New Alice Album in 2 or 3 months

[Shoesalesman]

With time, I appreciate all of the albums for what they are.

Well said.

[guttertrash]

the positive thing is that the new album hasn't got a storyline : so Alice won't feel the need to make everything fit as it was the case with ACAS, and maybe partially responsable for ACAS not fulfulling my (our) expectations..

For me, the concept actually kept him in a a place where the darker elements of his humor came out. I find the weakness with ACAS was in the engineering and production. Engineering wise the tones used for the instruments are just awful, and the mix is horrendous. Production wise, the songs never seem above half-baked, demo stage, sketch tracks, but that could be because of the lackluster, screwball mix job.

[Saint&Sinner]

For me, the concept actually kept him in a a place where the darker elements of his humor came out. I find the weakness with ACAS was in the engineering and production. Engineering wise the tones used for the instruments are just awful, and the mix is horrendous. Production wise, the songs never seem above half-baked, demo stage, sketch tracks, but that could be because of the lackluster, screwball mix job.

I think you're largely right, the production from top to bottom, front to back sucked. Every decision was flawed - i mean how many songs have bloody hand claps on them? I think you would have still had a couple of clunkers (hungry) but with someone vaguely competent at the help it would have been what we were actually promised. Some of the basic tracks are good to great -
I know where you live,
Vengeance is mine,
Catch me if you can
One that got away,
Salvation
Iam the spider
These were all great tracks which got pulled down to "OK" or "good" because of terrible production. I think someone earlier said I am the spider was a great track and should have been the linchpin - not the epilogue - i agree wholesale, it was a dark, brutal track that never quite lived up to how good the track would have been with a good producer.

[bigbradwolf]

For me, the concept actually kept him in a a place where the darker elements of his humor came out. I find the weakness with ACAS was in the engineering and production. Engineering wise the tones used for the instruments are just awful, and the mix is horrendous. Production wise, the songs never seem above half-baked, demo stage, sketch tracks, but that could be because of the lackluster, screwball mix job.

I think you're largely right, the production from top to bottom, front to back sucked. Every decision was flawed - i mean how many songs have bloody hand claps on them? I think you would have still had a couple of clunkers (hungry) but with someone vaguely competent at the help it would have been what we were actually promised. Some of the basic tracks are good to great -
I know where you live,
Vengeance is mine,
Catch me if you can
One that got away,
Salvation
Iam the spider
These were all great tracks which got pulled down to "OK" or "good" because of terrible production. I think someone earlier said I am the spider was a great track and should have been the linchpin - not the epilogue - i agree wholesale, it was a dark, brutal track that never quite lived up to how good the track would have been with a good producer.

I'd agree with those tracks being good tracks. If you listen to I Am The Spider you can hear the riff from Stone Temple Pilots' 'Sex Type Thing'.

[Si]

I think you're largely right, the production from top to bottom, front to back sucked. Every decision was flawed - i mean how many songs have bloody hand claps on them? I think you would have still had a couple of clunkers (hungry) but with someone vaguely competent at the help it would have been what we were actually promised. Some of the basic tracks are good to great

Couldn`t agree more. The major faults in ACAS are the production and arrangement choices on the songs. The handclaps are just horrible and the very basic structure (90% of the songs follow exactly the same blueprint) to the material is very poor. No wonder Alice ran back to Ezrin after it, and that Ezrin wasn`t interested in working on a follow-up.
The riffs are there and I think if Ezrin had been the producer every song would have been better. The structures would have been different, there would be more lyrics and they would have been better, not just lots of repetition, and the whole concept would maybe have held together better. The end result was what a pop producer thought Alice was, and is far from what it actually should have been.
It's a shame that someone couldn`t take the original recording files and completely remake the album from the bottom up with a better ear for classic rock/metal. Of course that will never happen.

[Somwhere In Auckland]

Maybe that's what Alice was going for with ACAS? He was asked at a 2017 meet what he thinks of the album and he has nothing bit good stuff to say about it.