Come on Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa are my two least favourite Pixies albums (relatively speaking). For the longest time I thought it was because the album was just too noisy, but I recently realized it was because I find the vocals at times to be too buried in the mix.
I wish they were louder, as Franks voice is actually really interesting at this time. Sort of like a lunatic choir boy - his voice is actually really underrated. Not to mention the great lyrics aren't heard as much.
This is a good Cobain interview, which he talks about Albini's low vocal approach to producing and he mentions Surfer Rosa as well. Fast forward to 6:15.
the surfer rosa and bossanova cds are still available on mofi.com. doolittle cd is out of stock. for the three albums, vinyls are also still available.
I actually like the way the vocals sink into the background at times on Surfer... I believe Nirvana got REM producer Scott Litt to remix the vocal tracks on a couple of songs on In Utero.
Do you guys notice a difference on the MoFi releases? I bought them a while back and felt they do sound crisper but the different levels seemed to be unaltered. However, I never did get them played through good speakers on my SACD player.
Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa's Painfully Low Vocals
Posted - 09/05/2011 : 03:16:52
it's educational