Argh... I like the song but the vocals are annoying me again. I guess I'm just going to have to get used to it.
I'm not a fan of whatever vocal effect was used on both songs released so far. I'm not an expert but it sounds like some of the bass has been scooped out of Ross's vocals and a bunch of reverb added that just... sucks the weight out of them is the best way I can describe it. Less gritty. Even compared to the catchy stuff from the last album. Perhaps it's something the new producer brought in, perhaps it's a deliberate choice with both songs released so far sounding more "poppy", but it's something that has stood out. Not even a deal-breaker, just wasn't expecting it.
I kind of get it in the vocals. He sounds great and the melody rules, which is where my vocal complaints usually lie. It just doesn’t quite bite like GTM. It didn’t bother me on Roll With It, but I hear it more on Choke, maybe because I can hear the rawness or low end that could send it into the stratosphere. Having said that, these songs fucking WAIL. We are really splitting hairs on what are two barnburner tracks. I can’t decide if I’m gonna be one and done on this track and wait for the record. I think it’s gonna be something special. Also, @Jason Tate quoted some lyrics I didn’t recognize in either of these songs so I am guessing he already has the album?
all the twists and turns on Choke really propel it to another stratosphere - some awesome musicianship there
My, probably controversial around here, take is that over the past few months/years(?) I've started to find the discussions around production or effects or whatever to be my least favorite part of talking about music. Maybe it's because I've been listening to a lot of older punk albums that objectively sound like dirt, maybe it's that I find so much talk about "production" to pull away from any talk about what the music is doing, trying to say, and being, but I dunno ... I find it draining and my eyes just gloss over. The armchair remixing/mastering/AI "fixing" sagas that dominate so much talk around music these days makes my head ache. The blaming the producer rounds after any album release on social media makes #musictwitter even more unbearable, and I basically stopped reading multiple threads here when it's just pages and pages of it. There are sometimes interesting conversations around production choices, and where it heightens a song, and the reasoning behind the choices, but I find those so few and far between and instead 140 characters of reductive blather. "Choke" is my favorite song on the album. Album rules. It's different for them, and solidifies them as one of the best doing it.
I've been thinking for a while that maybe my ears just suck because whenever someone complains about "bad production" on a song I like I have no idea what anyone is talking about. Almost like music is subjective or something
New song is way better than the first song and I enjoy the first song. Still can't get over the mid-2000's Victory Records-esque artwork.
Yeah the artwork is the only thing about this record I’m not gonna love, and I’ll take that trade off any day lol
Vocals sound great to me. I think the slightly different vocal style fits the slightly different overall sound better, tbh
Vocals sound good they are just slightly higher pitched than on the last album. Maybe he just wants to sing like that?
You'll hear it the most on the opener's first verse, he's definitely in a higher range, then goes down for the (awesome) chorus.