The Strokes – Room On Fire

Great cd and fantastic songs but quite compressed. Words words

Really really bad inner groove distortion otherwise sounds great ,

Really clear pressing. I have the UO release they did for The New Abnormal and that was also excellent.

I was disheartened to see the dreaded "ⓤ" in the runouts, but this actually sounds really good, atypical of United pressings, none of that annoying static that implies not giving a shit. Echoing magic_mountain23 below, "Automatic Stop" is the highlight of the record, it's also one the all time greatest break up songs.

I am quite sure the dynamic range was intentionally squashed to give it a lofi feel. This is evident from the hihat sound (it overpowers or is on the same level as other louder instruments at times). However, it doesn’t sound super harsh like many brick-walled records from this era.

The separation is not as impressive as their later albums but this a mixing choice (nothing to do with mastering).

As far as mastering, it still sounds better than what I hear on stream services. It sounds less compressed on vinyl and overall has higher fidelity.

I’m wondering, does this one use the MOV stampers too?

My pressing sounds really good. This sounds « raw » which does this album justice. Great record.

Made in EU with beautiful japan obi and cover. Mine got decent record with minimal noise and crack. sound as good as it can be. It’s quite a low-fi indie rock album so i didn’t expect to be audiophile anyway.

Mine skips at least 20 times during reptilia:/// sad day

Just picked this up new - Was a bit dissappointed as it felt a bit flat, so I put on an OG press of 'Is This It' and yep, sounds exactly the same. It's just lo-fi garage rock production without all the modern compression and mastering we're used to. Charming once you get your head round that.