Mumford & Sons – Babel

Inner sleeve opens to side, as evident by the printed text on it, which is just odd.

I picked up an extremely clean used copy of this from my local shop and what I will say I this: United presses are almost universally poor on all s in my experience. This however, was not. Edges were trimmed clean and nicely rounded - felt like something more akin to an RTI press, not a United press. Flat, centered, clean spindle holes, no evidence of pressing flaws like no fill. It was so good I was suprised when I saw the "circle u". The mastering was sub-par and to be fair I can't say whether their hands were tied because of an already hot mix, or they just were a little heavy-handed for the vinyl master... either way, the result is very limited dynamics in the final product, which is anshame and does not justice to the material.

Sounds great in general, but unfortunately quite a few pops on Ghosts That We Knew as well as some surface noise on Reminder and Hopeless Wanderer, even after a wet clean. Colour and packaging are nice.

Can anyone say if this sounds better than the original pressing? I’ve heard negative things about earlier copies

Didn’t realize this was a nearly white colored LP when I bought it, but the white LP curse didn’t appear on this pressing. My copy has little to no surface noise all the way through. No problems with sound quality. Solid pressing.

I gave this a recent spin, probably for the first time in almost 10 years. Confirmed that this is the original press, cut at NRP and pressed at United. Having said that, it is a nice pressing, which is surprising given the reviews below. Most of the reviews seem recent, so perhaps they are meant for a separate pressing? Either way, it is a good press with minimal surface noise, flat, centered. It is not the most dynamic pressing, but that's limited by the recording.

Good clean sounding pressing! Apparently I lucked out when I bought it because I didn't know about all the issues with the OG pressing. Obviously compressed, the album is 60 minutes long, but for a single disc I can't complain. I'd love to see a 2LP but until then this is your best bet.

How does it sound this Babel vinyl reissue of 2020?

First side sounded great minus one small spot scratched from the factory. Second side however, horrible amount of skipping just on the first half of the first track "Lovers Eyes". The record itself is pretty bent up and warped, and visually you can see a warp making the record look like an ocean wave when playing. Hard to describe but weirdly it doesn't effect it too much as far as i can tell. But from other reviews, i guess it could be worse. I bought straight from the UK store and had it imported to USA so that may be the reason for the warp/bend as all UK records ive received have the same experience. This one just moves so high and low it actually bumps the needle out of place on the first B side track. Dynamics aren't really there but the mastering is good and the songs sound pleasant. At least the ones i can actually listen to. little bit of surface noise as well even after deep cleaning. Long story short, it seems that no matter how you buy this vinyl, your copy is probably going to be messed up in one way or another

Bought a copy of this from Barnes and Noble. Terrible pressing; skipped about 10 times just on the first side and was filled with cracks and hiss. Also, didn't sound very good. Sounded like a very compressed mix and no better than streaming from Spotify. Avoid at all costs.