Chris Stapleton – Starting Over

Great album, possibly one of my favorite county albums of all time.

Luckily, I don’t have too bad of a pressing. The one thing I notice is a lot of the vocals on the first disc are way too loud and blaring, even at low volumes. Other than that, sounds excellent, but it seems as though a lot of pressings have issues. Don’t let that deter you from enjoying this album as an album though.

First disc (A,B) sounds dull. Not ridiculously dull, just sounds off, even after a good cleaning. Second disc (C,D) sounds pretty good, actually. Really full sound, unlike the other disc. Weird.

Add me to the list of those who have received a less than stellar pressing of this album (mine was from Amazon). LP1 was cup-warped but playable - however, in the middle of the second track on the first side ("Devil Always Made Me Think Twice"), there was a loud one-second static like I've never heard on vinyl before. There was no noticeable flaw on the surface of the vinyl, but I verified it is NOT in the original recording by listening to the song on Apple Music. I did not even look at LP2 - and I am returning the album for an exchange with fingers crossed....

Starting Over is a wonderful record. This excellent pressing definitely does it justice. I'm so glad they spread it over 4 sides. Easily a Top Ten vinyl for 2020 for me.

I was relieved that this was a decent pressing, as his other albums are hit or miss, especially the US pressings.

I can't speak to how it sounds before and after a cleaning, as I wood glue all my albums before ripping them, so only ever heard mine clean. Others have said cleaning really made a difference.

Overall, my copy is a slightly above average pressing. It isn't perfect, but the records are centered with relatively little background noise, though there still is some. No pops/clicks. Both discs were very slightly warped - I honestly think it might be because they were packaged so tightly.

Nice to finally have a decent, widely available US pressing of a Chris Stapleton album!

although this music isn't really for me, I can still hear that it pretty good. its a little standard but that also has its charm.
3/5

I am giving this a 4 stars (out of 5) based on two things:
1) the mastering is fantastic. The vinyl is leagues above the stream.
2) the pressing is shockingly quiet from a sound standpoint. The record looks as though it was dragged behind a car for a few blocks before being put in sleeve and packed, but alas doesn’t effect sound quality.

I concur with the others, the pressing is sub-par but sounds good after a solid cleaning. Great album. Pressing=3.5/5, Music=5/5.

As usual, expect this to arrive with smudges, bits of paper, and random streaks of miscellaneous things. LP1 arrived warped, but plays great. Huge difference between this pressing and the digital counterpart. Vocals are much more pronounced and separate from the guitar playing, which gives these particular LPs power. Give the records a proper cleaning and these should satisfy most fans.

Maybe I am unlucky, but this has been a problematic album for me. Traveller was a horrible pressing, horrible sound, horrible quality control. From a Room 1&2 were excellent IMO. Sounded great, pressed great, very happy with those.

My 1st copy of Starting Over was filthy. Smudges, streaks and debris all over the 4 sides. After cleaning, Side A/B played well and sounded pretty darn good, even with a very slight warp. Side C did not play well, with popping, clicking and "swooshing" throughout, mostly during "old friend". Interestingly, in the dead wax it had "C II".

My 2nd copy had the exact same issues throughout side C, but this one had "C I" in the dead wax, and was also pressed significantly off center.

My 3rd copy was again "C II" and was not pressed off center. However, it still had some playback issues through only "old friends", but this was less pronounced than the previous 2 copies, so I've resigned to keeping this one. I find it hard to imagine that it is just me getting the same issue 3x, but perhaps it is?