Nominal vs. Merge pressings of "Thief and City of Daughters

[nathanstange]

Any other obsessive vinyl completists have both the Nominal Records double-press of "Thief" and "City of Daughters" as well as the Merge reissues that just came out?

Curious to see what someone else thinks of the mastering job. To me the Nominal pressing sounds louder and less compressed -- like the instruments are in the room you're in. Just curious if anyone else felt the same or had a hot take...

I wrote to Merge before ordering and someone in Customer Service confirmed that the masters used for pressing were the same they used for the CD re-issues FWIW

[destruction]

I listened to side A of “City of Daughters” on the original Tinker vinyl, the Nominal version, and the new Merge pressing all in a row for comparison. Nominal sounds the best by far. They did a great job on that release.

The Merge pressing sounds really thin and limp to me, as do so many recent vinyl pressings. I only had the original CDs from Canada forever, so that’s how I think the songs should sound. The mastering is noticeably different in some places.

I noticed the Merge pressings for “Thief” and “City of Daughters” are missing some artwork too. Missing not 1 but 2 photos of Dan that were with the original “City of Daughters”!

I love the t-shirt though. I’d like a bumper sticker next time. I’ve always wanted the Streethawk spirograph on the back of my car.

[nathanstange]

LOL I bought the reissues JUST for the tee... Between the "ken" zebra shirt (and I bought an extra), black and yellow "ken" tour shirt, and "Your Blues" shirt that went in the wash with one of my kids' brown crayons (sigh...the reason I bought the extra zebra shirt), I'm closing in on a Destroyer shirt for every day of the week. How about a black hoodie with just the spirograph on the front and Destroyer down one sleeve and Streethawk down the other (metal style) with 'A Seduction' on the back? Mostly kidding...but also might have to make that myself!