Great sound, weak pressing
2 Stars
Posted
Friday, March 26, 2021
by
etkirsch
Of all the albums I’ve sampled so far, this is easily the most confounding. Sonically, the repressing is excellent – great imaging, a full sound stage, very clear vocals and instrumentation, BUT . . . every once in awhile there is a nasty pop and (holy moly!) there’s actually a full bore groove jump in Harborcoat. You’re sailing along and then, out of nowhere, WHAM! you’re on to the next groove.
Honestly, I can’t figure it out -- the vinyl sounds great most of the time, but the pressing is definitely a problem. If you hold the vinyl up to a bright light, you can see numerous inconsistencies in the luster and even a few nicks. Maybe I just ended up with a bum pressing.
All in all, just a frustrating record to review. Sonically great, but the vinyl quality is poor and then there are those random awful pops and of course, the Harborcoat groove jump.