Wall of Sound

If you are a Beatles Fun it's fun to listen to the records "Let it Be" and "Let it Be Naked" back to back.

Let it be was produced by Phil Spector, and has a lot of the wall of sound trappings such as heavy use of effects, and heavily overdubbed string/chorus/etc parts.

Let it be naked is a remixed version of the album Paul McCartney was involved in to remove much of the Spector wall of sound parts.

For example listen to these back to back:

  * (spector) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR4HjTH_fTM
  * (naked)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfVAJNqWw84

  * (spector) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90M60PzmxEE
  * (naked)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLddD6Xf-8g

Why do we keep deifying this guy?

He's a murderer who was clever enough to give his studio techniques a catchy name.

Huh! I was expecting some reference to post-rock like Mogwai and Mono, and/or dreampop/shoegaze like My Bloody Valentine.

Two of the examples of later applications of the wall of sound in the article are Jesus and Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey," and Spiritualized's "Let it Come Down," which are both fantastic albums if you are into that. The latter doesn't use the same kind of reverb, but that technique of creating a giant wash of sound was huge across the entire subgenre of shoegazer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoegaze), and arguably extends into the current era with the whole modular synth drone scene, which comprises a varied spectrum of diminishingly listenable microtonal soundscapes.

I think I understand why Spectre was less about the song itself than the overall effect of the production. The early Raveonettes albums took the best parts of most of what he produced and made more perfect versions from a lofi pop perspective, imo. Songs like "Lust" "Great Love Sound" and their cover of "I wanna be adored," are probably the most comprehensive examples the style Spectre pioneered, and I'd say they improved it with interpretation. I would probably even recommend "Lust," and "Dead Sound" as examples that representative of Spectre's sound more than any of the actual songs he produced. Nothing can compete with hearing JMC for the first time in the 80s/90s, but the Raveonettes are pretty close. They're to that era what Interpol was to Joy Division - interpreted, and almost better. That wall of sound technique over pop is a big influence on my own stuff still.

fascinating. Spectors approach at times seems to share a lot in common with the Indian tradition of over-driven vocals in music.

https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vs20j/e...