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Thursday 14 July 2011

The Alarm - The Sound and Fury

On first listen to the latest album from Mike Peters and his band of merry musicians I will have to admit to being just slightly underwhelmed.
For an album that is called the sound and the fury I wasn't feeling a punch from it.
Now that a number of days have passed and each of the songs have bedded in I've decided that the reason for that is prior to hearing much of it from the studio my only point of reference for the music was from the live experience.
Put the two together and the studio versions sound like pale imitations of what the songs can sound like.
In the studio the heartfelt 'fury' seems to have been lost, distilled down, and tamed by going through the recording process.
I've said it before, but how do you capture the lightning that can spark from a live performance?
I'm not sure that you actually can, but even when a producer comes close to doing just that I reckon that it's a hit and miss stroke of luck.
This reworking of songs written during Mike Peters long career, while worthy, maybe could have been something that was tinkered with until a bit more energy was caught in the recording.
So while I'm now enjoying this album far more than I initially thought I would, I'm still longing to hear the songs played again with that Sound and Fury that is promised and is delivered each time Mike takes to the stage.

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