The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange LP - Orange Cover Edition

Crypt (1994)

My search for a really excellent listenable version of Orange continues.  I have the original Matador picture disc, which sounds OK but is limited by the lack of fidelity inherent in picture discs.  I also have the semi-recent reissue on Shove, but that one is all crackly and weird for whatever reason.  So I've been searching Discogs trying to find a nice copy of an older pressing.  In the interest of trying to keep things interesting, I zeroed in on this version with different artwork.

I've got to say, as much as I like the usual shiny silver art, I really dig the simple line art on an orange background.   It might be my favorite of the two.  Unfortunately this record is just as full of crackle and surface noise as the recent reissue.  It's not bad or unlistenable.  For its age, it's actually in really nice condition.  But one thing about this record is that there are a lot of pauses and moments of silence where the pops and cracks really stand out in ways that they wouldn't on other albums.

Maybe I'm fighting a losing battle, trying to find the perfect specimen.  But I love this album so much and am so annoyed that I never picked up a good copy over the past twenty seven years.  I'll keep looking and hopefully something will pan out eventually.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange (YouTube Music full album playlist): https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mYhqeq9YyjZFO1hIfdKwtRdRxyY6EK5-s

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange LP

Shove (2011, Reissue)

Orange is a really important record to me.  When I started listening to Beck in 1994, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion was one of the first bands I found that had some sort of relationship with him.  I picked up Orange and was just blown away and completely in love with the album.  I know every second of this record by heart and I just love the music.  The vinyl version that I've had was the one Matador put out in 1994 that was a picture disc that was silver sparkled.  It was and is very cool looking, but picture discs don't sound that great and I decided I needed to pick up a normal copy on vinyl that I could just play.  I think I picked the wrong one.

I am not sure what is up with this pressing on Shove, but it's pretty bad.  I ordered one from Amazon, played it once and they returned it, thinking I got a bum record.  I replaced it with another copy and this one sounds just as bad.  The pressing is so noisy, with loud crackling and surface noise throughout.  I've given it a deep clean and played it on multiple record players but any way you slice it, it still sounds bad.  If it hadn't happened on two different copies, I'd probably just dismiss it as bad luck, but I'm pretty convinced that something is wrong with this pressing.

So, now I am hunting around on Discogs to try to find another version of this that I can pick up.  Orange is such a full sounding, warm record with lots of pauses and sections of silence in the middle of songs.  You really need a top notch pressing to enjoy it and this one just isn't it.  But the music, well that's just out of this world.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange (YouTube Music full album playlist):
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mYhqeq9YyjZFO1hIfdKwtRdRxyY6EK5-s