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PO: The National - Sleep Well Beast


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15 minutes ago, rabbitvinyl said:

Managed to grab a copy on my way home from work. I'm really bummed out because I've been waiting since the announcement to finally sit down and listen to the whole thing. But I'm currently spinning side A on the white pressing and there's a very annoying scratching noise/really harsh surface noise throughout, only on the left channel. Most noticeable at the beginning of the first and second track. Tested various other records thinking it may have been dust on the needle or tracking force was off but it's only this record. 

Anyone else? 

On a side note, they (and Pentagram) really hit it out of the park in terms of packaging for this. The little debossed logo on each insert is a beautiful detail.

i dont see how theres any way you could have a pressing noise on one channel.  if it were recorded that way, maybe, but i cant reason how your needle could read any imperfection as having a "left" or "right" property

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17 minutes ago, shamrocks said:

i dont see how theres any way you could have a pressing noise on one channel.  if it were recorded that way, maybe, but i cant reason how your needle could read any imperfection as having a "left" or "right" property

That's why I'm confused. If it is part of the recording, it's fucking annoying. 

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23 minutes ago, shamrocks said:

i dont see how theres any way you could have a pressing noise on one channel.  if it were recorded that way, maybe, but i cant reason how your needle could read any imperfection as having a "left" or "right" property

Poor alignment, or an anti-skate issue can push the stylus into one wall more than the other and cause the issue.

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On September 9, 2017 at 1:15 AM, shamrocks said:

yeah i might have to call shenanigans on myself. i still cant wrap my head around one side of the groove being the left channel and the other being the right, but if thats the case, then easily anything from an imperfection, pressing error, or antiskate/stylus wear could give you this

Turns out the noise is actually part of the recording. It's faint but you can hear it pretty well with headphones on. I was driving today, listening to the songs again and noticed I could still hear it. It sounds almost like distorted drum brushes. Very distracting during the quiet parts! 

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42 minutes ago, FiggyPud said:

Ordered a blue copy yesterday.  Never really listened to these guys before but the samples I checked out sounded amazing.  Can't wait to get it.

I've drifted in and out of picking their albums up and I can easily say this is one of their best and a good jumping in point. If you like what you hear you'll probably like their whole catalog.

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(Sorry if this has already been said somewhen in this thread before)

Like some of you, I was thinking about ordering that mysterious "grey" German variant of Amazon/other German online websites. However, a good friend of mine who's currently in Berlin went to a big electronic store over there and sent me the picture below. Note how it says "grey colour" on the store sticker but then clearly "pressed on white vinyl" on the actual vinyl sticker. He asked one of the store employees and they told him that 4AD/distributor added it to their ordering system as a "grey" vinyl. I guess that that same distributor probably added this false information to the Amazon website, which would explain why it is listed as grey there as well. Just a heads up for you guys!

09pzrmt.jpg

Edited by fugazi
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25 minutes ago, pepperonigin said:

I've drifted in and out of picking their albums up and I can easily say this is one of their best and a good jumping in point. If you like what you hear you'll probably like their whole catalog.

 

Yeah I listened to some stuff from "Trouble Will Find Me" quite a while ago and wanted to pick it up but just never got around to it.

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I'm actually sort of amazed by the magnitude of love for TWFM.  I enjoy the album a whole lot, and it has a remarkable amount of songs that deliver and hold up very well over time.  But it's also the only National album that has a handful of meh songs scattered about, in my opinion.  Demons is still a stumbling mess.  Fireproof is kind of unremarkable.  Heavenfaced is a bit of a lullaby and I still can't get over Matt trying to rhyme as many words as he can with dreamer / freezer / etc.  Closing track doesn't blow my mind either.  Fortunately the rest of the album is ace, but I guess I'm just not used to hearing "dips" in the consistency of their albums.  SWB is basically perfect though – the pacing, the variety, the flow.  Even the tracks that I thought were so-so on first listen managed to make things interesting and noteworthy with an experimental outro or jam.

 

3 hours ago, FiggyPud said:

Ordered a blue copy yesterday.  Never really listened to these guys before but the samples I checked out sounded amazing.  Can't wait to get it.

Definitely check out all of their prior stuff whenever you can get around to it.  Not to sound like a fanboy but they're all so good for different reasons.  Lots of great flavors across their discography, and all worth hearing multiple times.  This band has been the definition of a "grower" band for me, over the years, and super rewarding to revisit and grow accustomed to.

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1 hour ago, Derek™ said:

 Definitely check out all of their prior stuff whenever you can get around to it.  Not to sound like a fanboy but they're all so good for different reasons.  Lots of great flavors across their discography, and all worth hearing multiple times.  This band has been the definition of a "grower" band for me, over the years, and super rewarding to revisit and grow accustomed to.

 

 

Will do!  Batman actually forwarded me your (very helpful and informative) PM you sent him the other day after I texted him and told him I bought the new album.  Still need to read through it, but I look forward to it.

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6 hours ago, Derek™ said:

This band has been the definition of a "grower" band for me, over the years, and super rewarding to revisit and grow accustomed to.

Can confirm this statement. I never understood the hype surrounding this band until I started to get older and took the time to listen carefully. Started at Boxer and now I absolutely love all of their records, for different reasons. As I got older, everything sort of clicked and I finally got it. I still don't know exactly what I got, but the National just make sense. Even more so as I get closer to reaching the big 3-0. 

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I think I found the National at the perfect time, just before Alligator was released, for them to still have enough of that early spark and shabbiness to grab your ears. On Boxer, they became very deliberate and composed, which pays off big on repeated listens but it makes their music easy to dismiss if you're half paying attention. I cringe a little when I think about this characteristic of their music because I know there are bands and records that I dismiss as bad or boring that probably share that same grower quality (*cough* War on Drugs *cough* Grizzly Bear).

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10 hours ago, FiggyPud said:

Will do!  Batman actually forwarded me your (very helpful and informative) PM you sent him the other day after I texted him and told him I bought the new album.  Still need to read through it, but I look forward to it.

Was wondering if you'd ventured through that yet. If i had a dollar for every band Derek™ got me into, I'd have a lot of dollars. :wub:

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Giving this a digital listen through headphones (average quality ones, even) and it's finally clicking for me. So many little subtle sounds that got lost during my turntable spin as I dawdled around my room doing stuff. It's a very complex album and very pretty and melancholy. 

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