Let's talk sonics of a song

Oh meant to mention...holy crap vocals are compressed to high hell these days. It's very Nickleback...not really my taste, but it certainly serves the song.

I love that rolled off (or shelved off) sound. Check out the album "Thrill of the Arts" by Vulfpek, mixed by Jack Stratton.

It's got that rolled off sound, one of my favorite mix references out there. No harsh frequencies just funk, punch, and clarity! Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but when done right, these type of mixes stand out from the crowd imo.

Well-produced video too 

The genre is right down my alley and I mostly nowadays listen to new americana. The productions today are phenomenal in that genre. You can find real pearls there. Also the darker mixes and rolling off highs is kind of trendy there, which I like. Often comes with huge bottom ends too. But this particular one I felt was out of balance. I can hear what you pointed out in the rolling off and you are likely right, they have aimed to push the vocals forth. But I think the vocals have been lifted above everything to a point where it just sounds detached from the band and everything else sounds thin.

But in general, yes I think a darker mix is the trend. It’s maybe a part of a genuine revival and inspiration of early recordings.

You are absolutely 100% right on this. But i think the “rolled off” is, so interpreted it at least, just a description of how you can experience the sound scape, not how it is achieved technically. The aesthetic's is absolutely achieved by choice of instruments and gear, not eq’ing off the top end. I prefer calling the sound just a darker mix but i see it could be referred to as a rolled off one. Just as a ribbon has a “rolled off” sound to it. But i absolutely agree with your point.

As I mentioned in the other thread about HPF/LPF.. I do it on EVERY track that I EQ. Set the EQ (crave) to hear what I'm cutting and I move the LPF/HPF until it's just getting to the meat of the audio and then back it off slightly.

It has made a huge difference in reducing the amount of other EQ I've felt like adding in the past. Things naturally sit MUCH better without the "extra" stuff.

Also, that track is still super bright to me. There's probably some harmonic stuff added in some way or another. You can hear it at the tail end as things are fading, there's a lot of grit from something distorted.

So try rolling off the acoustics but then distorting them slightly and see if that brightness comes back..

Not listening at the moment, but by memory I remember thinking the acoustics were darker than I’m used to hearing in mixes. And when I say “darker” or “rolled off” I’m really meaning in comparison to what I expected to hear and consider the “norm.” Those acoustics just sounded like the were recorded and nothing lifted on the top end.

And yeah - it’s definitely like brightness/top end has been not accentuated or rolled off and then something like Dolby A has been added on the vocal. Like the sense of that air band but it doesn’t hurt you…
I guess it’s hard to tell on the drums, since there’s not much standard kit playing. But it does sound like the cymbals are down pretty far.
Whole point was this was kind of a surprise to me. I hadn’t noticed it before. Maybe the cool engineers club met and everybody’s doing this…but I was not informed.

I use the standard Crave curve to start, which is (I think) 12db per decade and I start low and use the "Listen" function while I move the filters.  This solos the filter so all I hear is what the filter is removing.

So for instance on electric guitar I might start the HPF at 20hz and slide it up to 400hz and then back down to 150hz to just barely cut off the rumble of the cab.  For the LPF I'll start at 20K and move it down to 2K and then maybe end up back at 5K to cut off just the extra fizz.  Something like this frees up the low end for the bass and the high end for the cymbals, etc.  

I usually do it to the busses, so rhythm guitar will get one set of filters and EQ while bass will get another, etc.  Drums usually gets cut up to "kick bus", "snare bus", etc., and each of those will get their own EQ and filters.  

Anyway, those acoustic guitars don't sound like a natural top end to me.  Way too sparkly.  It sounds "excited" like those old Aural Exciters.  

any sort of aliased limiting or clipping will excite the high end like that and can also distort the high end to make it murky. applying a way too fast release will zip up anything. they don't have to deliberately aim for these distortions, it's the result of the hamfisted dynamics processing in popular music that ruins the performance of the music, i.e. the choruses getting quieter than the verses, the guitars being dark but distorted in the high end, nothing getting louder when emphasized.

I think “hamfisted” is a little dramatic. You don’t like the mix. Ok. But to say this is awful is just being silly.