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LionsMouth
Blur - Magic Whip LP

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I held off buying this for awhile, mainly because it was very expensive and I wasn't sure about the quality of the pressing. When it came out, I just bought the CD and have been listening to that for awhile.

I'm happy to report that the LP version appears to be excellent all around, very quiet in terms of surface noise, but mastered with plenty of punch and clarity. Probably slightly more breathing room than the CD which may sound compressed to some. The LP packaging is some of the most nicely manufactured and designed I've ever seen. My only real complaint is the download card that came with the LP. If a label is going to include these, it should be a 320 bit MP3 or FLAC download, otherwise don't bother. This one is a 160 kbps download, which is absolutely worthless to me.

As far as Blur's music goes, I was not a fan during their 90s heyday. I thought they were overrated and their music never quite grabbed me. A few years ago, I wanted to give them another shot, so I grabbed a used copy of Parklife and became a fan over time. I've got most of their albums now on deluxe 2xCD editions (missing Think Tank) but I still feel like I need to spend more time with them.

At any rate, I really like this album and it continues to grow on me more and more with each listen. Many of the tracks have a late night, spacey sort of feeling to them which works well.