POLL Down Time: Mitchell Froom-produced albums of the 1990s

Good poll. Kiko.

Woodface, 99.9 F, Rumor and Sigh, and Colossal Head have the best ratio of good songs + performance + apposite production.

AMC, Mercury, always and forever.

The best albums are probably between Kiko, Latin Playboys, Rumour and Sigh and maybe the second or third Sexsmith album. Vega albums are both really good, but totally lost to the dustbin of history.

As much as I love Colossal Head, I have to vote for Latin Playboys

I discovered that Latin Playboys album last year, totally blew me away. I'll also rep for RT's "Rumour & Sigh" but he lost me with "You Me Us".

Ally McBeal, ugh...

The Ally McBeal soundtrack, iirc, has lots of good stuff on it, like Richard Thompson doing "Season of the Witch."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrp2iYsZTPs

I voted for 99.9F. It is forgotten, but why? I come back to "In Liverpool" regularly.

As much as I love Colossal Head, I have to vote for Latin Playboys

― Moo Vaughn, Monday, February 19, 2018 8:22 AM (forty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

For real

Uh, that's Crossing Jordan, Josh.

Froom's own solo album "Dopamine" isn't on the list!

xpost Oh shit! I was wondering why she was on the cover...

My favorite Latin Playboys song (Mustard) is on Dose but I'm voting for the debut.

BTW, a lot of the mechanical distorted drum sounds can be credited to Tchad Blake, his partner in crime.

According to Discogs, Tchad Blake was the sole credited producer on Dopamine, so I left it off the list. Can anyone confirm?

Also: I've never heard it. Any good?

(I've heard about half the albums on this list.)

AMC Mercury is an all-time album for me. Also one of the greatest live shows I've seen.

Dopamine is kind of a lark, nothing special. Tchad Blake might be the sole credited producer, but there is no way Mitchell Froom didn't produce his own album.

Froom trivia: his sort of solo debut, The Key of Cool, is actually the rebranded soundtrack to the porn flick Cafe Flesh (which was written by Jerry Stahl).

dopamine is alright. it's kind of all over the place as you'd expect an album with sheryl crow, mark eitzel, cibo matto, and jerry stahl on it to be. it's the most late 90's ish thing ever.

This is an amazing poll. so...Kiko vs Cool Down Time (which is totally amazing and forgotten) vs Mercury
Tempted to go Mercury because the demos for that record are kind of...lifeless. Which highlights what a great job Froom did.

Initial response is just to vote for Colossal Head, but maybe I need to revisit other stuff, if not listen to for the first time.

Latin Playboys s/t

I like both the Suzanne Vega albums along with Woodface, Latin Playboys and Kiko. Voted for 99.9F. His production is the exact right setting for her voice, it keeps her grounded and cool instead of letting her just drift away like she does with more conventional arrangements.

I think it's her most consistent batch of songs (I'm in the minority, I'm sure).

i agree, I think that's her best full album.

Definitely voting for Kiko but with Dream and 99.9 F close behind.

Definitely voting for Kiko but with Dream and 99.9 F close behind.

Patriotic duty to vote for Dobbo - "Dobbyn felt that the album was "edgy", but his record company initially called it 'unreleasable', and its release was delayed by a year."

(actually, would love to read Alfred on Dobbyn as a Crowded House/Go-Betweens-y figure who was world-famous-in-NZ but never crossed over to the US or UK).

The Dobbyn album is solid, but I like the Neil Finn-produced next one, Twist, better.

I think all three of these Sexsmith albums are really tastefully, sympathetically and often simply produced. Helps to have such a low-key, not-showy singer/songwriter.

One of these ones, but probably Kiko.

Packed (Pretenders, 1990)
Woodface (Crowded House, 1991)
Kiko (Los Lobos, 1992)
Colossal Head (Los Lobos, 1996)
Other Songs (Ron Sexsmith, 1997)

fwiw the first Crowded House albums production was considered somewhat radical at the time, too.

Josh OTM. I love all three of their Froomfests. "Weather With You" doesn't seen clangy or smothered to me, and it doesn't sound like much else.

that's weird because the first crowded house album production in particular seems so boring in comparison.

I'm giving serious thought of voting for Brutal Youth. EC was threatening to disappear into a vortex of his own tastefulness (his previous album was The Juliet Letters, for pity's sake); more clang and buzz was exactly what he needed.

Colossal Head is a masterpiece

Was just thinking that Froom would probably do a good job with Wilco.

i may be the only one, but i really loved You? Me? Us? (though I haven't listened to it in a while)

AMC, Mercury, always and forever.

yup.

i may be the only one, but i really loved You? Me? Us? (though I haven't listened to it in a while)

I'm a little cooler to it (Rumor and Sigh and Mirror Blue are higher on my list, plus several other non-Froom albums) but "The Ghost of You Walks" gets me every time.

i may be the only one, but i really loved You? Me? Us? (though I haven't listened to it in a while)

I remember liking Put It There Pal

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i remember people just hating colossal head when it came out. Has it's reputation grown?

I was going to say, I've always liked that album but I thought it was massively underrated, especially after Kiko (which I admittedly like better and definitely think has better songs, bit neither of which negate Colossal Head's pleasures).

There are IMO 4 or 5 classics on Mercury but the fussiness of the production just makes me want to scream at Froom and let the band get on with it

Yeah, I'd call it a bad fit.

Hmm. It got great reviews (that I saw, anyway. Froom albums always did here tho) I bought it and it became pretty much the worst album I'd ever paid for and put me off AMC/Eitzel for life (so far).

“Fussiness” otm - seemed like for a while Froom was the answer to “we have this conservative sounding artist, how can we pimp them up for the digital tastes of the CD generation?”

Stina Nordenstam's "This Is" was Froom-produced so I can't write him off entirely (not '90s though)

No way is 99.9 F better than Solitude Standing.

Counterpoint: yes it is.

I suspect Bad Love won't get many (or any) votes, but some days I think that "Shame" is the best track from any album on this list.

i dunno, i love his work on Mercury. the band had some issues with it at the time but they also said they learned a lot in the studio.

xxpost:

I like the album, but Solitude Standing is undoubtedly the superior collection of material.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

AMC 4 eva! Yesssssss!

Wow, who knew there were so many Latin Playboys fans here.

"Mirror Blue" is the best of the zero vote albums.

Kiko is the album that studio producers gush on the recording quality.

Dude has had a lot of records played on NPR stations.

Expected Crowded House/RT to be 1-2, didn’t expect that top 4. will need to check out Suzanne Vega and the Latin Playboys.

Seriously, Mercury? That is the least Froom-y of all of these, isn't it? Is there Mellotron/Chamberlain? Stereo effects? Weird distorted percussion loops? I don't own it or remember it. Anyway, good for ILX, I guess, it's a true atypical outlier choice.

Oh man, you may not like Mercury/AMC, but it's a tremendous Froom production.

The demo of 'If I Had A Hammer' sounds like the mid-tempo country-rock on 'California', not too far from 'Firefly' really.
The final version opens with piano and toms, slowed down measurably, the second verse opens with some atonal wind and echoed guitar around the 'theme park' line. In the studio, the music found a way to support the lyrics that wasn't evident at all on the demo and it turned into one of the more haunting songs on the album. And that happens in other songs as well ('Keep Me Around', 'What Godzilla Said to God...'). They put out a similar release of the 'Everclear' demos that I actually prefer to the finished, self-produced product, but everything Froom added or subtracted to 'Mercury' improved the original recordings.

I haven't listened to it in maybe 25 years, so I'll give it another shot!

Slept on and with hearing: Randy Newman’s Bad Love and Ron Sexsmith’s Other Songs.

yeah, they changed If I Had A Hammer into a waltz during these sessions. The released "demos' verson of the album, which is the aborted Kevin Killan attempt to do the album, is much more straightforward.

Mercury is one of my favorite favorite albums of all time. to the point where I went and hunted down Bobby Neel Adams (whose photo of a crumbling cambodian temple was used on the cover) and bought a print from him, which is now framed in my living room.

everything that got a vote on here is good, but, I don't know this album at all: Lament for the Numb (Dave Dobbyn, 1993)

the Latin Playboys records are so cool, I wish they'd do another one. I also wish Froom would return to production like he did in this time. What's he even working on these days?

He reunited with Sexsmith, for one. Still doing stuff with Randy Newman, did the Buckingham/McVie album, did an album with Kat Edmonson ...

Oh, and Dave Dobbyn (as I think mentioned above) is a sort of MOR New Zealand singer-songwriter. The Froom is strong with this one, including enlisting Bruce and Pete Thomas as its rhythm section (as he did on the ... second Vega album?).

Missed this poll dammit but "Mercury" is IT for me

I always get Mitchell Froom and T-Bone Burnett confused, I wanted to come vote for "Martinis And Bikinis"

But I got them confused

And the poll was closed anyway

I'd have voted Cibo Matto tho

"Martinis And Bikinis" is such a Froomy album that I think Froom and Jon Brion are both on it.

Huh, no Froom *or* Brion on it! But all these cats:

Sam Phillips – vocals
T Bone Burnett – guitar
Peter Buck – guitar
Marc Ribot – guitar
Jerry Scheff – bass
Benmont Tench – organ
Colin Moulding – bass
Larry Taylor – bass
Marvin Etzioni – bass
Mickey Curry – drums
Don Heffington – drums
Stephen Hodges – percussion
Michael Blair
David Mansfield
Van Dyke Parks – string arrangements
The Sid Page Strings
Robert Becker
Sid Page
Joel Derouin
Larry Corbett

Jon Brion is on the next one. And Tchad Blake mixed Martinis & Bikinis, so there's that.

I also wish Froom would return to production like he did in this time. What's he even working on these days?

Two good ones from the 2000s: Mia Doi Todd's The Golden State and The Ditty Bops s/t.

Rumour and Sigh is my favorite album on that list, but Kiko and Latin Playboys (not far behind) make a better a case for Froom's talents. I know some prefer Colossal Head - it's pretty good, but I found it less enjoyable and impressive.