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[TheDarkInstall]

Hi

I recently listened to the new album by Trust, entitled Joyland.

In my opinion, despite being a commercial release, the mixdown has been messed up badly.

The vocals are incredibly low in the mix, to the point of it being unlistenable.

I am wondering though, if this is just me who thinks this though, and that they are actually OK.  Would anybody else be able to have a listen and let me know what they think?  If the vocals sound like this on purpose, I think someone involved in the process has made a very poor decision...

A stream of the album can be found here.  Please let me know what you think.

http://pitchfork.com/advance/357-joyland/

Thanks

[Jim Williams]

The vocals are incredibly low in the mix, to the point of it being unlistenable.
Thanks

That's how music with less than stellar vocalists are mixed these days. Bury the bad, as they say...

[Fletcher]

Better shitty vocals than "auto-tuned" vocals!!

[TheDarkInstall]

Thanks for the response.

I realise that burying the vocals might be a 'thing', but this seems excessively bad.  The vocalist is very good, in my opinion, and has a unique style that I really enjoyed on the first album (which seems to have been mixed perfectly).  I sincerely think that an error has been made here and was wondering what the rest of you thought.

Did you listen to the music on the link I posted?

Also, do you have any other examples of mixes which bury the vocals to this extent?

Cheers!

[Fletcher]

When I was coming up I spent a few years working with Jimmy Miller.  Jimmy, as you may or may not know, produced some of the best Rolling Stones records ever made [Beggar's Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main St., and Goat's Head Soup].

One day when I was mixing a project we were working on Jimmy mentioned to me that Mick Jagger liked his vocals mixed down as far as possible because he felt it made people listen deeper when they were listening to the product [I doubt he used the word "product"... I'm paraphrasing].

My point being that some folks think that vocals mixed back is valid... and seriously, who are we to second guess the "artist's intention" [as I'm quite sure the artist approved the final mixes... maybe not, but probably as most A&R weasels I've met like the vocals mixed up front as much as possible].

Peace

[DarinK]

The link is no longer active. Maybe the original link had one side (left or right) with polarity inverted and you were listening in mono?  Maybe the whole thing has one side with inverted polarity and no one noticed because it wasn't checked in mono? (If you were listening in stereo when you heard the problem then this can't be it.)
Or maybe it's just an artistic decision.  I can't even guess because I haven't heard any of it.  I'm sure the band has some sort of web presence where you can contact them directly with your concerns.

[TheDarkInstall]

Sorry for the delay in responding.

Ha, well I certainly did bring this up on their Facebook page.

And they banned me!!!

I suspect that this means they do know about this, but it is too late now things have gone to print and the album has been released.  I have never heard such a major mess up before with mixing, but I guess nothing can be done about it now.

I honestly don't think this was an artistic decision, which I agree we have no right to comment on; this is an out and out mistake.

Anyway...

[Jim Williams]

And they banned me!!!

Shoot the messenger, not the message.

These guys may have a future career in politics...

[Fletcher]

This is one of those times I wish we had a "like" button... I would have clicked it for Jim's response!!