@slaw: Actually Steve, it wasn’t the pressing Michael Ludwig didn’t care for, it was the music. His review of the album was a stark reminder to me that Michael’s musical taste and mine overlap only peripherally. I am a singer/songwriter aficionado, Michael likes Jazz and Electronic music.
From the excellent booklet included in the VMP album, written by David Cantwell (author of Heartaches By The Number: Country Music’s 500 Greatest Songs, and The Running Kind: Listening To Merle Haggard. David has also written for The New Yorker and Rolling Stone Country):
"Iris DeMent released Infamous Angel in 1992. Thirty years later, the album remains among the most singular and fully realized singer-songwriter debuts since the invention of that category in the early ’70’s."
Robert Christgau characterized her "Let The Mystery Be" as "miraculous".
John Prine, on the album’s back cover: "Listen to this music...it’s good for you."
I actually feel sorry for Michael Ludwig; there’s something missing from his soul. No offense intended, Michael ;-) .
The VMP pressing is fine, perhaps done at QRP (Chad has done a number of LP’s for VMP). But the vinyl of the LP is splatter blue, which seems silly to me (I’m not a teenage girl ;-) . The VMP LP actually bears the name Yep Roc Records on it’s center label, so I assume the new LP will differ only in it’s pressing, not it’s mastering. Hope it’s black!
I also hope Yep Roc issues Irises 2nd album---My Life---on LP. It contains her utterly devastating song "No Time To Cry", as heart-wrenching a song as I have ever heard. The album was finally released on LP by Plain Recordings about ten years ago, and could use a reissue in a better pressing. Come on Chad, make room for it ;-) .
