tune is panned pretty much to the left, the clean electric is panned right. The vocals are nicely centered. The atmospheric stuff shifts from right to left. It creates a nice full sound that doesn’t detract from the subtle tone of the song. It just seems like they really meant what they were doing. Not that the Stooges didn’t mean what they were doing. But the Lambchops seem to be intentionally creative with the mixes rather than arbitrarily different.
All in all, these two records couldn’t be more different. I think, at least. I didn’t pay a ton of attention to lyrical content. But the Stooges are dirty Detroit rock and roll. From start to finish, there is no guessing. They are what they are. Lambchop is at first polite, but as I listen, it is apparent that there exists some angst and it is surprising and more effective than the Stooges.
But Lambchoppers gets deducted huge for that Autumn’s Vicar garbage.
Here’s the deal, I can’t bash the Stooges for who they are. There’s a certain purity to their approach. But I just don’t like it very much…objectively or subjectively.
Lambchop on the other hand was a very nice surprise. The mix is fantastic. The dude’s voice is good…and even though Iggy sounds great on the Stooges record, I don’t like it as much as Lam Chip. That’s his name right? I didn’t do my research.
So, on a scale of 1-10, I give the Stooges a B-
On the same scale, I give Lambchop a smiley face sticker and a “keep up the good work” thumbs up.
Lambchop wins.
Wow, you get the award for listening carefully. Interesting notes on the production values. The thing I like about _Is a Woman_ soundwise is that when they recorded this, they were somewhere around a 15 piece band, but rather than everyone playing over top of each other it seems like everyone is trying to play as sparsely and quietly as possible. Listening to it on headphones or really good speakers makes a big difference. Okay, your next assignment: Bobby Dylan and the Band - Basement Tapes vs. Polyphonic Spree - Together We're Heavy
ReplyDelete