Blue Nile - Vinyl Reissues

Another one at £15.55

 

Hats arrived today after a delay. The box was badly handled and I feared the worst. Thankfully it was in a proper mailer inside and is mint. Spinning it now and it's stunning

 

So do people believe this is a genuine limited release or will it get a wider release?

 

To follow up on my prior post, I did receive 'Hats' on Friday and my fear on Shipping with bad packaging happened. This time the Vinyl Record was loose in a larger box(No Vinyl Mailer was used), and at first I was hopeful, but then noticed a crease of about a few inches, that I missed initially, since it was in the Blue Area on the Front Left of the Jacket Cover. So that is a Crease in the Jacket Cover for 2 of the 3 Titles(although the crease was smaller on one of the 2 prior Titles I received).

I have not opened any of them yet to see if the Vinyl was affected as have been sick off and on the past week, but will check them out soon. Just a disgrace the way these Vinyl Records were mailed out, especially with a limited pressing of 1,000 per Title. The Seldom Seen Kid will be seldomly(like never) buying Vinyl from Amazon-UK in the future, if this is how they will be packaging Vinyl moving forward. Amazon-US is not great, but never received Vinyl packaged this terrible. Even prior Vinyl Titles I had bought from Amazon-UK arrived in decent packaging, but I had no idea this was coming or I would have ordered from the Blue Nile Website, if I would have known that was an option(Do not recall at the time of announcement, if the SDE Website mentioned other options to buy these limited Titles beyond Amazon-UK).

 

£80??????

You could get an original for far less than that!!

 

No copies of the first 2 albums in Tower in Dublin but a few of Peace at Last of course, which is totally non essential IMO, like a different band altogether.

 

Greed knows no bounds.

 

Crazy!

 

You won’t get one much cheaper elsewhere either. One seller on the bay has the three for £150.

 

It’s possible that Amazon US received their copies from Amazon UK in a similarly damaged condition.
Does anyone know of an Amazon UK email address to explain the situation?

 

I ordered all 3 of these LPs when they were announced. I got "A Walk Across the Rooftops" and "Peace at Last" at the same time. Neither outer sleeve was damaged in any way. Both LPs sounded great. I got an email of a delay for my favourite Blue Nile LP "Hats", so I had to sit about with my thumb up my ar*e until it arrived.

Not done a Linn 1984 original "A Walk Across the Rooftops" vs the new one yet, but I will....

I don't have the 1989 "Hats" but I do have the 2013 version, and this new pressing is so much more alive it's hard to describe. So I won't try. Just buy it if you can. I still want a 1989 original, but not as much as I used to.


*edit* - where is "High" on vinyl, ffs?!?

 

Same thing. My copy of HATS was sent back due to a shipping issue

 

I don't know what the delay was on my copy, but it got here eventually. And it's worth every penny.

I forgot to moan about all 3 LPs not having polylined inners. All 3 LPs do not have polylined inners.

 

And "Hats" landed today in nothing more than a plastic bag with some wrapping paper shoved inside it, totally mangled.

Never had this result from Amazon before, really crazy.

Those of you who got refunds, did you call and speak with somebody?

 

I just did it online without needing to. But I'm in UK. I'd try doing the online chat. They might refund and say don't bother to return it. That happened to me a few times when I lived in Australia. You'll get a refund whatever. Good luck!

 

My copy of Peace At Last arrived visually unspoiled, but it must have been squashed during transit because the inner bag and vinyl were so tightly lodged inside I couldn't prise them out. At least not without damaging them, and I wanted a no-quibble refund for such a lousy product.

EG.

 

Live chat worked a charm.

If a 40% refund is a charm.

Thanks for the tip!

 

So glad I managed to get Hats. I already have Walk Across the Rooftops but if the reissue sounds half as amazing as this Hats pressing does I'm going to have to get it too. Hats has always been basically a reference recording, just exquisitely recorded, engineered, mixed, and mastered...but this sounds even better. I'm blown away.

 

I can confirm that WATR is stunning

 

Treated myself to a copy of "Peace at Last" on vinyl from an old favourite shop of mine - David's Music and Books in Letchworth. Spent an enjoyable hour digging through their stock - also got a nice secondhand copy of an old Jackie Leven 12" Single "Uptown".

My copy of "Peace at Last" is cosmetically perfect for the sleeve (glad I didn't order from Amazon - given all the horror stories about trashed sleeves here).

I don't normally clean new records - I ripped the A Side. Some slight crackles at the quiet section of lead track "Happiness" but otherwise very good.

The B Side - I was amazed at how much higher volume this has been cut compared to the A Side. After lowering the recording level I ripped Side B....

I wasn't listening while I was ripping. Even without the speakers I could hear some alarming pops coming from the stylus on last track "Soon"...

I listened back to "Soon" and found it sounded terrible - loads of surface noise etc.

I gave the B Side a wash and was relieved to find it now ripped fine....

So I would recommend washing these releases before you rip or listen to them for the first time.

 

I always clean before playing. New or old. Can't risk a high dollar cart

 

Any post that mentions Jackie Leven gets a like from me, Hard to imagine liking the Blue Nile and not liking Jackie.

 

It's weird my heritage is Kraftwerk and Krautrock, Factory Records (Joy Division, New Order, Durutti Column and A Certain Ratio), Synth Pop (OMD and Sheffield bands etc)...

But at the same time there is the whole Scottish dimension (Associates and Billy Mackenzie, Orange Juice and Edwyn, The Blue Nile, Jackie Leven, Michael Marra, Martyn Bennett etc)....

...I cannot explain the Scottish thing - but it just does it for me.

 

Still no status update from Amazon-US on Hats. At this point, I'm resigned to the prospect of this LP never arriving.

Again, a supremely myopic and stupid move by the label to press such a limited run.

 

Ditto, and it completely bums me out. Last night would've been a perfect night for spinning it too.