Ive listened to the album probably 50 times. Home stereo, car stereo, whatever. I LOVE this album. From experience, I can tell you that there is a lot that has to go right in order to produce a good album. Heres a partial list of what you must have: good songs with good hooks a good song order (imperative) arrangements that properly feature whatever is in the lead at each moment, that make you want to listen to next measure musicians who are on board with the songs/arrangements (and can hopefully handle when their parts arent high enough in the mix) eye catching graphics that help the album leap off the shelves full of other CDs trying to do the same thing a vocalist who can at some point finally accept a take as the best its going to be. The psyche of the lead singer may be the single hardest thing for a producer to deal with and woe be unto those who are not proficient psychologists. an engineer who can make each bar of each song sound fantastic good mastering Decreasing Circles passes each test. As for the part about the vocalist, Im assuming John was at some point happy with his takes. I am. Isnt it true that everybodys ear is caught by different things? My ear is caught by the great dynamics on Decreasing Circles. In fact, dynamics seem to come effortlessly to these musicians. Theyre done so well, you might not even notice them, but give the album another listen and notice how the band will at one moment be in a full groove and, at the next moment, hardly playing at all. This is pro stuff. I love great musical moments and there are many great ones on this album. The tremolo guitar on 25 and that MEAN sounding bass part at the end. Or, in Unfinished 8, the lyrics I loved you like heaven but I just gave you hell. And then there is the perfectly recorded song, Fine. It shows off the musical skills of each player at different times and for different reasons. I cant make this point strongly enough, so Im going to make it the last point of this review: Every single musician in Geist realizes that the best way to show their musicianship is by being tasteful and dynamic. They do it in spades on Decreasing Circles. All of them. Damn! I wish they all lived in Hawaii so I could play with them. John and Terry (both of whom recorded it), Anna and Neill, Stuart, Long Dave and Ben (mixing and mastering): thank you. Clearly, many many hours were put into this effort. I hope like hell this one busts you guys loose. And heres yet another final note: I hope that your band is up for the countless hours of dedication it is going to take to put this album over the top. Ill be over here on the sidelines watching and hoping. Dennis AlstrandRead full review
I bought this album on a bit of a whim - trying to find something that wasn't same old same old etc. A friend told me about them - apparently they play round local pubs and stuff - just turn up and play fantastic sets of original songs. Cool or what? The album is hard to describe, cos it sounds so individual - quite rocking but also quite funny and with the violin in there it's always unexpected too. I've listened to nothing else in the last two weeks since I bought it. Some tracks make you want to dance, some are night music, some are in between. I can't work out why they're not really well known, but I'm going to try and tell anyone I can that if they haven't got this, they're missing something. The biggest thing for me is that it's so REAL. The emotion is so genuine, rather than the sort of fake-sounding rubbish that's always on the radio. It's just great. Maybe in a about a month I'll be able to be more specific, but right now I just have to say buy it buy it buy it!Read full review
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