I've noticed over the last couple of years that quite often when a biggish new release comes out in the subsequent discussion thread the production of the record is the topic that a lot of people comment on first.

Often, but not always, this is complaints about the production (the new Phoenix was an example of this).

This got me thinking: is this really the first or dominant thing that gets people when they listen to new music? I normally think that the songs themselves, tunes, lyrics, ideas, instrumentation, whatever, is more immediately noteworthy than the production itself.

So... yeah. Is production the first thing you notice? Does it affect your ability to listen to/apreciate the other factors? Does anyone care?

ANSWERS ON A POSTCARD.