Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks - Sparkle Hard mp3 album

Couldn’t agree more with I.Dig.Wax on this one. From the opening piano notes of Cast Off, Sparkle Hard promises to be a classic. And then it delivers. Songs like Kite and Difficulties/Let Them Eat Vowels finally see Malkmus writing songs on an epic scale. Brethren and Solid Silk feature gorgeous string arrangements that evoke pastoral settings and carry a striking somberness. There are synth flourishes throughout the album that create a completely new and fresh sound for Malkmus. And I’d be remiss to leave out mention of the infamous vocoder performances. It’s silly, it’s playful, and then suddenly it will be jarring and dissonant. The lyrics are flat-out stunning. For a songwriter with a penchant for clever lyricism to step up to an entirely new level speaks volumes of the quality on display. Malkmus is more relevant, thoughtful, and touching than ever here. Think less Dadaist and more Impressionist.Simply put, this is a versatile, surprising, and stunning release. This is not just one of the best releases of Malkmus’s solo career (which I’ve always found just a little underwhelming in comparison to his past glories), but it easily contends with some of his Pavement releases as well. For serious.Hopefully Sparkle Hard will be re-evaluated for the upcoming year-end lists, because it deserved much, much more love than it received. Major, major props to Malkmus for this one.

While I really like the album, I'm disappointed by the pressing quality. It sounds really flat, the vocals especially. Anyone else having this same issue?

Mine sounds very good beside the surface noise which is pretty audible but manageable considering it's a colored vinyl. Compared to the digital version, it has a better dynamic range, more details in the high ends and a better stereo separation.Edit: But I definitely see what you mean. The album wasn't mixed/engineered like the other ones. It's more "lo-fi" sounding.

U N D E R R A T E D

No sticker sheet in my version, despite being advertised as the deluxe version, with silver vinyl.

Stickers were exclusive to the domino online store. Mine was UK version and had stickers.

Did you buy direct from label? Sticker sheets only came from Domino Mart

no sticker sheet neither, despite i ordered it directly from domino mart. Mine is europe version, so maybe only included in UK version ? It's really disappointing indeed...

Same here, silver vinyl but no sticker sheet. Ordered direct from Domino Mart.

Daaang. Most disappointing 'deluxe' version of all-time, given the egregious pricing of it.

I have a sticker sheet with mine. It's a UK version from Domino. A bit rubbish yours didn't. I would give them a shout.

The sticker sheet version is a Domino mart exclusive apparently

Same here. Disappointing. I guess it's not included the the uk/euro version, despite most of the stores stating so in the description.