You know, sometimes--sometimes--it's really nice to get to work and turn on the radio and have Avril's "Complicated" playing.

That song has an interesting perceptual arc in my mind. When I first heard it, it sounded a little too Shania-ish, but when I heard it a few more times and gave it a better listen, I really loved the production, even if I still didn't entirely agree with some of the songwriting choices (the overly Goo Goo Dolls-y chords that come after the choruses, the speak-sing at the beginning of the verses, etc.).

But now, having heard some of the stuff the Matrix is capable of ("Rock Me" in particular), it sounds kind of weak again. The good little touches are still there, but it's missing that great guitar sound; the really hypercrisp ProTools crunch that was there on the Liz album is sublimated to a more faux-analog (if still megacompressed) sound on the Avril single.

Oh, and did they produce a bunch of the new Mandy Moore songs? She gets a shout-out in Spin this month, by the by.
posted by Mike B. at 11:05 AM 0 comments