[SINGLE] 🔥 Flames 🔥 w/ Mod Sun

Maybe I just don’t feel the connection because it’s not really an Avril song.

I listened to the song a few more times by now, and I think it's actually quite quickly growing on me after all. I still think Avril's voice is too autotuned (no, I'm not talking about post-Lyme effects, there is definitely something computer-ish / unnatural about her voice, but we all hear differently, so yeah, whatever... ). But I in no way want to imply with this that John Feldmann isn't a good producer. Look at his discography, he's produced some albums with absolute killer / top quality production. Therefore, I'm sure adding this autotune / effect to Avril's voice was a conscious choice. I still don't much like it, though. And I still think the mixing near the ending, when everything is at its loudest, is kinda off. It sounds to me like whoever mixed this song tried to put everything in the foreground, but the result, sadly, is what sounds like quite a bunch of noise; it just doesn't sound very comfortable to my ears.

But I really do enjoy Mod Sun's distorted vocals (I'm not talking about that effect near the ending, but about his vocal technique throughout the song). And I'm absolutely in love with how the song transitions from piano/ballad sound to something a bit more rock, to powerful pop-punk drums, and back to this piano sound. These transitions are so smooth; it's like all of a sudden you're like "wait, when did this song become so heavy?"
Instrumentally, I especially love the drums. Man, I've been missing this so much on an Avril song (or rather, a song featuring Avril)! I really, really hope she'll add drums like this to AL7 as well. Not necessarily this heavy (though I certainly wouldn't mind ), but I'd definitely love for her to keep live drums and interesting drum patterns with some hi hats and toms here and there. I'm sick of this repetitive, super basic pop percussion.

It's mainly noticeable in the opening verse with just Avril singing. Listen carefully to how her voice sounds particularly on the drawn out "youuuuu" and "fire." It's really subtle, but you can tell her voice sounds overly processed there and a bit unnatural, not the way a human voice would sound without that polishing. 

The effect you guys are listening is not autotune, but a low-pass filter... it basically cuts some of the frequencies of the lows in the sound, to make the singer sound brighter... This is completely stylistic as Avril has been using it in her vocal mixing since The Best Damn Thing (few of her songs don't have it nowadays: Head Above Water is a rare example of a song without low pass filter, ie), I guess she asks for it when the songs go to post production (mixing/mastering). Even on some TV performances her mic is with a low pass filter... it doesn't fix pitching or anything, but makes the singer's timber sound thinner, younger and higher, she might not like the low harmonies of her voice, or likes the sound of the effect, who knows. 

That's low pass filter, as I said before... Those notes are not even hitting the 0.0 tune, so it's not auto tune. They cut a part of the low frequencies of her voice in mixing, so the notes where those low frequencies were most listeneable are the ones that sound "less human". She seems to be the one who likes this filter, she's been using it for some years in a lot of songs to make them sound brighter/younger.

Interesting interpretation of the message, though I don't feel as much duality/variance as you seem between the two. And I agree, both can't scream, at least not the same way, I personally am only thinking about maybe hearing Avril try being more aggressive in a new album. Can she do it? I think potentially she could, but I'm not sure of course :-)

Okay, after spending the morning with it, I retract my earlier post, I love it! Haha. It is a grower!