Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell

Flat and quiet, no crackles and pops. My matrices match the new laquer, but it's got a printed inner sleeve w no poly liner, fwiw. Maybe it's an in-between version with the new pressing + old packaging. Flagging in case others have this.

Asthmatic Kitty Records posted this on Reddit and thought I'd repost here.

TL;DR: All pressings since 2019 are using the latest and best cut of the record, while pressings before 2019 are a bit lacking. Read below for more details.

"Just for some background, C&L is an exceptionally difficult record to cut. It took a few rounds to understand why, but using our engineer's electron microscope during a recut, we realized that there is a ton of mid-level noise - a lot of this is the underlying demo versions that contain a lot of atmospheric ambient noise (ie. air conditoners). That's great, but you can see how this literally bounces the turntable needle around as it plays - thereby accentuating static pops.

So, it's not so much quality control issues (though, we had some of those at the beginning at a particular plant that we are not using anymore) as it is the nature of the music. There's a reason, for example, that a lot of symphonies resist pressing to vinyl. It's because there's certain music that works great on certain mediums, and certain music that doesn't.

That said, we recut with the engineer (Josh Bonati) five times, and on the fifth round he tried some new techniques. You can see on anything after 2019 that the cut is actually longer - not in timewise, but he did some fancy engineer stuff to increase the volume by 2db, and also by extending the cut into some of the inner ring without compromising much.

The scribe on these is AKR099 A/B RE2. It sounds as good as it's going to get."

Can’t believe that side B is listenable this time around. Finally got rid of my original pressing and grabbed this. The Only Thing has such sentimental meaning to me and to finally have it on vinyl in listenable quality…it’s indescribable.

My copy is definitely a little bit warped, but sounds great.

My copy sounds amazing! No clicks, pops or warp. Good dynamic. Pretty heavy for a non 180gr.

4 copies, all with RE2 in wax, very warped with clicks and pops, disappointing.

This (2020 ?) pressing is absolutely perfect ! no pops. Music is loud and clear, dynamic. This great album has now the pressing it deserves.