XTC – Nonsuch

This somehow eluded me when it came out (perhaps I was way too into shoegaze at the time), but I hav to say: this is an absolutely brilliant gem in their discography. Sounds incredible too, with a lush bottom end and clean acoustics unmuddied by surface noise.

Absolutely stellar pressing. Dead silent. Beautifully eq’ed as well. Every instrument sits perfectly in its song space. Bravo.

Very happy I finally got my as* up and went and bought this. Like others, I don’t have an OP to compare to, but the soundstage is rich and the bass has punch even if some thought the high-end drowns out the recording. I didn’t find that at all. No compression either, can’t believe someone above used that in their description of the APehouse reissues (if not Nonsuch specifically)

Great album with a bunch of awsome tracks including my personal no. 1 XTC song - "The Smartest Monkeys". Sounds great, no issues and what I would recommend for anybody looking to get a great sounding copy of this album at a much more affordable price than an original. I've got a NM copy the -92 release and that release still remains my preference, but it's a close call.

This is a decent replacement for the original. Rook does sound pretty poor but I am finding a lot of final tracks on somewhat recent-ish records sound a bit off or compressed. If you can find an affordable clean copy of the original (good luck!), go for that. I bought an original copy recently but it was damaged so I returned and went for this. The original sounded tremendous where the records were clean. This version is amazing aside from those final tracks on each side.

Pressing is quite fine even I can not compare this one with the 1st press . Everything else too. . . .

Slightly disappointing press. Muddy in places especially on the treble end and loud ages. At other times supremely detailed. "Rook" is a complete disaster whilst Omnibus is lovely

Wonderful pressing; the sound, to me, is practically the same as the BluRay remasters;
Same thing of skylarking

I've been waiting a long time for this to be reissued for vinyl (and I'm probably not the only one here). Unfortunately, in 1992 they weren't going to manufacture a lot of LPs for this issue, hence the price if you want one. I think the pressing sounds fantastic. The only things I have to compare it to are the other LPs in XTC's catalog that I have that are original pressings. They sound fantastic too. They did a good job with this Nonsuch reissue. Worth getting for sure.

Like everyone else, I was pretty enamored with this pressing, as it's a slickly produced album. The pressing is really high quality in that it's super flat, noise free, and looks like real care has been taken. But then I got out the 1992 UK original and started to compare the two, and the difference in mastering was immediately obvious. Much like Ape's recent Apple Venus Vol 1 pressing, they seem to roll off the higher frequencies for reasons unknown. Exactly like Apple Venus, the softer clarity means you miss some of the 'zing' of the acoustic guitars and cymbals on Dear Madam Barnum, and the vocals don't have the sheen on Humble Daisy. If you don't know what you're missing, it still sounds good, but anyone thinking about flogging their original might want to hold fire until they have the repress to compare to.

The packaging is also different from the original. In some ways better, in that the previous single sleeve is now a lovely gatefold, though all they've really done is squish the previously easy to read lyrics from three pages onto one (Get your glasses out! ), and used the inner sleeves as an advert for Ape's XTC and Andy P catalogue (repeated on each inner sleeve), rather than, say, added some retrospective musing and period in-studio pics (which would have been great, and displayed attention to detail and added value). The cover design is also a little different: the gold ink is a different shade (basically gold, rather than the deep yellow of the original) and the title graphics don't 'pop' like the original. Very minor detail, but something to keep in mind.

In summary, if your original copy's trashed, by all means get the new one. It's decent, and at least they didn't squish the 2LP down to 1LP like Ape bizarrely chose to do with Wasp Star. But if you're the kind of superfan that wants the ultimate vinyl version, I'm sorry to report that the original is arguably the one to get.