Frost* - Day and Age

Just listened to the new Frost* and for me it's underwhelming. Jem mixed this and it sounds muddy, dead, over-compressed again! Nooooo! The lead vocals, which are sung mostly by John, are barely audible. A shame this wasn't mixed by John as his last Lonely Robot release sounded great. Solos, that make Frost's music special, are absent. The music is okay, but nothing grabs me. Of course this needs more spins but my initial rating would be 2.5 stars.

So, Frosties, what are your initial thoughts on this release?

^It's not on bandcamp, Zon has it if your a paid member. I just reviewed it, the best I can. Which is lame. Anyway, not their best for me - so far. The instrumental disc is more interesting to me than the vocal mix.

Seriously the best thing they've done but it's different to their previous releases. Falling Satellites was very Genesis sounding at times and very deliberately. I enjoyed it but this release is a lot heavier. It does have Jem's sense of humour coming through (the listener being called 'You scum' by what sounds like a little girl in the intro). Stylistically this will appeal to those like me that think Deadwing is the best Porcupine Tree album.  There are no issues with the sound mix whatsoever imo. I've listened to it on my Echo Dot as well as the full blown Hi Fi with floor standing speakers and it's perfectly clear and very punchy on both. 5/5 easily for this 'Jem' of an album!

You can listen to the album here.

projeKct wrote: It's my least favorite Frost* album to date. Milliontown was fantastic, Experiments in Mass Appeal and Falling Satellites were excellent, this one is good enough.

My least favorite to date also. They set the bar too high with Milliontown, and haven't reached those heights. Yet.

Grumpyprogfan wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: I just listened to the opening track from the new album on youtube. It sounded pretty good but I didn't hear anyone calling me scum.  You'll hear that later. If you listen to the entire album.

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: He said it was in the intro which I assumed was the opening track. I didn't hear it there. I haven't listened to the whole thing yet and based on some of these reviews I'm not sure I want to.

Maybe youtube didn't included it. Anyway, don't let a review influence you. Most of the reviews I've read praise this release.

^ About the listener being called 'You scum' by what sounds like a little girl in the intro, you can only hear it on the long version of the "Day and Age" track (11:50). The Youtube version in an edit (4:35).

I'm not that familiar with the Frost albums, I've only played them a few times but my thoughts on this one are that it's pretty good and I will be playing it again, but I can't say whether it's their best or not. It does sound quite "loud" but then I seem to remember Milliontown being the same. John's vocals are certainly not "inaudible" although they could probably come up in the mix a tad. I wouldn't say it sounded muddy either.

chopper wrote: I'm not that familiar with the Frost albums, I've only played them a few times but my thoughts on this one are that it's pretty good and I will be playing it again, but I can't say whether it's their best or not. It does sound quite "loud" but then I seem to remember Milliontown being the same. John's vocals are certainly not "inaudible" although they could probably come up in the mix a tad. I wouldn't say it sounded muddy either.

For me, the vocals are inaudible when the music gets louder or when the oceans of background vocals appear. This is also when the mix gets muddy.

Edited by Grumpyprogfan - May 17 2021 at 06:35