War On Compression

 

War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream [SC310 USA 2014 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC]

I bought this album around time of release purely for the track Under The Pressure, which remains one of my favourite 'original' compositions of the past thirty years. Based around a very simple piano melody wrapped in building layers of guitar, bass, drums and atmospherics, the song is a wonderful way to spend eight minutes. I played this album just once and it has been sat on the shelf ever since! I decided to revisit it after my recent Wide Open Road post by The Triffids.

This double album is a road-trip through Americana, recorded in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Asheville, Hoboken, Kernersville and Austin. Frontman Adam Granduciel has full artistic control which is a good thing, but then again it is my biggest issue with Lost In The Dream. You will quickly hear the Dylan and Springsteen references which litter this record. Layers of atmosphere and gorgeous melody are everywhere but disappointingly Granduciel and production sidekick Jeff Zeigler have added too much compression throughout. I would have hoped veteran mastering engineer Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound would have had something to say, however these days, the customer gets what the customer wants. It would also appear that the Secret Canadian label did want to pay for the better vinyl formula at RTI.

Lost In The Dream could have been a wonderful album, but well constructed, atmospheric and melodic rock music needs three dimensional space around the soundstage and the over-compressed drums kill all that. Maybe I am just being a grumpy old man and maybe this record sounds okay on an entry level turntable. It is probably too late for Granduciel to fix this record because I bet in the years to come he will understand

I don't want to end on a negative and I know my words will have little impact on those in control of modern recording methods. Lost In The Dream is a splendid piece of work and could well have been one of those classic rock albums which has eternal longevity. There aren't so many of those records released these days.

A1 Under The Pressure
A2 Red Eyes
A3 Suffering
B1 An Ocean In Between The Waves
B2 Disappearing
C1 Eyes To The Wind
C2 The Haunting Idle
C3 Burning
D1 Lost In The Dream
D2 In Reverse




Comments

  1. Blogmeister13 June 2022 at 09:10

    https://mega.nz/file/fQZmlbxT#c_Aql2MHWHzWSlt2cdBiGOhUbpuwHFD0L5d_MU0oQrY

    https://mega.nz/file/LYZSlKQL#yaxhmf1ygezRrDxuNqTkZzYEXAiPnb7X3WQAYVgNeMc

    You need both of the above

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  2. rkipp68313 June 2022 at 16:16

    Great record; you're spot on about the sound but thanks so much for capturing the vinyl even with those shortcomings!

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  3. Anonymous13 June 2022 at 16:36

    You are right, the music has greatness but the sound sucks. They need to to re-do it.

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  4. Anonymous13 June 2022 at 20:21

    Thank you. Thank you.

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  5. Anonymous14 June 2022 at 05:32

    Some Prefab Sprout also leaks through. Always a good thing.

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  6. Anonymous15 June 2022 at 20:55

    Thanks for ripping this. I wonder what they sound like live in concert free from the ill effects of the album's sound engineering. I've noticed that for some of the Indie bands with a broad soundscape they do sound wonderful in a properly engineered live setting. Most notably the YouTube video series from Seattle's KEXP-FM has some wonderful sound engineering and is a prime example of how good some of these bands can sound. One of my favorite KEXP performances is from the band Haelos who sounded so open and clear with soaring vocals compared to the more congested and compressed studio versions.

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  7. Leper Lord28 June 2022 at 05:41

    This is a beautiful thing to hear

    Cheers

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  8. Anonymous26 July 2022 at 19:36

    thank you

    ReplyDelete

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