Music Forum / The Majestics

  • SSSammy%s's Photo
    vocalist leaving is a blessing in disguise. her voice hits the notes, but it's frightfully ordinary. i'm unsure on what terms she left. i hope she is in good health. that's my honest opinion. i'm listening to the tracks now.
    losing you: super cool. i would have had teh vocals higher in the mix personally. but as aforementioned, i can understand why they aren't. especially around 2.03 onwards. who mixed this? i'd make a point not to layer too many guitars, too. it quickly loses it's organic feel that rock music emanates.

    never again: cheesy lyrics... nicely produced though. the production quality is really common sounding, though. it sounds like a lot albums out there already. chorus is killer, i gotta say. especially the harmonies under "never agaaaaaaiiin". i like it. middle eight is risky, i think it might have to grow on me.

    lucid: you really like a thick texture, don't you? a common theme on this album is a lot of reverb on the voice. maybe steer away from that next time. it really drains any strength it could have. another general point i must make is the value of short songs. average time on this album is ~4 mins. shorter songs have several advantages: +it's easier to make a song longer than it is to make a song shorter, meaning if you have a song that is born out of the box shorter, it can fit in a small space, or maybe a big space if you want to!
    +doesn't really need a radio edit. doesn't disillusion new listeners
    +short and snappy never outstays its welcome. it's hard to get bored
    +many more...

    heartless queen: recorder is that? nice! lyrics are really cool. very atmospheric and uplifting. i really dig it. panning hard left and hard left makes me feel as though i'm a bit deaf. maybe bring them to around 20%-30% L/R to make it less drastic. make them deeper if the texture requires it. 2.10 - that transition. the chords on either side sit well next to eachother, but you missed a big trick. the recorder/flute cuts out instantaneously. it sounds not as good as it could. an extra note from the recorder could have worked WONDERS there. the chords are kinda cheesyish there with the quick resolutions. i really dig the 7th at the end of the section into the a capella-ey bit. some piano strikes on the chord changes with a shit tone of reverb could have really brought in some atmosphere, there. maybe with the recorder dancing around in a solo above it. that's what i would have done, but i respect your decision to do it as you did. and i love it either way.

    against my better judgement: is that you at the beginning? nice. i cannot tell what the lyrics are. like, at all. poor mixing, there. kind of ironic considering the "that's so loud" comment. this is why you need to send it out to people like me who can appraise things and point out obvious stuff like this. it would have been a simple fix! catchy chorus, dude. i like it. i would have sooner felt a thinner verse w/ the same chorus. contrasts are important in this game. see end for more on this.

    old north church: really wants that sweet bass line higher in the mix. how many people are in the band? what kind of set up do you run? any record/sampling devices? This technique could really pay off if you do. (the whole gig is spectacular. really worth the watch, even if you don't like the chilis) maybe when you play it live it could have more of a solo-ey tummy. cause right now, it's atmospheric, but also kinda drawn out. i like it though. you should have really cut that bit shorter in the radio edit. that's just my opinion.

    something i see in this whole record is that great songwriting suffers from less than perfect positioning and construction. the chorus' throughout the record are great, but they don't stand out enough due to the fact you've kinda added as many fucking guitar tracks as you can. you can say: "but i like it like this!" until the cows come home, but the fact of the matter is sometimes things are just the case. you should follow conventions as a guideline then bend them and make the conventions your bitch, crafting them to sound new and unique, as opposed to flat out defying them.

    it might sound very negative, but that's just my deal. i'm a perfectionist when it comes to music of any kind :D i very much look forward to whatever you do next, and don't be put off by my advice/critisism, as you can ignore it if it really upsets you :p i'm only one person, after all. everyone else might thing it's the best thing since sex, and if they do, then more power to you. <3
  • Steve%s's Photo
    Hey Sam, thanks for the feedback.

    The only guitar we layered was the acoustic in Lucid. Apart from a bit of some of the other lead guitar tracks, we layered nothing else. It's funny you mentioned some of the things you did because honestly, they were the things we were thinking about changing. I respect your opinions man cause you clearly know your shit.

    That's me in the beginning of Against, yeah, aha. I mean, I know the words so obviously I have no problem understanding them but regardless I felt they were fine. Our producer has said many times that this one was the "bastard child" of the lot that he just couldn't get right, apparently it shows. I agree about the chorus though, that has been said by others many times before. Thanks!

    The bass was higher in Old North in the beginning. It is sweet, you're right, and I personally regret not cranking that shit to eleven.

    Oh, and that instrument in Heartless Queen was a mellotron. Glad you liked the lyrics!
  • Ride6%s's Photo
    Color - by Lady Majestic

    "Losing You" - The stop-start to open an album seems a little cheesy and over the top. It's fine, just not how I would approach it. Some of the verse lyrics seem like throw-aways, but the drums switching beat in the second verse kept things moving in the right direction. The chorus is a grade-A beast, The layered vocals and piano crashes help, though less than they should due to the compressed nature of the recording (more on that later). The middle-8 is properly off-tilt, spinning off the rails just to set up one last rousing chorus. Very nice.

    "Never Again" - Doubled vocals (be it via overdub or delay) seem a bit overkill in the verse, but again, whatever floats your boat. The guitar lifts the chorus, and the proper vocal harmonies really bring it out to big heights. The little leads in the 2nd verse are a good time too. Really nice tone too. Piano for the 2nd chorus (always building aren't we?). Again these chorus would hit even harder if the whole thing wasn't smashed into the ceiling. The bridge on this one is a bit jarring, though it does set up a nice bridge the the final chorus that's a little under-exploited by not going for one last REAL high note in the vocals. Chorus is a blast as always. :)

    "Lucid" - Probably my favorite of the bunch. The wordless vocal line is one of the best hooks on the record, the acoustic guitars help lighten up the enormous heft of the production, while the electric guitars provide more subtle textures, and leads. The breakdown and explosive return toward the end sounds like prime-era Goo Goo Dolls (which is a huge compliment). No real chorus (besides the vocal hook), but the melody seems more developed than some of the others. Definitely finds that magic ground between ballads and rockers, where most of the best songs reside.

    "The Heartless Queen" - Maybe a little over-panned, but I don't mind too much. I usually prefer 25/75 cross-panning on my own shit, but whatever is fine on what I listen to. Anyway, I think the big production (each instrument sounding huge) probably benefited this song the most. Without the drums eating up the EQ there's a lot of space, and it's basically filled. The mellotron flute does come in and out rather suddenly, particularly for something so loud in the mix. Once the harmony kicks in for the 2nd chorus the panning makes a lot more sense. The middle-8 actually manages to force a few blue notes into the vocal line, which is a bit gritty for you guys ;) . I actually think the harmony in the chorus would benefit from being sung by someone else (though I know the difficulty of that.... *groans*).

    "Against My Better Judgement" - Here's where the over-scaled production really bites you... I don't think it's a bad song, nor the production style is bad, but the pairing of the two here doesn't really work, with the exception of the guitar solo. Everything just sounds too big. This is the kind of rocker that needs Steve Albini's production. The acoustic guitar seems a bit out of place here as well. It gets in it's own way. But it's still a good time. I don't mind the vocals being washed out a bit: that's the nature of real balls-to-the-wall rockers. I can still make out most of it and more will come with additional listens. It's great that you guys were brave enough to try a real sweat-and-blood rock song in here with the naturally more polished tunes.

    "Old North Church" - I like it before the drums come in... They're WAY too loud, big, and punchy for the occasion. The kick sounds gaudy as all hell. I also think the song should've been modulated into a different key so that Brittany could've dropped it down an octave and not sounded like a pop diva. It's the first (and only) time she sounds almost Madonna-like, and I'm not sure it fits. The instrumental section once the song gets kicking, especially once the lead takes off at 4:17, is a great stretch. The breakdown and build-up really works and there's a section where the lead guitar almost sounds like a string section before almost going into Silversun Pickups territory. Again, wordless vocals - almost always a good call. Great way to end the album.

    Overall - Nice trick looping the bell. Along with the uniform production style it helps solidify the 'album' sound of it, rather than merely a 'collection of songs'. While I do like that the production is uniform, I don't really appreciate the bloat of it. The vocals got a lot more hard echo / doubling / delay when they didn't need it and the drums sounds way too big and flabby for their own good (Too much compression, probably gated reverb? God I hate gated reverb). Finally the dynamic range was also sqeezed out (I would guess in mastering, but it can happen in mixing too) so the choruses are barely a whisper than the verses. It's clearly ambitious and polished though, which is a rare and worth-while combination in my book.

    I hope everything's okay out there, and you haven't given up on music. Keep on rockin'

    Ride6

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