ethereal

this may sound crazy but ... maybe you should open it and play it? 

I'm not really feeling anything from this album.  It's very same-samey, and I really wish Russian Circles would try something out of the box. I mean, this would be a great album from some random band, but for Russian Circles' 7th studio album, it's really predictable. I'm hoping it will grow on me over time, but after a few listens, it just kind of feels like whatever... 😐

indie retail variant ftw

pretty sure it’s pirates press, ever since they added the option for “heavy splatter” vs. normal splatter on orders.

Yeah that's not bad at all.  I snapped some quick photos to showcase what my beef is with [these] current splatters.  Relapse and Translation Loss really mirror one another – down to their style of mockups, and their approach to increasing prices as the variant becomes more limited – so it makes sense that they'd suffer from the same blotchy splatter.  The top photo is the /100 "pinwheel" variant of the latest Rosetta / A Determinism of Morality repress, courtesy of Translation Loss.  The bottom photo is Torche's Admission from Relapse – also the /100 "pinwheel" version.
 

 
Notice how streaky, grainy, and "sandy" looking the splatter is?  I think it looks especially bad where the black and white "splatter" merge together on that bottom photo. To me it just resembles a child going ham with crayon scribbles.  There are some nice "pieces" of splatter that are segmented off, isolated from the streaky mess... but lately I've been seeing that less and less from these 2 labels.  And the kicker, like I mentioned, is that they up-charge for this.  You're often paying $4 or $5 extra to own these splatter scribbles.  I've been buying vinyl long enough that I'm well aware of how mockups work, and how often end results deviate from them.  But this just feels like a common way to press splatters at the moment, and I'm kind of over it.  Hope it's a trend that dies soon.
 
But yeah, you're not wrong – muh rarity be damned; crisp, clear vinyl is almost always a safe bet.  For both sound and aesthetic, you really can't go wrong.  I lurk the VinylReleases subreddit pretty often and it's hilarious to me how much disdain that community has for clear vinyl.  A lot of folks over there will actively scoff and avoid a pre-order if it's on "ugly, boring clear vinyl" and that baffles me.

Yeah, I called that out in another thread – American Football’s LP3, I think – and folks tried to give me shit about it.  “Splattergate” memes, etc.  I actually hate the super streaky splatters because they often end up looking like blotchy smears, and not at all appealing.  Translation Loss and Relapse have some very ambitious variants and incredible mockups, but they suffer from this badly.  At the end of the day it’s all aesthetic and no one should care that much, sure, but it’s really made me opposed to splatter variants more than ever.  I think they look great when they’re actually fragmented and resemble splatter vs. streaks but whatever.

hey this is that guy from that chance rapman album 

hey this is that guy from that chance rapman album 

Gold Splatter
/1200
Click Here

hey this is that guy from that chance rapman album 

Looks like Pikul is being reissued on blue marble the same day as well. 
 
https://www.bullmoose.com/p/31030138/silversun-pickups-pikul-blue-vinyl-blue-marble-colored-vinyl

Didn't see much of this announced anywhere but stumbled upon the listing
9/27/19 release date

Click Here

Carnavas >>>, but Swoon has some pretty decent cuts.  At that price I think I can’t refuse a colored copy.  Good looking out.  I caved hard on that Newbury variant earlier so why not, right?

Didn't see much of this announced anywhere but stumbled upon the listing
9/27/19 release date

Click Here

That’s exactly what happens when a, not sure which one, prominent pressing plant offers something new, and at a discount rate. Not necessarily a bad look, seen some cool “galaxy” pressings, but when shit like this happens, it salts the overall aesthetic of it. 

grabbed that instantly with the pinata exclusive.
been waiting since Imperial released for a colored version and this one works perfectly.

some of my absolute best sounding records are mastered at low volume, turn dat shit up

“Not my wife, not my problem”.  That’s what I always say.

I really wouldn't mind if he continued to release a vocal version of an album and an instrumental version of an album.  I personally would like both even if I preferred one over the other.  Everyone wins.

https://www.omerch.eu/shop/65daysofstatic/
 
 

Whoops, not sure how that happened. Thanks! 

It's not that one record is too quiet, it's that the others are too loud.

I used some Paypal funds to  offset the total cost of the box, and they were taken / depleted immediately.  (For what that’s worth.)

bruh