HoL: SOS, Baying, Fidelity, etc.

[Doug Alan <nessus>]

> From: Mark Mallett

> However <doug!> I'd like to suggest that if you post something to
> net.music, refrain from sending it along this list also.  Is that
> reasonable?

Well, many of the people on this list are Arpa people and can't get
net.music, and many UseNet people on the list tell me that they don't
read net.music.....

> Comments on the new KB album:  First of all, I bought the Hounds of Love
> CD on Sunday, two days after the album was officially released.

They actually had it *before* the album was released in the U.S.,
because the CD is an import.

> I had to laugh at the vocal background in the title song-- human voices
> imitating dog howling/baying.

You must be right, because someone else asked me "Don't you love the dog
baying in the title song?", but it doesn't sound like dogs to me.  Then
again, I've never owned a dog, so what do I know?  I'll believe you,
because then those background vocals make sense and are really neat.
Before I thought they were kind of silly....

> Another thing that I didn't notice is that in the song "Watching you
> Without Me" (which while I listen to it is my favorite, like many of
> the others) at about 2:06 into the song there is a morse code sequence
> in the background which spells out "SOS" three times.

You are right.  Thanks for pointing this out!  If anyone else notices
things like this, please post them!

Everyone I talk to thinks that "Watching You" is one of the best songs
on the album.  I dunno why, because it's my least favorite, but that's
still pretty damned good. 

> I really don't think that it was recorded very well.  It may be that I
> have a bad copy.  The level is extremely high-- and it seems to come
> out sounding flat as a result.  About 26 seconds into the last song
> there is a very bad sounding stretch.  Again, maybe it is just my
> copy.

I haven't noticed any of this.  I don't think the recording is *great*,
but it's not bad.  I don't think the dynamic range could be any more --
there's already some stuff going on that's so soft I can't hear it
unless I turn it up so that everything else is painfully loud.

I can understand hiss.  It turns out that KB's studio is only 24 tracks,
so she must have to do a lot of bouncing, and it's not digital either.

Unfortunately, with this album, and with "The Dreaming", my speakers
can't deal with the amount of high frequency energy, my headphones can't
deal with the amount of low frequency energy, and my car speakers can't
deal with either.  These have no problems with most other music I listen
to....

			-Doug