Ezra’ post earlier today got me thinking.

He mentions that Dave Sitek and Dave Bowie both lent their “cred” to Garbage Scarlet Johanson’s album. This is true, but it moved me on to another place:

Why is Sitek considered such a fabulous producer?

I thought so too for a time, but I’m starting to reconsider. Have you heard the new Foals record? It’s terrible! The whole thing just sounds flat and empty and lifeless (which cannot all be Sitek’s fault). So what else has he got to his name? Of course, there are the TV on the Radio albums, of which I would argue Return To Cookie Mountain is the only truly special work of production.

So that leaves the Liars (who’s best produced album, Drum’s Not Dead, they did without Sitek), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (good big drum sounds), and Celebration (uhm, who cares?). And, save for a handful of remixes, that’s really the width of Sitek’s notable production credits. I haven’t heard anything truly characteristic—something you could call a “Sitek Sound” except maybe for a smattering of expensive keyboards and the inclusion of some popular New York friends.

Now Brian Deck, there’s a producer with an identity. Have you heard Red Red Meat’s There’s a Star Above the Manger Tonight? It’s full of fucking awesome and often confounding studio experiments. Good God. He killed it on all those Modest Mouse records as well.

I don’t write this to take shot at Sitek as much as to ask you to consider what constitutes a great producer? Is Sitek one? The jury’s still out. So let’s leave him out of the pantheon for now, OK? But after working on the Garbage Johanson abomination perhaps a little tongue-lashing is due. Certainly it begs the question, “does dude have any idea what he’s doing?”

Seriously, why get involved in that clap trap? To hang lustily around the voluptuously untalented? Or is there actual belief in the project? Now, Bowie’s involvement I get. The White Duke probably had her licking cream out of a saucer and polishing his boots with her scrumptious knockers the moment he floated across the threshold. But Sitek?

Well… buddy, if I’m wrong and you got up in there, the joke’s on me.