ISN'T IT TIME SINGLE VERSION (BBC Radio 2) LISTEN NOW

[drbeachboy]

As I recall, we went through this same Autotune scenario with TWGMTR single when it first went up on the Net. Everyone complained and then when the CD was released, the CD was nowhere near as bad as what we originally heard. I am betting that we have the same situation here with Isn't It Time. Are we not listening to a Internet radio stream here? I'm hoping this single will sound much better once it is officially released on CD.

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

As I recall, we went through this same Autotune scenario with TWGMTW single when it first went up on the Net. Everyone complained and then when the CD was released, the CD was nowhere near as bad as what we originally heard. I am betting that we have the same situation here with Isn't It Time. Are we not listening to a Internet radio stream here? I'm hoping this single will sound much better once it is officially released on CD.

Agreed. Especially after the FTTBA fiasco...

[Shady]

Aha - Artwork and Proof of a release - a promo single which has single mix and instrumental on ebay UK

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120980796746?_trksid=p5197.c0.m619#ht_500wt_949

Price has shot up!

I put my bid in and was beaten a minute later..

Won't even bother

[Alan Smith]

A few nice ideas S-bended by this baffling production.

<Flushing sound>

Hope it sounds better @ 45rpm 

[Austin]

Aaaand swing and a miss.

But hey, it wouldn't be the Beach Boys without some kind of f*ck-up.

[Freddie French-Pounce]

Aha - Artwork and Proof of a release - a promo single which has single mix and instrumental on ebay UK

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120980796746?_trksid=p5197.c0.m619#ht_500wt_949

Price has shot up!

I put my bid in and was beaten a minute later..

Won't even bother

Hopefully the instrumental shows up elsewhere digitally, but if not hopefully theres a 7" I can rip like the TWGMTR single

[CenturyDeprived]

Agreed that the autotune is crazy overdone, and very annoying - BUT.... I'll say that I actually really dig this new version, and more so than the album version.

[ArtVandalay]

They wrecked it. They did something similar with the single of Somewhere Near Japan.

The only thing I noticed different on the two versions of SNJ was the intro part. What did I miss?

[MBE]

I feel it was kind of "Kokomoed" in that the percussion (even if it was already programed on the album) and guitars sounded a lot more cold and lifeless. I think they just kind of dumbed it down, but really hearing this "Isn't It Time" is far more severe. It's kind of like a reverse Help Me, Rhonda but of course it isn't nearly as good. Too bad, I really thought this one would sound like the excellent version I heard in Milwaukee.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Lol, no. Autotune will never die because it allows record companies to seek out artists based on image rather than talent. Image is much more important than actually being able to sing or write good music here in the year of our lord 2012.

I disagree...many songs that are on the radio NOW (as in, 2012, as opposed to the past 5 or ten years) are actually good songs. The issue is the production, the arrangements,  and (especially) the mixes aren't to a lot of our tastes. A project I worked on recently (doing the mix) bared that out. Basically, the band did covers of pop songs that came out this year, but arranged in a different style. The melodies were kept exactly the same; the only real difference was which instruments were used, and occasionally the tempo. You know what? Hearing 'Wide Awake' by Katy Perry as a piano instrumental made me realize how good of a song it actually is. Hearing some of Ke$ha's songs done as folk/rock was pretty interestingly good. There is still a decent amount of good songs on the radio; sometimes you just have to listen better!


And for the record, I happen to like Nicki Minaj....

[stack-o-tracks]

Maybe I'm just getting crotchety and don't understand the things "kids these days" are into in my old age of less than half a century.

 

[Autotune]

This is a complex issue. A lot of it sounds over-effected, of course. Yet, in many other ways this flows much better than the album version. As if informed by the 50+ live performances (interesting as most of this has not been re-recorded). I would not blame "third parties" for this as the song has developed into its single version pretty much before our eyes during the tour. It's the boys' call. Regarding the studio trickery, say what you will, but there's at least two BBs calling the shots here.


If this is aimed as a hit, then I think they did right in adding the instrumental touches, in making Brian's opening vocal flow more nicely, and in removing Jeff's lead from the bridge. There are other flaws that are kept, and some new ones, granted, but those two above-mentioned could keep this from being a hit, while the remainng flaws are not likely to have an effect on this song's chart performance. Not that this will be a hit, that we'll find out later.

BBs music, even the best, is flawed. Think of the coughing and talking during some of their undisputably immortal songs; or the sloppy double-tracking at times; or the poor tape splicing that betrays some of their most gorgeous a capella renditions; or the harmonies, even at their best, so many times one take appart from being flawless. This music breathes humanity in those shortcomings and somehow that makes it more relatable and compelling; and it makes the BBs, and Brian's music in particular, a truly unique case: so close to perfection, yet so far from it.

[GuyOnTheBeach]

Does anyone else find it a little strange that the bass is hard panned to one speaker in this mix?, that's something that's just not done in 2012, I have a feeling that this is a working mix.
Also absent is the previously mentioned (and performed in concert a few times) four part harmony in the "Isn't it time" part at the end of the chorus, by what I heard on the concert recording, that sounded really good and would be a shame not to include that.

I doubt that this is the master (and I rather hope it isn't)

[Edit] Although, if you listen to the song over lo quality ear plugs (such as the ones which come with an iPod, it seems to make more sense, which isn't a totally unrealistic thing I suppose since most of the top 40 crowd will probably be using such peripherals or laptop speakers to listen to this with.

[Wirestone]

It sounds okay. Prefer the less fussed-over approach of the original.  This is a chart-driven remix. Sting had some truly terrible ones for his 10 Summoner's Tales album. It happens.

[I. Spaceman]

And for the record, I happen to like Nicki Minaj....

Me too.

[puni puni]

It's not that bad. The beginning is slightly better. They changed the wrong lyrics. The instrumental works better at a fast pace. Autotune is still on there as if it was allegory for heart disease.

The more I listen, the more I prefer it over the album version. I just REALLY wish they changed that section with Muk Lub singing about "bringing back the good ol' times" instead of "isn't it time we get readying then, isn't it time we go steady again" which I thought was a great hook.

[Rocky Raccoon]

As I recall, we went through this same Autotune scenario with TWGMTW single when it first went up on the Net.

TWGMTW? 

That's Why God Made the Wadio.  Covered by Elmer Fudd.



Sorry.

[the professor]

Last note from the professor.  I ought to be studying my Mandarin or reading up on the Great Wall, but I am hear reading this thread.  Upon 10-12 more listens from a generous MP3 download (still from the radio) I conclude that 50% of my worry is based in the effect of looking at a Polaroid next to an Ansel Adams photo. That is, the radio rip is murky and in all ways technically inferior to the album.  That said, the B-pain is the harshest part for me; the rest of the changes I am getting used to. I will set aside the awkwardness and the temporal  inconsistencies wrought by the fiddling with the lyrics.

Bottom line, this is not at all the tragic horror that some of us feared.  Let's keep hoping for a better final product, even if that means this same version but in its actual, CD-quality manifestation.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

@ Rocky

[runnersdialzero]

As I recall, we went through this same Autotune scenario with TWGMTW single when it first went up on the Net.

TWGMTW? 

That's Why God Made the Wadio.  Covered by Elmer Fudd.



Sorry.

lolololololololololol

[18thofMay]

As I recall, we went through this same Autotune scenario with TWGMTW single when it first went up on the Net.

TWGMTW? 

That's Why God Made the Wadio.  Covered by Elmer Fudd.



Sorry.

Post of the YEAR

[the professor]

As I recall, we went through this same Autotune scenario with TWGMTW single when it first went up on the Net.

TWGMTW? 

That's Why God Made the Wadio.  Covered by Elmer Fudd.



Sorry.

I'll  be laughing all the way to Shanghai. btw: 10 more listens. . . . .getting better and better. Who is with me? Love the organ and Dave's guitar!

Post of the YEAR

[FatherOfTheMan Sr101]

AUTOTUNE really pisses me off because I do all my recordings clean and live, I spend hours on vocals then these modern assholes sh*t out a vocal and AUTOTUNE it and people buy it.

Fml

[runnersdialzero]

AUTOTUNE really pisses me off because I do all my recordings clean and live, I spend hours on vocals then these modern assholes sh*t out a vocal and AUTOTUNE it and people buy it.

Fml

The lesson here is to stop trying at all. ;(

[drbeachboy]

Yeah, it was a wasically wadio.