warehouse wrote:he did say he smokes and drinks less these days. its showing in his voice, he sounds incredible. maybe his best since yield
Agreed, same happened with Lanegan. Back in 2008-2009ish when he gave up cigs altogether (and he was a heavy smoker) his voice started soaring. Clearer than ever and with power and precision reminiscent of his voice in the 90s....if not better. Eddie sounds hands down better on this album than he has in the last 10 years (at least). Another good example is Cornell, I believe he gave up the cigs in 2007. Imagine what Ed could sound like if he stopped completely...
Yeah - it really can make a big difference. There were similar things being said about Bono's vocals sounding the best in a decade on the ATYCLB album because he had given up smoking and cut back drinking for about 12 months beforehand IIRC.
It's a little frustrating watching somebody with such a great artistic gift do repeated damage to it. It's like having a great guitarist slam their hand in a door over and over to see if they can take it.
I'm in firmly in the camp of those allowing for the manipulation of music post performance (on a record). When I go to a show I expect Pearl Jam to be rough and ready and raw. As such I'll forgive them when they fuck up a song, play it too fast, when Ed can't get lyrics right or can't hit notes (even plain shouts), or when a guitar part is fumbled. Live shows are all about sincerity of performance and the emotion behind a part, for me. If a song calls for anger or for sadness on the part of Ed or anyone then I want that (as much as that may be demanding). I see a studio album as creating a finished product that sounds good. If I wanted it to sound like a live performance I would only listen to PJ boots. Having said that, there is a certain 'sterility' line that can be crossed, e.g. Backspacer, but I think they got the mix right here. I'm not a purist in terms of autotune. To echo other people's sentiments ... if I can't really tell it's there than I don't care. My first reaction on hearing the album was "geez ... Ed is sound GOOD". If my reaction was "wow, it sounds like they auto-tuned the shit out of that", then I would have problems but as it wasn't I have no qualms.
Doesn't the loudness war logic contribute to sterilisation or better said the perceived sterilisation of music? The 1st thing that i perceive as lost due to excessive dynamic compression is the perception of space.
The loudness war is like autotune...it's one aspect of that push for mechanical exactness and sterility. But I'd say the decreasing interest in room sound and "space" on recordings has less to do with peak volume and more to do with the types of sounds we're becoming used to hearing in new recordings. We're getting more and more used to hearing that calculated, processed, clinical sound...so slowly, over time, the trend has been away from room sound and expansive tone, and towards punchy unitoned presence. It's all over this record.
But it has side effects besides decreased peak volume, doesn't it? I mean the side effects were accepted as a trade off for loudness and crushed mixes with little to no room sound are part of it. Your post made me wonder if knowing what the end result will end up sounding like affects how music is recorded and mixed. It shouldn't be, but I wonder.
Ok. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about writing a song-by-song review but I have to start somewhere.
I'm picking Infallible as the first one I'm going to review since I've been all over it since I heard it.
Infallible
Ed is in great voice here. The verses convey a sense of uneasiness because of the key he sings them in. That's fitting with the subject matter. The first chorus is delivered quite normally and nothing really extraordinary happens until we reach about 2:47 when Ed kicks it up a notch. There are some fantastically clean and powerful G♯4s and B♭4s in the chorus before going into the solo where Ed sings hauntingly in the background. Then, we have those resonant highs, G♯4s and B♭4s again in the part from 3:35-4:13. He also sings some gritty C5s (the yeah yeah in the outro). This is probably Ed's only foray into the 5th octave on this album (not counting falsetto screams). A fitting climax to a great song and vocal.
For the sake of comparison, Ed sings G4s in Elderly Woman (My God, it's been so long/Never dreamed you'd return) and A4s in the chorus of In Hiding (I'm in Hi-ding). He also sings A4s in Present Tense (You can spend your time alone redigesting past regrets, or...). He's rarely gone upto Bb4 in chest with a clean tone like he does in the chorus of Infallible. I recall hearing a live version of Arc from 2008 or 2009 where he went up to a clean Bb4 but besides that, Ed is generally very gritty when he goes beyond A4.
All in all, an excellent performance from Ed displaying his upper chest singing and control. I'd say this should be in his top 10 performances of all time. There isn't really much exploration of his lower end in this song which is the only thing keeping it from going even higher.
Release_Me wrote:Ok. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about writing a song-by-song review but I have to start somewhere.
I'm picking Infallible as the first one I'm going to review since I've been all over it since I heard it.
Infallible
Ed is in great voice here. The verses convey a sense of uneasiness because of the key he sings them in. That's fitting with the subject matter. The first chorus is delivered quite normally and nothing really extraordinary happens until we reach about 2:47 when Ed kicks it up a notch. There are some fantastically clean and powerful G♯4s and B♭4s in the chorus before going into the solo where Ed sings hauntingly in the background. Then, we have those resonant highs, G♯4s and B♭4s again in the part from 3:35-4:13. He also sings some gritty C5s (the yeah yeah in the outro). This is probably Ed's only foray into the 5th octave on this album (not counting falsetto screams). A fitting climax to a great song and vocal.
For the sake of comparison, Ed sings G4s in Elderly Woman (My God, it's been so long/Never dreamed you'd return) and A4s in the chorus of In Hiding (I'm in Hi-ding). He also sings A4s in Present Tense (You can spend your time alone redigesting past regrets, or...). He's rarely gone upto Bb4 in chest with a clean tone like he does in the chorus of Infallible. I recall hearing a live version of Arc from 2008 or 2009 where he went up to a clean Bb4 but besides that, Ed is generally very gritty when he goes beyond A4.
All in all, an excellent performance from Ed displaying his upper chest singing and control. I'd say this should be in his top 10 performances of all time. There isn't really much exploration of his lower end in this song which is the only thing keeping it from going even higher.
Really like the comparisons to other songs on other albums - gives it a good context.
Release_Me wrote:Ok. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about writing a song-by-song review but I have to start somewhere.
I'm picking Infallible as the first one I'm going to review since I've been all over it since I heard it.
Infallible
Ed is in great voice here. The verses convey a sense of uneasiness because of the key he sings them in. That's fitting with the subject matter. The first chorus is delivered quite normally and nothing really extraordinary happens until we reach about 2:47 when Ed kicks it up a notch. There are some fantastically clean and powerful G♯4s and B♭4s in the chorus before going into the solo where Ed sings hauntingly in the background. Then, we have those resonant highs, G♯4s and B♭4s again in the part from 3:35-4:13. He also sings some gritty C5s (the yeah yeah in the outro). This is probably Ed's only foray into the 5th octave on this album (not counting falsetto screams). A fitting climax to a great song and vocal.
For the sake of comparison, Ed sings G4s in Elderly Woman (My God, it's been so long/Never dreamed you'd return) and A4s in the chorus of In Hiding (I'm in Hi-ding). He also sings A4s in Present Tense (You can spend your time alone redigesting past regrets, or...). He's rarely gone upto Bb4 in chest with a clean tone like he does in the chorus of Infallible. I recall hearing a live version of Arc from 2008 or 2009 where he went up to a clean Bb4 but besides that, Ed is generally very gritty when he goes beyond A4.
All in all, an excellent performance from Ed displaying his upper chest singing and control. I'd say this should be in his top 10 performances of all time. There isn't really much exploration of his lower end in this song which is the only thing keeping it from going even higher.
Really like the comparisons to other songs on other albums - gives it a good context.
Anyone know off-hand which Arc that is?
Just checked. Live 2009-06-08 Palace Theatre, Albany, NJ, USA.
Release_Me wrote:Ok. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about writing a song-by-song review but I have to start somewhere.
I'm picking Infallible as the first one I'm going to review since I've been all over it since I heard it.
Infallible
Ed is in great voice here. The verses convey a sense of uneasiness because of the key he sings them in. That's fitting with the subject matter. The first chorus is delivered quite normally and nothing really extraordinary happens until we reach about 2:47 when Ed kicks it up a notch. There are some fantastically clean and powerful G♯4s and B♭4s in the chorus before going into the solo where Ed sings hauntingly in the background. Then, we have those resonant highs, G♯4s and B♭4s again in the part from 3:35-4:13. He also sings some gritty C5s (the yeah yeah in the outro). This is probably Ed's only foray into the 5th octave on this album (not counting falsetto screams). A fitting climax to a great song and vocal.
For the sake of comparison, Ed sings G4s in Elderly Woman (My God, it's been so long/Never dreamed you'd return) and A4s in the chorus of In Hiding (I'm in Hi-ding). He also sings A4s in Present Tense (You can spend your time alone redigesting past regrets, or...). He's rarely gone upto Bb4 in chest with a clean tone like he does in the chorus of Infallible. I recall hearing a live version of Arc from 2008 or 2009 where he went up to a clean Bb4 but besides that, Ed is generally very gritty when he goes beyond A4.
All in all, an excellent performance from Ed displaying his upper chest singing and control. I'd say this should be in his top 10 performances of all time. There isn't really much exploration of his lower end in this song which is the only thing keeping it from going even higher.
It is most definitely up there. His incredibly strong vocals are probably the biggest reason why I'm into the song so much. Good review. Looking forward to reading more.
This is a very understated performance by Ed. It reminds me somewhat of Immortality. Ed showcases his lower register quite well here. There are quite a few low notes, notably at 0:42, 1:00 and then later at 2:43 and 2:52. The lowest he gets here is A2 ('the pendulum throws'), which for Ed isn't really that low given he has sung down to A1 ('Dream a Little Dream'). Still, his rich baritone is on display and the resonance of his voice throughout this performance is notable. There is that beautifully delivered line 'Easy left me a long time ago' where the last note sounds like an E5 (probably due to the echo effect). In actual fact, it's probably just an E4 which isn't that high but right in Ed's sweet spot. I double-checked this with the live performance video and he sings E4 live too. It's beautifully done though, serves as a moment of catharsis in the song. And then there's the 'aa aa aa aa aa' at the end which is a nice touch. Not something he usually does.
All in all, this is a very tastefully done vocal. Nothing showy about it. What Ed doesn't do here is just as important as what he does.
When I said sweet spot, I didn't mean just that note in particular. Anywhere in the middle and upper fourth octave upto about A4 is Ed's sweet spot, i.e. the area where he sounds super awesome because he can sing with huge power and clarity without really straining. His voice stays really full and doesn't thin because it's sung from the chest.
I'm struggling to think of any notable E4s aside from this song generally because E4 isn't a note you really look for. In this song, it works against the contrast of the low-ish singing preceding (and following) it.
Release_Me wrote:When I said sweet spot, I didn't mean just that note in particular. Anywhere in the middle and upper fourth octave upto about A4 is Ed's sweet spot, i.e. the area where he sounds super awesome because he can sing with huge power and clarity without really straining. His voice stays really full and doesn't thin because it's sung from the chest.
I'm struggling to think of any notable E4s aside from this song generally because E4 isn't a note you really look for. In this song, it works against the contrast of the low-ish singing preceding (and following) it.
I meant the more general sense of "sweet spot" that you talked about, rather than the specific note.
For Ed in his sweet spot, you need to look no further than the Ten songs. Release, Black, Jeremy, Porch, Garden all are good examples. All have choruses or outros where Ed sounds very full, resonant and just generally awesome.
