Production thoughts.

What do you think of the quality of the productions of CDs you bought this year?
Were they good, average or very good?
What is/are the band(s) with the best produced CDs of this year?

Is it so band who release their CDs with a label produce better CDs than indie bands?
Is there a label that's famous because they produce very good qualitiy CDs with a complete booklet with pics, lyrics and so?

What definites a good quality of a CD for you?

Almost every album I bought this year had good production. The only one that didn't, and I didn't care, was Regime "Straight Through Your Heart".

I am a stickler for production quality. Its a rare album with poor production that will interest me (the aforementioned Regime being one of those rare albums).

I'm not usually a huge stickler for production, but I don't like it when an album sounds muddy (or muffled). And I certainly don't dig when one of the instruments stands out too much (like a sharp snare, or when the guitars overpower the rest of the music). Most of the albums I bought this year had great enough production for me. (except may Scarlet Rayne, but that is a rather old recording).

Mostly, I'm not too concerned with production, although I don't like things to sound too bad. No album had disappointed me this year.

For me it's important how it sound, how the music is, the lyrics.

I typically don't care that much about production, but there have been a couple of stinkers this year:

X-Sinner
Saint


Both were disappointments for me. I know they can both do better than what they released this year.

Saint is a good example. I really like CSE; don't hear what everyone else doesn't like about it. Classic Saint in my book.

I don't expect a stellar production from Saint. I don't think that is something they strive for. I also like CSE (better than The Mark actually).