The album, so far, sounds Really Nice.
Still working like crazy on finishing it up, of course, but it's looking good. We'll have a few more "all-nighters," and probably bash away at it right up till the last second before the mastering on Tuesday. Funny how that always happens, no matter how well you do and no matter how much time you have. As of now, around half the songs are basically completed, though they may still need some tweaking here and there. (I would give one of my more or less essential limbs to have a couple more weeks to devote solely to creating and managing subliminal, tweaky, texture-y sounds. Then another two weeks to sit back and worry over whether we "went too far" and have the argument that always concludes "you can never go too far." E.g.: "I want the third bubbly noise-- the retarded distorted one on the left-- to burble in the fade-out and the backwards reverb feedback recedes, but do you think it might be burbling to much?" "You can never burble too much, you know." "Hmm, maybe we should turn up the burbling then?" "No, that would be too much. Are you insane?" Wild eyes, incontrollable shaking, dubious, self-questioning internal monologues all around. I love that kind of thing.)
The "done" ones include some of the most complex songs, arrangement-wise: "London" (which doesn't have a lot of parts, but the ones there are have to be balanced perfectly, which is more of a challenge than that presented by arrangements with a zillion interlocking tracks) and "Fucked Up on Life" (which is probably the most complicated arrangement we've ever attempted.) I think they sound really nice, but I also admit I have no perspective anymore. Ask me in around three years and I'll tell you whether I think this assessment of Niceness is warranted.
Posted by Dr. Frank at September 11, 2003 03:08 PM | TrackBackFrank,
If I was a millionaire, I would give you an infinite amount of money and tell you to make the "perfect album." If you had an infinite amount of time and an infinite budget, do you think you could ever get the album perfect sounding? I know for me, listening to albums over time changes how it sounds. I notice more things over time and just listening to something over and over, you start to hear imaginary remnants of other possible directions the song could've went. I guess I just answered my own question and agree that you could only make a perfect album in a vaccuum.
Wow. Too deep for me. Will we be able to dance to it?
Posted by: stu at September 13, 2003 05:30 AMAgonizing over a decision about something you've created is worthwhile only when the decsion will have a major effect on the end product, in my opinion. Little side effects, while nice, probably will generate more ulcer material than they are worth. If the song is a good song, it will only get better with tweaking; if it's a bad song, all you can do is throw a glamer over it and hope no one notices. I like the version of "London" on "Eight Little Songs" so I imagine I'll like whatever is done with it on the new album.
Posted by: Don at September 13, 2003 11:29 PMNice blog... Hope everything works out with the album.
Posted by: tricia at September 16, 2003 02:41 PM