Florence + The Machine* – Ceremonials

amazing pressing! beautiful photos inside. High quality and silent play.

I have had the original US copy which was very confusing for me to grade, since the album was the recorded with the notion of ''Loudness wars''.

I replaced my US copy with this repress (2018 - IRC 2784790) and I must say the pressing sounds wider than the original US pressing. Even though the distorted loud passages from several songs sound the same as the other pressing and the digital version. (most common example: the catharsis multilayered ending of "Shake It Off")

I believe it is hard to grade this pressing as the mastering of the original masters of this LP are quite distorted and loud. I even remember reading somewhere that the mixing engineer of the album was so overwhelmed with all the layers that are found in the songs.

The other difference from my previous US pressing is the packaging: the US pressing had thin paper sleeves whilst this one has thick cardboard ones. Frankly I prefer the sturdy ones of this version.

The cover artwork also has a greener/bluer tint whilst the US pressing one had a warmer tone: Florence's skin looks paler in this one, even though the rest of the palette looks exactly the same.

[Fingers crossed for a 15th anniversary boxset in 2026... I would very much love that]

Great dynamics. Great sleeve quality. Quality pressing. There are details in the drums and instruments that I have never heard before.

My copy has runouts 246051E3/A on side C and 246051E4/A on side D

Haven't heard any other pressings, but this sounds very compressed. To me it's not really enjoyable because of this, so I would avoid until there is a proper remaster.

I don’t normally expect much from Florence albums on vinyl, her albums can at times be sonically monstrous and her voice is extremly powerful and loud so her albums are probably a challenging task to put on vinyl and I am a bit more forgiving than I normally am just because it’s a lot to master for vinyl, however this one really impressed me! Compared to How Big How Blue and the deluxe edition of Lungs this is probably the best I’ve heard her sound on vinyl, lots of depth, very punchy and for the most part this sounds very clear! The presentation is stunning and it proves that a record doesn’t have to be color vinyl to be a cool release visually as the packaging is really gorgeous, and both discs on my copy have dead silent backgrounds. My only complaint is around the last few minutes of both sides on disc one there is a noticeable lack of bass and a slight drop in volume, and side D suffers from some inner groove distortion. That being said I’m really impressed with this pressing and I love it!

The pressing I have in hand is excellent. Great depth, sound stage, and clarity. Excellent bass, too!

I actually don't know if my copy is a repress, probably it is, I got it today 4th of June of 2022, from Amazon and I'm spinning it on a Fluance RT85 And I gotta say, the sound is pretty good.

I consider myself a very picky listener, I like albums to sound "atmospheric and open" if that makes any sense.

You can really listen to the songs in detail, they sound pretty good and not compressed, It could be a little better but I guess the way this album was recorded was not the best, the tendency at the time it was released was not good when it comes to recordings but the music is way to good to make you wanna dance and songs pretty beautiful on vinyl, I'd say it's worth it.

The recording is compressed and has a lot of static. It’s a pity this is such a bad pressing.

I cannot figure out if the pressing is bad or the mastering is. On the digital version, songs like "Shake It Out" or "Only If For A Night" seem to be heavily distorted in terms of Flo's vocals (the highs) pushed onto the tracks (since there are so many layers of instruments pushed with her vocals) - On other tracks the record sounds sublime: her vocals are grand, clear as day and separated from the multi-layered production.

I had to compare each track side by side with the digital version. I came to the conclusion that the pressing is good but I believe it could be more than what it currently delivers, in terms of sound engineering & record cutting.