Thursday 14 October 2010

Until The Day Is Done


I know Until The Day Is Done isn't really what Accelerate is all about, and I feel like a bit of an old school R.E.M. fan for saying this but, this is probably my favourite track on Accelerate. It's also the direction I would love them to take for their next album.

Until The Day Is Done is a 3/4 tempo politically charged ballad played predominantly on an acoustic guitar in Drop D tuning - I think I'm right in saying the first time this tuning has been employed by the band since Gardening At Night back in 1982. It's based around a guitar riff that I believe first saw the light back in 1992 around the time Automatic For The People was being written, which probably goes a long way to explaining why I particularly like this song!

It is, however, my least favourite piece of audio production on Accelerate. I could write a separate account for my disapointment with Jacknife Lee's work on Accelerate but I will save that for another time. It really does just sound like layers of mud, even the quieter verses sound mono and cloudy and I believe there is as much unwanted clipping/compression during the chorus as there is on some of the really loud songs on Accelerate. I don't mean to sound disrespectful towards Jacknife Lee because it's good the band have opted for a fresh producer and some of his work is quite edgy and dynamic but I can't help wishing someone like Scott Litt had produced this particular song.

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