It's that perfect chorus that leads me to mixup the album title from damage to damaging probably 95% of the time.
A thing that’s rarely gets said, if ever: Clarity’s sound quality is a notch below everything from Bleed to Invented. The band talked a lot about how on Surviving they just wanted to get the sound production right - they wanted it big and loud and clean and crisp. Apart from the quality of the songs, that was something that was important to them. I have no idea what was happening at Capitol Records in the late 90s, but both Static Prevails and Clarity sound amateurish compared to stuff at the time, and especially stuff after. When you make a playlist from their whole career, it sticks out. I know this: when I started listening to JEW heavily in 2011 or so, I bought all the CDs (remember those?) used from different places so I could listen in my car. And it took me awhile to even want to dive into Clarity and Static and even give them a chance because the sound quality was so different in those and the other ones all sounded so great.
I would consider the sound quality on Clarity as compared to BA & Futures way larger of a margin than 'just a notch', but it doesn't really bother me all too much in the end anyway.
makes sense that people here are less into it, I guess. for the most part, this band’s sound has come to be defined by ultra-tight (to the grid, I would say) production that’s polished to a sheen, so people who really fawn over Futures and their other later material going back to SP or Clarity and thinking “wow this sounds so raw, this production is bad” is kind of understandable, contextually speaking. but both of them are actually competently produced imo— Clarity in particular sounds pretty great to my standards, and I prefer the more natural approach to the production and that the songs feel like they have more room to breathe so to speak— and the quality of songwriting is still high. I also think the vocal tradeoff is a cool dynamic on SP and worked to the album’s favor.
I was actually thinking the same thing - I think clarity's production is perfect for that album and suits songs like just watch the fireworks and goodbye sky harbor perfectly. and of course I love the tradeoffs on static
Quality is through the roof, especially the sound mix. It has a slight music video feel because they are performing in a circle facing each other, so don't go in expecting the typical stage setup. I see this as a plus because it goes against the norm.
Y’all are nuts. Clarity sounds so lush and gorgeous. It’s not as crisp or “radio rock” as what came after it, but I would not call it amateurish or poor sounding at all. It’s a joy to listen to that album loud on vinyl and hear all the cool little things they were doing with arrangements and orchestrations.
People were floored by the production on Clarity at the time it came out. Everyone wanted their record to sound like that.
right, clarity sounds better than every christie front drive or mineral album, which is who they were trying to sound like lol
power of failing is one of the worst sounding albums I've ever heard lmao. even the remaster still sounds like shit. sucks because the songs rule
is it just that Clarity is analog that people are noticing compared to the others? or is BA analog too I forget anyway Clarity is pretty much perfect for me from a production standpoint (and from like every other standpoint lol) it's so warm and rich
I am going to guess the people who think Clarity sounds bad or raw or rough or subpar or whatever word they wanna use .... are not particularly knowledgeable in the realm of production
Wasn't Clarity recorded digitally and that's why they went with Trombino and were able to make a 16-minute closing track?
I thought GSB was only that long because they were going until the tape ran out. unless I don't fully understand the difference between analog and digital which I'm def not ruling out lol
and you’re allowed to still have your take, but I think anyone who has experience in that realm would be a lot less down on the way that record sounds. this is what I remember too
In my case, you’re absolutely right. And in the case of 98% of the music listening public, you’re absolutely right. We’re ranking albums and anyone who doesn’t insist Clarity is the world’s most perfect album is getting shit on and told they don’t have ears or is ignorant of how music gets made. That’s... frustrating. I shouldn’t need a degree in music engineering to decipher why Clarity doesn’t sound as good as Bleed or Futures or CTL. But I know it’s true. And I’d guess anyone who DOES do production wants anyone at all who listens to their work to be able to appreciate it, and not just other people who study it.