Better Than Ezra – Friction, Baby

Took a gamble because the resale price of the official pressings are frankly absurd. Results were a mixed bag, for sure. Low res scan reproduction cover art; you can practically count the pixels. The record itself is hefty and perfectly flat, and is an appropriate translucent gray. Nice overall presentation there.

You'll definitely want to give it a cleaning before giving it a spin as my copy had a lot of dust picked up by the velvet brush. I detected practically no surface noise. A couple pops on Long Lost, but I imagine a more thorough wet clean will probably fix that. To my ear, the sound quality is just...fine. Aside from the aforementioned pops every song was clear as a bell, but felt lacking in personality. Bass needed more punch on side A, but sounded a bit better on side B. Overall it kind of just reminded me of listening to the cd.

In the end I'm reasonably happy with it, but I'd definitely pick up an official reissue if more were pressed.

Would love to buy this one trade for it. Please let me know if you have a copy you can part with. Thanks 👍

Just curious if anyone has compared this to the original 96' pressing?

The sound of this vinyl is better than digital files.
It has more rich textures, warm and mild sounds.

The vinyl is perfectly quiet, but this sounds almost identical to the original CD. Sounds a little compressed to my ears. I doubt they went back to the original tapes. Oh well. Still a fantastic album.