Distracting elements in songs (bad production/melody/etc.)

[Ten Pound Hammer]

So there's a song you like, but there's a single element of it you don't like. Maybe it's bad production, maybe it's a weak melody or weak vocal.

* Trace Adkins, "Just Fishin'" — I've mentioned several times why this one bothers me. The lyrics are a great father-daughter story, but the melody is so monotone that I can't get into it. Also, the production is terribly uninspired. I can usually recognize a song after only hearing it twice, but this one would come on and I would have no clue what it was because the intro was so unmemorable.

* In general, anything written by Casey Beathard from "Drinkin' Bone" onward will distract me with how limited the melody is. It's like he thinks that D major is the only key that exists, and that D, E, F♯, A, and B are the only notes on the scale.

* Miranda Lambert, "Over You" — the screaming guitar solo before the last verse is WAY out of place in an otherwise somber and (by Frank Liddell's standards, at least) somewhat restrained song. The guitar is turned up to 11, and then compressed like crazy so it sounds all tinny and messy. I can't even make out any individual notes, just a bunch of noise. Hey Frank, 11 is not the only setting on a guitar amp!

* Carrie Underwood, "So Small" — "When you figure out love is all that matters after all / It sure makes everything else feel so small". That line just bothers me, because I don't get that sentiment. And I find her BELTING out the line "So small" the second time around very ironic.

* Katrina Elam, "Love Is" — I've said this one before too. I would like this song a lot more if she DIDN'T BELT THE SNOT OUT OF IT. It's really jarring to listen to.

* Craig Morgan, "Love Remembers" — Same thing with the overdone belting. Especially that last note.

* George Strait, "It Just Comes Natural" — His voice warbles on "Tumbleweeds roll". It's like his voice cracked, they tried to cover it with Auto-Tune, and doing so only made it worse.

* Joe Nichols, "Gimmie That Girl" — Ugh, why all the Auto-Tune? It makes him sound like C-3PO on this song.

* Alan Jackson, "Monday Morning Church" — Amazing song, but Patty Loveless' backing vocals just do not blend in at all. Some parts, you almost hear more Patty than Alan.

* Cole Swindell, "Hope You Get Lonely Tonight" — Another one I've said before. The vocals and lyrics are just fine, IMO, but the production is atrocious. All I hear is way-too-loud electric guitar and the worst programmed drum machine I've ever heard. (That jackhammer noise 5 seconds in — what in God's name IS that?!?) I shared this song on TV Tropes, and at least three other people said they found the production laughably bad.

* Reba/Kelly Clarkson, "Because of You" — The bridge is horribly produced. I can't even hear what Reba is singing because the highly compressed wall of instrumentation drowns her out completely.

* Pat Green, "Wave on Wave" — The radio edit takes out the backing vocals on the line "The clouds broke out, the angels cried". Literally nothing else is changed. Why change only two seconds of a song for the radio edit for something so trivial? Also, the removal of the backing vocals there undermines the power of that line, IMO.

* Speaking of pointless changes — the "If I called us a cab/stood and danced right now" in Lady Antebellum's "Lookin' for a Good Time" and "spittin' my dip inside/tonight" from Jake Owen's "Eight Second Ride" are a toss-up in my mind for "most pointless lyrical change for a radio edit ever". I sing the original line whenever I hear either song on the radio.

[sabre14]

* Jimmy Wayne - "I Will" (you can add "Do You Believe Me Now" to this topic too. I really like both songs but the production on both was overdone. In fact, the first time I heard "I Will", I got scared by the time the chorus kicked in)

* LeAnn Rimes - "Nothin' Better To Do" (I love the sound and production but I couldn't understand half the lyrics. Then when I looked them up, I didn't even get what some of them meant)

* Gary Allan - "Today" (great Brice Long song and Gary's vocals were stellar as usual, but maybe the worst production of his career)

* Ashley Monroe - "Satisfied" (I like the song and Ashley as an artist, but her vocals on the notes required in this song just didn't work for me)

* Hunter Hayes - "Wanted" (the idea and lyrics were good but the melody overall feel put me to sleep. I never understood to this day, why this song was so huge)

[Ten Pound Hammer]

Oct 6, 2014 12:00:27 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

* Jimmy Wayne - "I Will" (you can add "Do You Believe Me Now" to this topic too. I really like both songs but the production on both was overdone. In fact, the first time I heard "I Will", I got scared by the time the chorus kicked in)

Agreed on this one.

Oct 6, 2014 12:00:27 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

* LeAnn Rimes - "Nothin' Better To Do" (I love the sound and production but I couldn't understand half the lyrics. Then when I looked them up, I didn't even get what some of them meant)

"It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss??? with all these marbles in my mouth."

Oct 6, 2014 12:00:27 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

* Gary Allan - "Today" (great Brice Long song and Gary's vocals were stellar as usual, but maybe the worst production of his career)

I don't think this one is too bad, at least no worse than the bad production that Mark Wright has sometimes saddled Gary with. The big wall of strings reminds me of "Address in the Stars", which in turn reminds me that Chris Lindsey is a pretty sucky producer too. (And I'm not saying that just because he and I had a clash on Wikipedia... ;))

Oct 6, 2014 12:00:27 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

* Hunter Hayes - "Wanted" (the idea and lyrics were good but the melody overall feel put me to sleep. I never understood to this day, why this song was so huge)

After hearing this song a few more times, I've decided I don't even like the lyrics. Just early One Direction-level generic sweet nothings to make the teenage girls swoon.

[Deleted]

The "So Small" lyric is about realizing that love matters more than the trivial things we stress out about in everyday life :).

My biggest pet peeve with Country nowadays is overproduction, but combine that with overdone vocals, and I'm out.

Here Comes Goodbye & What Hurts The Most- I'm normally a big fan, but the produvyin and vocals make these two nearly unlistenable to me.

Just A Dream by Carrie- Superb song and vocals, but I can't stand the production.


I like "Over You" alright, but the guitar solo is off-putting, and (IMO), Lidell stripped Miranda's voice of personality here

[rsmatto]

Oct 6, 2014 12:00:27 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

* Jimmy Wayne - "I Will" (you can add "Do You Believe Me Now" to this topic too. I really like both songs but the production on both was overdone. In fact, the first time I heard "I Will", I got scared by the time the chorus kicked in)


* Hunter Hayes - "Wanted" (the idea and lyrics were good but the melody overall feel put me to sleep. I never understood to this day, why this song was so huge)

The lyrics hit home with many women (nearly every female wants to hear their lover say things like the words in this song). The melody was simple and sweet, like the lyrics. The first moment I heard it on a pre-release promo copy, I knew it was a "smash."

[Andy]

Fun topic.

-Forced, nonsensical rhymes. Like in "People Are Crazy", the "front page obituary, he was a millionaire-y" line. I'd rather they just leave the word as is rather than forcing it. It doesn't bother me to the extent that it prevents my enjoyment of the song, but I found it distracting the first time I listened to it. Probably just me.

-Overproduction in general. A song can have good lyrics and a good vocal, but if it has an extremely cluttered, loud or syrupy production, it's very hard for me to get into it.

-Totally agree about Joe Nichols' "Gimme That Girl." The album has some great tracks, but it was also the album when Joe Nichols started to go downhill in my view.

I can't think of any more specific examples right now, but I'll be sure to post them as I think of them.

[Deleted]

Oct 6, 2014 18:39:20 GMT -5 Andy said:

Fun topic.

-Forced, nonsensical rhymes. Like in "People Are Crazy", the "front page obituary, he was a millionaire-y" line. I'd rather they just leave the word as is rather than forcing it. It doesn't bother me to the extent that it prevents my enjoyment of the song, but I found it distracting the first time I listened to it. Probably just me.

Doesn't Billy just sing "he was a millionaire, he...he left his fortune to..."

It sounds like he sings the word "he" twice, which isn't all that uncommon. Or at least that's how I've always heard/interpreted that song.

[Andy]

Oct 6, 2014 18:43:17 GMT -5 jhomes87 said:

Oct 6, 2014 18:39:20 GMT -5 Andy said:

Fun topic.

-Forced, nonsensical rhymes. Like in "People Are Crazy", the "front page obituary, he was a millionaire-y" line. I'd rather they just leave the word as is rather than forcing it. It doesn't bother me to the extent that it prevents my enjoyment of the song, but I found it distracting the first time I listened to it. Probably just me.

Doesn't Billy just sing "he was a millionaire, he...he left his fortune to..."

It sounds like he sings the word "he" twice, which isn't all that uncommon. Or at least that's how I've always heard/interpreted that song.

You're probably right. Looks like that particular entry belongs in the "Misheard Lyrics" thread instead! 

[sabre14]

Oct 6, 2014 18:45:36 GMT -5 Andy said:

Oct 6, 2014 18:43:17 GMT -5 jhomes87 said:

Doesn't Billy just sing "he was a millionaire, he...he left his fortune to..."

It sounds like he sings the word "he" twice, which isn't all that uncommon. Or at least that's how I've always heard/interpreted that song.

You're probably right. Looks like that particular entry belongs in the "Misheard Lyrics" thread instead! 

No the lyric was "Millionairee" instead of Millionaire". It was intended to make a rhyme.

I deleted my last post when I messed up my quote intentions and original idea.

[Deleted]

Oct 6, 2014 18:48:49 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

No the lyric was "Millionairee" instead of Millionaire". It was intended to make a rhyme.

It was definitely intended to rhyme but I prefer it to be two words, "millionaire" and "he". I've seriously never thought of it as "millionairee" just because that doesn't make any sense, and because the next word is "he" anyway.

Does anyone have the album booklet? (I don't trust online lyric sites--they're constantly filled with mistakes. I mean, almost 50 years later we still don't know the lyrics to "Gentle On My Mind"). It'd be really dumb if they actually spell "millionaire" wrong. It's just never bothered me because I've always heard Billy as singing "he" twice in order to complete the rhyme with "obituary".

[Deleted]

Jerrod Niemann- Donkey
I mean seriously the song has such deep lyrics and a very well developed story but then he just HAS to mention that old fart George Jones and ruin an otherwise terrific song ;)

[Markus Meyer]

One that comes to mind immediately is "People Loving People". I really love the message, but the thin vocal makes it far less enjoyable to me.

[Ten Pound Hammer]

Another one: "Take It All Out on Me" by Mark Wills is mostly a very good song, but there's a very obvious mastering error in the first verse that makes it sound really distorted and fuzzy. I'm pretty sure it's not just my copy either.

[sabre14]

Oct 6, 2014 21:57:53 GMT -5 Ten Pound Hammer said:

Another one: "Take It All Out on Me" by Mark Wills is mostly a very good song, but there's a very obvious mastering error in the first verse that makes it sound really distorted and fuzzy. I'm pretty sure it's not just my copy either.

Oh, that's a good one. I agree on the first verse sounding fuzzy complaint. I always thought that one was a tad bit over produced as well. But still a good song that should have done better chart wise - Just like "Hank" and "Days Of Thunder" should have done better. 

[Deleted]

Sticking with recent songs to vent my frustration in the "productivity" (heh) of music lately.

Agree wholeheartedly on "Hope You Get Lonely Tonight." Cole playing it acoustically proves a much better display of the lyrics and music. One of the most absurdly produced songs I've ever heard outside of mainstream music. I thank the good old guys at FGL for that.

Why does "Sweet Little Something" need to start with blips that sound like I just fired up my old Super Nintendo? The guitar solo moments later would have been a sufficient place to start. And the blips continue through the whole song!

I love Brad but the ending to "Crushin' It" bothers me! Just when the steel guitar starts to get hot. My girlfriend likes how it ends so maybe it's just me.

I've actually started liking "Leave the Night On" (regardless of its genre) but the "whoops" at pauses in the music really bother me.

Agree about "People Loving People." Did Garth record the vocals on his iPhone?

Whatever the noise is in the beginning of "Something Bad" that sounds like cat ghosts trying to steal my soul.

[Todd]

I can think of two instances. After the first few verses of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," there sounds like some slight feedback to me.

On the song "Big Love," by the Bellamy Brothers, there is what I thought was a glitch, kind of like it skips. For a long time, I thought my cd had a defect, but I recently listened to the song on youtube and heard it the same way. I'm not a musical person by any means, so maybe it's just my untrained ear.

[Ten Pound Hammer]

Todd: Where in "Big Love" do you hear the skip? I just listened to the song and I don't hear it anywhere.

Thought of a few more:

* On the last "All the Federales say" in "Pancho & Lefty", the backing vocals sound really muffled and distorted. I don't know if that was intentional or not.

* On "River Bank", a lot of the lines sound like they were spliced together from different takes. To me, it's most noticeable when "We'll find a big cruise ship and buy the whole damn thing" — the phrasing on "We'll find a" is way different from the rest of the line.

* When I was 14, I thought that the backing vocals near the end of "When I Think About Angels" by Jamie O'Neal sounded like they had been artificially pitched-up. Listening to them again, I think they sound fine.

* A lot of David Frizzell and/or Shelly West songs actually manage to be underproduced. The instruments are mixed super low and soft, while the huge wall of backing vocals is pushed to the forefront. And to me, this makes it really noticeable that the bass backing vocal is just someone's voice shifted down. (For instance, the big deep "amigo!" near the end of "Jose Cuervo" by Shelly West.) It's not really bad production per se, just kind of strange since it's so different.

* Ray Stevens also used pitch-shifted backing vocals a lot in the 70s and 80s. For instance, the bass vocal on "Turn Your Radio On" is obviously his voice shifted down a bit, and I think the "female" vocals are just him singing falsetto and pitched up a bit. He also had a very strident delivery that made some of his ballads hard to stomach, but he toned that down in the 80s.

* One of the kids in the children's chorus on "Angels Among Us" is noticeably off-key. (Still, this is one of the better kids' choruses I've heard on a song because AT LEAST THEY'RE NOT SHOUTING.)

* Also off-key: whoever's doing the female vocals near the end of "Guy Like Me" by Pat Green. She's just shouting off-key.

[Deleted]

I feel like there are quite a few Lady A singles I could have gotten into, if not for the melodies that put me to sleep.

Hello World, Own The Night, Dancin' Away With My Heart and Just A Kiss are just...there and I feel like the lack of melody/tempo played a big part in my dislike for these songs.

[sabre14]

A couple more songs that had elements that bugged me.

* Carolyn Dawn Johnson - "I Don't Want You To Go" (I like this song but I remember being super annoyed that she said "another, nother long week" in the chorus. I was only 12 or so when it came out and I vividly remember being urked by it every time it came on)

* Taylor Swift - "You Belong With Me" (this is actually one of the Taylor songs I enjoy but her vocals get super rough in that second verse - especially when she sings "Hey isn't this easy")

* Lost Trailers - "Why Me" (okay I really love this song, but am I the only one who jumped when you first heard it? The production at the beginning just explodes off the speakers)

* Shania Twain - "Shoes" (the "It's amazing what a little polish will do" line is cringe worthy. The melody I actually thought was fine and somewhat catchy but way Shania sings or talks the lyrics along with the overall lack of flow with said lyrics really irritated me)

[onebuffalo]

Oct 8, 2014 14:50:37 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

A couple more songs that had elements that bugged me.

* Carolyn Dawn Johnson - "I Don't Want You To Go" (I like this song but I remember being super annoyed that she said "another, nother long week" in the chorus. I was only 12 or so when it came out and I vividly remember being urked by it every time it came on)

* Taylor Swift - "You Belong With Me" (this is actually one of the Taylor songs I enjoy but her vocals get super rough in that second verse - especially when she sings "Hey isn't this easy")

* Lost Trailers - "Why Me" (okay I really love this song, but am I the only one who jumped when you first heard it? The production at the beginning just explodes off the speakers)

* Shania Twain - "Shoes" (the "It's amazing what a little polish will do" line is cringe worthy. The melody I actually thought was fine and somewhat catchy but way Shania sings or talks the lyrics along with the overall lack of flow with said lyrics really irritated me)

For the Taylor Swift example, she just breathes in the wrong places. Someone pointed that out to me and I said 'holy...'

[bboat11]

Oct 8, 2014 14:50:37 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

* Carolyn Dawn Johnson - "I Don't Want You To Go" (I like this song but I remember being super annoyed that she said "another, nother long week" in the chorus. I was only 12 or so when it came out and I vividly remember being urked by it every time it came on)

The line in the chorus is actually "I'm at the beginning of another long week." You can stop cringing now!

[sabre14]

Oct 9, 2014 4:46:20 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Oct 8, 2014 14:50:37 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

* Carolyn Dawn Johnson - "I Don't Want You To Go" (I like this song but I remember being super annoyed that she said "another, nother long week" in the chorus. I was only 12 or so when it came out and I vividly remember being urked by it every time it came on)

The line in the chorus is actually "I'm at the beginning of another long week." You can stop cringing now!

Nope. Listen for yourself. ;)

[bboat11]

Oct 9, 2014 11:05:32 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

Oct 9, 2014 4:46:20 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

The line in the chorus is actually "I'm at the beginning of another long week." You can stop cringing now!

Nope. Listen for yourself. ;)

I just listened again, and she definitely says, "I'm at the beginning of another long week." I mean, she does drop the "g" to say "beginnin' ", but the word is clearly there! And all the lyric sites agree!

If that is not what she says, then what would the line be? "I'm at the begin another 'nother long week"? That would definitely make zero sense

Haha not that it's that big of a deal... I just know I'm right ;)

[Markus Meyer]

The majority of Rodney Atkins' singles would be so much better if the backup vocals weren't so prominent.

[sabre14]

Oct 9, 2014 23:05:55 GMT -5 bboat11 said:

Oct 9, 2014 11:05:32 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

Nope. Listen for yourself. ;)

I just listened again, and she definitely says, "I'm at the beginning of another long week." I mean, she does drop the "g" to say "beginnin' ", but the word is clearly there! And all the lyric sites agree!

If that is not what she says, then what would the line be? "I'm at the begin another 'nother long week"? That would definitely make zero sense

Haha not that it's that big of a deal... I just know I'm right ;)

I do see that she is singing "of another", but I seriously don't recognize it unless I'm paying super close attention. I swear to God it sounds like she's singing "another" twice in a row. This is something that still bugs the heck out of me. Carolyn's fault to not properly distinguish "of" and "another".

Though I agree with Ten Pound Hammer. When David Lee Murphy sings "We've made some memories" in "Dust On The Bottle", it sounds like "man babies" or whatever it is I thought he was singing when I was a little kid. 

Obviously some songs I have people who feel the same and others I'm completely alone on. It's so Complicated....See what I did there. ;)

[Ten Pound Hammer]

Bad grammar doesn't usually bother me in a song. There are just too many "ain't"s in country music to go all grammar-nazi over. But still:

* "Angry All the Time" by Tim McGraw: "Twenty years have came and went" — What was wrong with "have come and gone"? Grammatically correct, and sounds a lot less awkward.

* "Walkin' Away" by Diamond Rio: "These occasional moments of weakness only makes our love more strong." — Subject/verb disagreement much?

* "God Gave Me You" by Blake Shelton: "That you, an angel lovely…" — What was wrong with "a lovely angel" here? (This also falls into the "good lyrics and vocals, atrocious production" camp. Seriously, I get that it was originally a terribly-produced, bombastic, too-strident CCM song, but that doesn't mean you give it the same sucky production when you cover it…)

[sabre14]

I got a couple bad grammar one's.

* Tim McGraw - "I Like It, I Love It" ("I throwed out my shoulder but I won her that teddy bear". I think it was meant to use improper use of the word throw there, but it sounds really awkward. Just change it to "threw" please)

* Carolina Rain - "Get Outta My Way" (One of my all-time favorites. But the second chorus has a line that says "Gotta go it alone"...)

[Ten Pound Hammer]

^ "Go it alone" is correct grammar. It's just another way of saying "do it by myself".

[sabre14]

Oct 10, 2014 16:58:30 GMT -5 Ten Pound Hammer said:

^ "Go it alone" is correct grammar. It's just another way of saying "do it by myself".

You're right but there are better ways to say what they wanted to say in the song. If you look at a style book, I believe that "go it alone" would not be first in line.

"I'm a man on a mission, gotta do it alone"

"I'm a man on a mission, gotta go out alone" (though this one wouldn't work right with the melody and rhyme)

Again, it's technically right but when there are better option, then that's where I have a problem. By the way, "Get Outta My Way" is one of my favorites of 2006 so I could care less what lyric they use.

Edit: Okay, I looked at dictionary and thesaurus.com and both did in fact say that "go it alone" is a correct grammatical phrase. But my style book I use for grammar says that "Do it alone" would be a better option. I'll concede this battle though and give the victory to Orrall & Wright. :)

[Todd]

Oct 7, 2014 12:36:35 GMT -5 Ten Pound Hammer said:

Todd: Where in "Big Love" do you hear the skip? I just listened to the song and I don't hear it anywhere.

It's at 2:25, just before the word "glance."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPAtVPgrmC8



Here's one more. When I've heard John Anderson sing "I Wish I Could've Been There" on tv in recent years, it sounds like he's pronouncing it "I wish I cood-ie been there."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdTAhlDZlWM