[non-entity]

Hello there!

This might appear a little weird, but I just noticed something funny... As I listened to their "Greatest Hits" album (2001) I incidentally put an eye on the "spectrum"-tab in foobar2000, and the obvious presence of almost every range kinda made me curious. After seeing this I checked MANY other records as well, including many different kinds of music, but The Cure (or this album) was the only example where I could see this.

So, why is their spectrum so "whole" while most other records I have don't show this at all? Did the mastering engineer put it this way in order to achieve that listeners subconsciously pay more attention? It doesn't seem very strong compressed to me, soundwise it's clearly not amongst the "best sounding records" I own, but it's ok. Is their music just so "rich" or has this other reasons?

Just heavy compression and a lot of EQing?

 

[dabblerblue]

Some of the original mixes of the songs on the albums were meant to have a bit of a wall of sound effect to them, from what I recall from old articles and can tell from listening to them.

At the time he tried to fill almost every single little nook and cranny with some sort of sound.

An interesting effect is that it can sometimes create little blind spots in the tunes. If you listen to some of the densely mixed tracks and follow, say, the bass or one of the guitars or the keyboards, you'll hear them do something you never really quite noticed before.

Also, when there is a bit of a breakdown of sorts (as in A Strange Day), it can have a pretty profound effect in the song.

When The Cure is on the ball, they are among some of the best artists at pulling this off.

Here ends my $0.02.

 

[non-entity]

Wall of Sound? Like Phil Spector did? Well, this explains this a little. I'm listening to their music right now and I can't tell if I like what they did or if I don't. Even though I think that most of their songs sound yummy in one way or another, I just don't like this 'music on steroids'-thought. Well, I should mention that I prefer 'natural' music that isn't overproduced, but then again it's about the music and if I (and others, of course) like it, why not this way?

Anyway, thanks for the information!