![]() One of my favourite albums of the year is The Prettiest Curse by Hinds but I’ve had to rely on the download copy to put on the i-pod as the vinyl version suffers from what feels like a very muffled sound, with few peaks or troughs when looked at through the Audacity programme which I use to convert vinyl to mp3 format for different purposes, including the blog. It’s not just the re-issues that are causing grief with a number of brand new albums also being poorly pressed, cut, or mastered. It’s against the sound of those records that I judge any re-issued vinyl. Paul’s Boutique by The Beasties Boys is a Rolls Royce of a cut with all sorts of things being experienced in a new way, and likewise the 3 x LP re-release of OK Computer in which Radiohead seemingly took direct control of the process and ensured the vinyl would benefit from being mastered and pressed to the highest standard. Not every vinyl for CD replacement has turned out that way. Oh, and just after typing all this up, I’ve come on to add that the album I’ve just listened to, Beautiful Ones 1992-2018, a newly released 2 x vinyl LP featuring twenty-one singles by Suede as another example of a record that is a shoddy cut/press requiring the volume button to be turned way up high. Likewise, the copy of Murder Ballads by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Debut by Bjork was another disappointing piece of vinyl that sounded as it had just been transferred straight from the CD rather than from the original masters. All in all, it felt really cheap, especially when compared to what I has experience from the second-hand copy of Seamonsters.Īnd it’s not just Bizarro that I’ve had a poor experience with vinyl in recent weeks. There was also a further sense of disappointment as the sounds coming out of the speaker were nothing special – there was certainly no discernable differences in the bass or the treble. This couldn’t be right could it? Vinyl is supposed to be much superior to CD but this was an occasion when I had to turn the volume button up to ensure it could be heard. The opening notes of Brassneck came out of the speakers. I placed it down carefully on the turntable and lifted the needle into the groove. I knew beforehand it wasn’t a heavy 180-gram press but it was still a surprise to find myself holding something so flimsy. It came, like so many others nowadays, shrinkwrapped, which meant that it was only when I took the vinyl out of the inner sleeve did I discover it was a fairly light piece of plastic. ![]() One of my all-time favourite albums….on vinyl….at last. It was like the old days as I returned back home from the record shop, the heart beating that little bit quicker and the anticipation levels increasing with every step. ![]() Instead, I ended up picking up a brand-new re-press that was issued for National Album Day on 20 October 2020 at a cost of £20. Talking of TWP – and this where I will finally get to the point highlighted in the title of today’s posting – I’ve long wanted a copy of Bizarro on vinyl, but there’s never really been a copy on-line that fully caught my attention in terms of asking price and condition. It’s not that I’ve gone really daft as there are some prices I simply won’t pay – the two Paul Quinn & The Independent Group albums being prime examples – but I have been tempted by a few sellers on Discogs to pay decent sums of money for original pressings of albums such as Seamonsters by The Wedding Present, which I only highlight as at £40, it’s the most I’ve ever spent on a second-hand album unseen, trusting the description of the seller – and it proved to be well worth it as it was in Near Mint condition and the sound was way superior to the CD that I’ve had for nearly 30 years. I’ll admit to it if, for no other reason that a chunk of my redundancy payment has been utilised to go out and find vinyl copies of some of my most cherished CDs. It’s now seven months since I retired from full-time employment, and with COVID playing havoc with my plans to see the world, I’ve instead stayed at home and devoted time and money to music, all of which has led me to painfully admit my anorak tendencies do actually extend to me being described, accurately, with an awful word. There’s a lot wrong with the world just now, so this grumble somehow feels very insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but still……
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