Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There

Must have gotten unlucky, because I got an unlistenably noisy copy. I love this album and this band to death and paying this much for a pressing I can’t spin without wanting to bury my head in the sand to escape the noise is heartbreaking. Besides the noise, the mix on AFUT is done very very well, but the Queen Elizabeth Hall performance definitely had a noticeably lackluster production, though the performances are stellar.

The box is also like half an inch larger than the discs, causing them to slide around and cause seam splits in the box (not just the inners! the box!) in shipping. Overall a pretty mid packaging and pressing job for one of the best albums ever :(

Obviously, generationally incredible album. However, I hope they at least try to improve the quality of future pressings because the one I have does not sound nearly as good as the digital lossless formats. Comparing it to my standard copy of Forever Howlong, the pressing seems to have an abundance of surface noise. Very distracting during the low volume sections.

Great album, but surface noise present throughout, including some weird distortion on Basketball Shoes. Disappointing

Uhm mine came with all discs marked correctly, but Live at Queen Elizabeth Hall disc 1 is actually just Afut disc 1

It has taken me a long time to come to with this verdict… but this pressing, for as special and cool the packaging is… really is not the best sound quality wise. There is significant surface/ background noise throughout this record despite many wet cleans and different maneuvers. I think the pressing plant just binned it, and the noise isn’t subtle. Combine that with distortion when you reach the inner part of the record, and I’d value this more as a collector’s piece than a copy i’d buy for listening. I will be sourcing a different record for listening after many years of being in denial.

This is one of my favorite ever albums so it gives me no pleasure making this comment.

Very cool design but a ton of surface noise in both channels, very noticeable even on low volume. Awesome music!

Surface noise and popping present but sounds pretty great. When the flaws aren't noticeable it's pretty great. Live album has a bit of distortion (at least on side A).

Overall, 5/10
Can be great but has some very noticeable issues.

yearning and despair but saxophones and hella good drumset. i’m a fan of this one

One of the top albums to own in your collection right now. Beautiful arrengments, romantic lyricism and emotional music creates one of the most important rock records of our current era.

great album and this is an excellent sounding pressing. It's so sad that Isaac left right after this record was released, but I also can't wait to see what they all do next