Ambition Drowning Out the Talent
Ices is an album that you will find yourself really wanting to like, especially in light of Lia Ices’ previous two records. She has a stunning voice and a gift for songwriting, both of which are unfortunately buried under layers of self-inflicted over-production.
On her previous records, production was overseen by Brooklyn-based Nicolas Vernhes (who has worked with acts like Animal Collective, Spoon, Fischerspooner, and Deerhunter) who brought a nuanced indie pop/rock sound. Songs like “Reason in Remain” and “You Will” off her debut record Necima and “Ice Wine” and “Daphne” (featuring Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon) were 2011’s Grown Unknown were well-balanced and open, leaving room for for Lia’s voice to shine through the mix to glorious effect.
On this record, the production baton was passed to “Benny Sagittarius,” a production team made up of Lia and her brother Eliot. According to her profile on the Jagjaguwar label website, Lia and her brother spent two years on a musical retreat in their studio, where they crammed everything they love into the record, from Pakistani pop to gospel. Therein lies the problem. The mark of a good producer isn’t knowing what to put in, but what to leave out. Even with all of the influences and textures thrown in, the resulting song treatments aren’t particularly interesting. Ices would have greatly benefited from a little more restraint and a little less first-time-doing-it-on-our-own exuberance.
While effects and loops and an abundance of tracks can, when used cleverly, result in a rich musical experience, on Ices it ends up sounding muddy. The vocals are over-processed in layers of overdubs and reverb to the point of blurring them into the treble heavy mix, rendering the lyrics unintelligible.
All that said, it will be interesting to see which direction Lia Ices takes on future records. As indicated earlier, she has a wonderful voice and can write one hell of a song. Let’s hope that this album, despite feeling like a misstep, is just an experiment that didn’t pan out as expected and that serves as a learning experience.
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