#the song 4th of july is the least bad offender what I'm talking about it's relatively sparse and nice

[curfewplugs]

Wait while we're on the topic of Aimee Mann's Whatever. It's chock full of wonderful songs but Jon Brion's outlandish and fake deep production choices (production accidents?) almost ruin the whole thing. This was his first production gig and not only does it show, but it really seems like he didn't practice at all beforehand, like this was his practice, like he's experimenting to see how much pointless layering, how many bells and whistles and "hoo hoo ha!"s he can shove in the mix. Not to mention the mixes are inexcusably messy! Really listen and you find all kinds of random shit left in, like he was trying out an idea, didn't like it, but forgot to make sure he removed 100% of it. If I'm in the right mood it can come off as camp at best but most of the time I'm yearning to hear these songs competently produced and more stripped back.