The Smiley Smile Message Board

I'm a bit obsessed with one of their older (2001) albums "Leave Here A Stranger."

It's heavily influenced by Pet Sounds and was even mixed in mono as a bit of a homage to it. It's roughly a concept album about being a touring musician and those hardships in the same way that Pet Sounds was roughly one about teenage love.

Oddly enough, I was hooked by this album long before I even realized the similarities. I don't agree with some of the more religious lyrics on the album, but despite its few flaws it's one of my favorite albums from this past decade.

I highly suggest giving it a listen on Spotify.

I can't find a full version of my favorite song off of the album, so here's the lead-off track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkBFDypYuAw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkBFDypYuAw)
also, if there was a 'single' off of the album it would've been this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0RfoKS3DKE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0RfoKS3DKE)

I'm a big fan of Starflyer 59. LHAS was the first new album I bought of theirs when it came out.
It was around the time I was really getting into The Beach Boys/Pet Sounds/etc., too.

Here is a good fan site with a messageboard:

www.sf59fans.com

I'm glad they got their latest album Kickstarter-ed and have recently started tracking.

Do you have LHAS on vinyl?

No I don't, sadly. I didn't start to really appreciate that album until around 2008. I was too young to appreciate it when it first was released and ignored it for a while because I remembered not being impressed by them.

I really like LHAS, but some of the vocals sound like they have some vocal tuning modification on it. Nothing like T-Pain or Cher, but minor use like it was originally intended. I would have to listen again to point out what I mean. The arrangements are stellar though. I had forgotten just how good it was until I listened to it again a few months ago.

I think the autotuning at points is intentional. It's most apparent on when i learn to sing which includes lines like

"Because a machine
Could burn the life out of me
Not the same when I try
It's just a bad lullaby"

I didn't think about it that way. If that's the case I wish they would have made a note of it in the booklet that it was intentional to match the song/lyrics.
That was the first album he did with a new producer after Gene Eugene died, so I thought maybe the new producer was ok with using Auto-Tune in places.

I can't remember if that is the main place where it sticks out for me though.

I'm listening to it again and I haven't heard any blatant use of auto-tune. The vocals are heavily processed, but that's not one of the effects that I'm hearing. Delay, verb, and heavy EQing. I hear a little at the end of the lines on "Can You Play Drums?" but I think it's used as an effect more than simple pitch correction since it's at the same place each time.

I was wrong about the effect on "When I Learn To Sing." It seems to be more of a flange effect.

I'm kind of glad you mentioned the auto-tune. I've never noticed the attention to detail in varied vocal effects on the album. I might have to borrow a few ideas...