Brendan O'Brien - PJ's George Martin?!

Brenden O'Brien is very, very well respected producer. Even if you don't like something he's produced, it's usually still safe to say that the quality is always top notch. He's worked with a number of huge artists, look him up:)

pirlo21 wrote:

I have to admit, I just listen to the music. I don't really understand the ins & outs of production and how it affects an album.
But I've lost count of how many times I' read on these boards people going crazy of the work of Brendan O'Brien.
Loads of people have commented that had he produced Ten it would be an even greater masterpiece. And how happy they are that he's back behind the mixing desk for album #9.

Is this guy to PJ what Martin was to the Beatles. Or just another producer?!

he seems to have a knack for bringing the best out of the band. he produced their strongest run of albums... vs-yield. his remixes of ten show that the album would have sounded 100 times better if he had produced it. i think the fact that he has a strong working relationship with the band would help matters, even if for no other reason than that the band trusts his judgment.

tchad blake did a good job with binaural and bringing out the mood, but didn't really capture their rock side so well. adam kasper seems to struggle to fit the band... they're not the foo fighters (a band he HAS done great work with). riot act was dreary, and s/t overcompensated by being far too bright and glossy.

i also suspect that o'brien would not have taken shit from them when it came to shelving their best material... ie sad, fatal, other side, down, undone, etc. i think their relationship is such that he could talk them out of such foolish stuff, whereas a new producer coming in to work with legends like pearl jam might not be as comfortable saying "ed, you're a moron. down is an album cut. period. now stop whining and get back on the mic... down take 2!"

Yield IMO has easily the best production of any PJ album, a close second would be VS. Yield has this light/airy feel to the production that I love. Did Brendan produce no code?

Brendan's done some cool things with Pearl Jam, Incubus, etc... but I would hardly call him George Martin.
He did, however, engineer one of my favorite records of all time, BloodSugarSexMagik:cool:... but that was with Rick Rubin as the producer.

Hey there first post here but I'm a long time reader.
I'm a big fan of O'brien, I think he's one of the best producers out there and he produced my favourite Pearl Jam Album - No Code.
I think he's the producer that completly understands the way Pearl Jam like to sound and in that case you can compare him to George Martin.

SomethingCreative wrote:

examples?

Magic by Bruce Springsteen

I love his work with Pearl Jam though

cropduster82 wrote:

Since the Yield album, who else has he worked with? I saw Incubus and Bruce Springsteen but is that it? Anyways, can't wait for the new record to come out, hopefully in 2009.

I think he did Revelations by Audioslave and may have had a hand in Out of Exile. He produced Tom Morello's solo albums, and Velvet Revolvers second album. And the new AC/DC album.

muppet wrote:

Magic by Bruce Springsteen

I love his work with Pearl Jam though

oooh ok I haven't heard that...I didn't even know he produced it. I did hear that it didn't sound very good though.

SomethingCreative wrote:

examples?

Bruce Springsteen-The Rising

Stone Temple Pilots- Purple

Trey Anastasio- Shine

just about every Pearl Jam album he had a hand in.



Just to name a few...there's a lot more


I will say that the .......Bachelor No. 2 by Aimee Mann sounds excellent.