Tag Archives: Better

Shonen Knife: Our Best Place

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On February 15, 2023, “Good Charamel” and “P-Vine” label released “Our Best Place”, the 22nd Shonen Knife album. It was recorded in 2022, at “LM Studio” in Osaka, Japan, and was produced by Naoko Yamano.

Personnel:

All tracks by Naoko yamano, except where noted.

  • Naoko Yamano – lead and backing vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, percussion
  • Atsuko Yamano – lead and backing vocals, bass guitar
  • Risa Kawano – lead and backing vocals, drums
  • Naru Ishizuka – bass guitar, backing vocals
  • Akira Inada – recording
  • Ippei Suda – recording, mixing
  • Katsunori Owa – mastering
  • Atsushi Shibata – co-producer

Track listing:

  1. MUJINTO Rock
  2. Nice Day
  3. The Story of Baumkuchen
  4. Vamos Taquitos
  5. Spicy Veggie Curry
  6. Girl’s Rock (2023 version)
  7. Afternoon Tea
  8. Ocean Sunfish
  9. Better
  10. Just a Smile – David Patton, Billy Lyall

James Bay: Leap

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On July 8, 2022, “Mercury” and “Republic” labels released “Leap”, the third James Bay studio album. It was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee and London, and was produced by Dave Cobb, Finneas, Gabe Simon, Ian Fitchuk, James Bay, Sacha Skarbek, Jon Green and Benjamin Rice.

Personnel:

  • James Bay – lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, slide guitar, keyboards, percussion, programming 
  • Gabe Simon – electric guitar, organ, piano, synthesizer, percussion, backing vocals, programming
  • Todd Lombardo – acoustic guitar
  • Alex Tomkins – piano
  • Philip Towns – keyboards, synth bass, piano, mellotron, synthesizer
  • Reuben James – Wurlitzer electric piano
  • Jon Green – acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar, piano, keyboards, synthesizer, drums, percussion, backing vocals, programming
  • John Ryan – electric guitar, keyboards, drums, backing vocals, programming
  • Ian Fitchuk – acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion, backing vocals, programming
  • Mads Hauge – keyboards, percussion, programming
  • Sacha Skarbek – piano, mellotron, backing vocals
  • Joel Little – bass guitar, keyboards, drum programming
  • Finneas – bass guitar, piano, synth bass, synthesizer, drum programming
  • Andrew Haas – bass guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, drums, programming
  • Brian Allen – bass guitar
  • Nate Smith – drums, electronic percussion, percussion
  • Ian Franzino – drums, programming
  • Dave Cobb – percussion, tom-toms
  • Jimmy Hogarth – percussion, programming
  • Brennan Aerts – drum programming
  • Josh Moore – programming
  • Davide Rossi – strings
  • Forest Miller – violin
  • Foy Vance – backing vocals
  • Lucy Smith – backing vocals
  • Tom Elmhirst – engineer, mixing
  • Buckley Miller – engineer
  • Gabe Simon – engineer
  • Henri Davies – engineer
  • Joel Little – engineer
  • John Hanes – engineer
  • Matt Wiggins – engineer
  • Darrell Thorp – engineer
  • Marcus Locock – engineer
  • Maximilian Von Ameln – engineer
  • Adam Lunn – engineer
  • Brennan Aerts – engineer
  • Afterhrs – engineer
  • John Ryan – engineer
  • Jimmy Hogarth – engineer
  • Andrea Mastroiacovo – engineer assistant
  • Art Smith – engineer assistant
  • Sean Badum – engineer assistant
  • Philip Smith – engineer assistant
  • Gabrielle Stok – engineer assistant
  • Jeff Gunnell – engineer assistant
  • Nick Spencer – engineer assistant
  • Mark “Spike” Stent – mixing
  • Serban Ghenea – mixing
  • Kolton Lee – mixing
  • Serge Courtois – mixing
  • Matt Wolach – mixing assistant
  • Bryce Bordone – mixing assistant
  • Matthew Scatchell – mixing assistant
  • Josh Moore – editing 
  • Alex Tomkins – editing assistant
  • Bob Ludwig – mastering

Track listing:

  1. Give Me the Reason – James Bay, Foy Vance, Gabe Simon
  2. Nowhere Left to Go – James Bay, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Michael Pollack
  3. Save Your Love – James Bay, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Ammar Malik, Finneas O’Connell, John Ryan
  4. Everybody Needs Someone – James Bay, James Murray, Mustafa Omer, Phil Plested
  5. One Life – James Bay, Bianca Ghermezian, Ethan Gruska, Matt Morris, Stephen Wrabel, Steve Robson
  6. Silent Love – James Bay, Jon Green, Sacha Skarbek
  7. Love Don’t Hate Me – James Bay, Jimmy Hogarth, Jon Green
  8. Brilliant Still – James Bay, Jamie Scott, Johnny Coffer
  9. Right Now – James Bay, Ilsey Juber
  10. We Used to Shine – James Bay, Simon Aldred
  11. Endless Summer Nights – James Bay, Jon Green, Paul Epworth
  12. Better – James Bay, Simon Aldred

Regina Spektor: Begin To Hope

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On June 13, 2006, “Sire” label released “Begin To Hope”, the fourth Regina Spektor album. It was recorded in 2005, at “See Squared Studio” and “New York Noise Studios” in New York City, and was produced by David Kahne and Regina Spektor.

Personnel:

  • Regina Spektor – vocals, piano, guitar, percussion
  • Nick Valensi – guitar
  • David Kahne – bass
  • Shawn Pelton – drums
  • Zhao Gang – erhu
  • Ralph U. Williams – saxophone
  • Rachel Beth Egenhoefer – design

Track listing:

All tracks by Regina Spektor.

  1. Fidelity
  2. Better
  3. Samson
  4. On the Radio
  5. Field Below
  6. Hotel Song
  7. Après Moi
  8. 20 Years of Snow
  9. That Time
  10. Edit
  11. Lady
  12. Summer in the City

Guns N’ Roses: Chinese Democracy

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On November 23, 2008, “Geffen” label released “Chinese Democracy”, the sixth Guns N’ Roses studio album. It was recorded 1997 – 2007, and was produced by Axl Rose and Caram Costanzo. The album was certified Platinum in Australia by “ARIA”, Platinum in Finland by “Musiikkituottajat”, Platinum in Ireland by “IRMA”, Platinum in New Zealand by “RMNZ”, Platinum in UK by “BPI”, and Platinum in US by “RIAA”.

Personnel:

  • Axl Rose– lead vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, piano, guitar, samples, arrangements, digital editing, Logic Pro engineering, mixing, art direction
  • Robin Finck– keyboards, acoustic and electric guitars, arrangements, editing
  • Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal – guitar
  • Buckethead – acoustic and electric guitar, arrangements
  • Paul Tobias – guitar, piano, arrangements
  • Richard Fortus – guitar
  • Dizzy Reed– keyboards, synthesizers, piano, bac king vocals, arrangements, Logic Pro engineer
  • Chris Pitman– keyboards, sub-bass, synthesizers, bass and drum programming, twelve-string guitar, drum machine, string machine, Mellotron, arrangements, digital editing, engineering, Logic Pro engineer
  • Tommy Stinson– bass guitar, backing vocals, arrangements
  • Bryan “Brain” Mantia– drums, arrangements, initial production, drum machine, drum programming, Logic Pro engineer, engineer
  • Frank Ferrer– drums
  • Josh Freese– arrangements
  • Marco Beltrami, Paul Buckmaster– orchestra, arrangements
  • Suzy Katayama – French horn, arrangements
  • Patti Hood – harp
  • Sebastian Bach– backing vocals
  • Caram Costanzo – engineer, digital editing, arrangements, sub drums, mixing
  • Jeff “Critter” Newell, Dan Monti, Jeremy Blair – engineer
  • Eric Caudieux– digital editing, drum machine, drum programming, arrangements, sub drums, additional production, Pro Tools engineer
  • Sean Beavan– recording and digital editing, arrangements, initial production, additional production
  • Youth– initial arrangements suggestions, additional demo pre-production
  • Pete Scaturro – arrangements, initial production, keyboards, digital editing, engineer
  • Billy Howerdel – recording, editing , Logic Pro engineer
  • Stuart White – Logic Pro engineer
  • John O’Mahony – Pro Tools mixing
  • Okhee Kim, Andy Gwynn, Brian Monteath, Dave Dominguez, Jose Borges, Joe Peluso, Christian Baker, James Musshorn, Jan Petrov, JeffRobinette, Bob Koszela, Paul Payne, Mark Gray, Xavier Albira, Dror Mohar, Eric Tabala, Shawn Berman, Donald Clark, Shinnosuke Miyazawa, Vanessa Parr, John Beene, Al Perrotta – engineer assistant
  • Andy Wallace– mixing
  • Mike Scielzi, Paul Suarez – mixing assistant
  • Bob Ludwig– mastering
  • Greg Morgenstein, Paul DeCarli, Billy Bowers, Justin Walden, Rail Jon Rogut, Isaac Abolin – additional Pro Tools
  • Ryan Corey – art direction, design
  • Somyot Hananuntasuk – illustrations
  • Sasha Volkova – illustration
  • Shi Lifeng – artwork
  • Lie Yuan, He An, Jiang Congi, Kevin Zuckerman, Lian Xue Ming, Anton S. Kandinksy, Marat Bekeev, Xiao Ping, Lou Jie, Sandra Yagi, Socar Myles, Rankin, Johnie Hurtig, Gloria Gaddis – Illustrations alternate booklets
  • Terry Hardin – cover photography
  • George Chin – photography
  • Roy Thomas Baker– additional production, preproduction

Track listing:

All lyrics Axl Rose, except where noted.

  1. Chinese Democracy – Axl Rose, Joshua Freese, Paul Tobias, Thomas Stinson, Darren Reed, Robert Finck, Caram Costanzo, Eric Caudieux
  2. Shackler’s Revenge – Axl Rose, Robert Finck, Brian Carroll, Bryan Manta, Caram Costanzo, Peter Scaturro
  3. Better – Axl Rose, Robert Finck
  4. Street of Dreams – Axl Rose, Robert Finck, Darren Reed,Thomas Stinson, Paul Tobias
  5. If the World – Axl Rose, Chris Pitman
  6. There Was a Tiime – Axl Rose, Paul Tobias, Darren Reed, Thomas Stinson
  7. Catcher in the Rye – Axl Rose, Thomas Stinson, Darren Reed, Robert Finck, Paul Tobias
  8. Scraped – Axl Rose, Carroli Costanzo
  9. Riad N’ the Bedouins – Axl Rose, Robert Finck, Thomas Stinson, Paul Tobias
  10. Sorry – Axl Rose, Carroli Costanzo
  11. R.S. – Axl Rose, Paul Tobias, Darren Reed
  12. Madagascar – contains samples of speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr, Axl Rose, Chris Pitman
  13. This I Love – Axl Rose
  14. Prostitute – Axl Rose, Robert Finck, Paul Tobias

OSI: Free

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On April 21, 2006, “insideOut Music” label released “Free”, the second OSI album. It was recorded in November 2005, and was produced by Jim Matheos and Kevin Moore.

Personnel:

  • Jim Matheos- guitars, keyboards, programming
  • Bige Akdeniz – vocals, guitar
  • Kevin Moore- vocals, keyboards, programming
  • Joey Vera – bass
  • Mike Portnoy- acoustic drums

Track listing:

All lyrics by Kevin Moore; all music by Jim Matheos and Kevin Moore.

  1. Sure You Will
  2. Free
  3. Go
  4. All Gone Now
  5. Home Was Good
  6. Bigger Wave
  7. Kicking
  8. Better
  9. Simple Life
  10. Once
  11. Our Town