Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Wild God

Anyone getting tonnes of static? I use an anti-static platter and it’s brilliant, so surprised this is crackling so much. Other records before and after were absolutely fine.

Dead quiet vinyl, but sounds compressed and siblant at times. Much prefer the digital version.
(A pressing have to stick out in a negative way for me to read the reviews and comment)

First off, this is the thickest sleeve I have in my collection for a record. High quality stuff though as already mentioned, it is difficult to get the record in and out of it. However, I use poly inner sleeve for all my records which makes it much easier to manage. So the packaging of this release isn’t much of an issue for me.

Secondly, my copy is very quiet. Almost no surface noise. As for the mix? This is reminding me of The Cure’s Songs of a Lost World. It seems like an artistic decision by the bad seeds. Everything is quite forward with very little soundstage. Though it’s not what I would consider a perfect pressing, it sounds good for what it is personally. The record still sounds more punchy and detailed then the digital version IMO. However, I will say that there is a tad more noticeable sibilance on Nick’s vocals. Would I prefer a more detailed mix and mastering such as my immaculate Push The Sky Away Pressing? Yes. But hey, I get it and it’s fine.

Thirdly, it might be too early to say, but I think this might be in my top 3 favourite Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds albums with Skeleton Tree and Push The Sky Away.

All in all, if you like the album, you will still appreciate this pressing. Cuz the mix is what it is on whatever format.

Amp: Harman Kardan hk495i
Turntable: Fisher Studio Standard MT-6225
Cartridge: Shure M95ED
Speakers: Tannoy C-8

I ordered this from Amazon to find out what the sleeve problem was all about and I can tell you this: when people say the album will not fit in your collection, they mean only the size of the jacket which is one centimetre taller and one centimeter wider (0.39 inches if I'm converting this correctly) than a standard record sleeve. The letters are not embossed or something. It fits into my shelf and it fits into my record cases, but it sticks out a little bit compared to the other albums.

The jacket is made of thick cardboard so the inner sleeve is hard to get in and out. The innersleeve is also thick glossy fotopaper so you can carefully and patiently push it back in without damaging it. What I did was to insert an archival inner sleeve into the jacket with the record inside, with the opening to the front, and then push the original inner sleeve back in place. No I can relatively easily just get the record out without removing the inner sleeves anymore. To keep the record from accidently falling out I keep it in the outer sleeve it came in, but it wouldn't fall out easily anyway because everything is held together by the jacket. I think I have one album by Iron&Wine that's even worse than this one.

Quiet enough pressing but very little dynamic range compared to digital version.
Is it the same mix?
Highly detailed though.

Has anyone else given up trying to get the inner sleeve back into the thick album cover? Is that the point? Mine came in a plastic dust jacket as well.

Overall a consistently good collection of songs. Up there with better NC & Bad Seeds albums IMO. My pressing sounds good. The sleeve is a failure though. Badly designed and impossible to get the inner sleeve back in without forcing it and risking damage. Hence I keep the inners sleeve outside the outer sleeve in the supplied plastic sleeve.

My new favourite December month album. I can't find anything to complain about this pressing or cover. Love it

This LP reminds me of 15 years ago when a label would try to grab few dollars by pressing a super brickwalled CD master to vinyl. However, JNH I'm sure did the best he could with the files he got. Cave says of the mixing process " it's so compressed, and all our beautiful strings are sort of just crashed into all the synths and the choirs are all sort of crushed. And we listen to it again. And by the third time, we just loved this sound. It just leapt out at you." Well from my Linn/Lyra/Naim/Lyra/AudioPhysic system (which would run about $10k used), this is a flat sounding as can be. There is no spread, no dynamics, nothing is distinct from anything else, just a sonic blob, even drums. This dramatically reduces the musical impact. Unfortunately I preordered and didn't listen until the return window closed. But other than holding a monument to your love of Cave, there is no reason to own this LP. Maybe someday the music will be remixed propertly.

Sadly I must the very disappointed in this pressing group. I have a reasonable system (Rega Planar 8, Apheta 2 cart., Rotel amplification) and find this album compressed, flat and joyless. I can't help thinking the money spent on the totally impractical sleeve would have been better spent on making this a double album.