NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS The Future MINT Stax w Insert & Dig Downld

$

25

Vinyl: MINT!  TOP COPY!   Appears to have never been played!  Stax Labels are Clean and Bright.  This is the 2021 Stax 1st Pressing!  STX 00477.  This is the audiophile acclaimed analog version, pressed on Bone colored 180 gram Vinyl.  Includes a Free Digital Download card!  A barn-burner and a slow-burner at the same time from Rateliff & The Night Sweats!  Country Soul!  Rock & Soul!   This is a Soul Party Record!  If you haven't tried out Rateliff yet, this is a great place to start!...all music gives it 4 stars!!!
See Review Below!
In the Dead Wax:  Matrices, stamped, on both sides.  Complete dead wax information cheerfully provided upon request.

Cover: MINT!  TOP COPY! (see photos) Gatefold IN SHRINK!!! (And that's rare!!)   Includes the Insert with artwork by Doug Spencer, entitled "Smoke (Fumage) on acrylic".  Hype sticker on shrink.  Nice high gloss mirror effect on the Die-Cut cover.  Front, gatefold and back of cover artwork and text are rich, clear and bright, essentially flawless.    Seams, corners and spine are solid and clean, with a small bump on two of the corners.  No splits.  No writing.  Spine print is crystal clear.  
Goldmine Standards.   I play grade every record that I sell on eBay as I have found you can't rate a record accurately by just visually inspecting it.  I wipe the dust off of every cover with clean, unscented baby wipes.  I professionally clean the vinyl.  (I also operate a Vinyl Record Cleaning business for your dusty/dirty records--if interested, send me a message).
U.S. Shipping:  $4.99 Media Mail.  50 cents additional shipping per additional album, when the shipment is combined.   If you wish to take advantage of my COMBINED SHIPPING deal, simply select your records by clicking on "ADD TO CART" on the main listing page.  Do this for all of your selections and then go to your cart to checkout.  Your combined shipping discount will be computed automatically.  Free domestic shipping if you spend $100 or more!  
All records are packaged securely with the vinyl outside the jacket (to avoid seam split in transit). The vinyl and jacket are sandwiched between two cardboard stiffeners and shipped in a custom cardboard record mailer box. 
INTERNATIONAL BUYERS!  EBAY'S PLATFORM DOESN'T ACCOMMODATE FOR COMBINED SHIPPING FOR INTERNATIONAL BUYERS---BUT DON'T LET THAT STOP YOU!!!---I CAN COMBINE SHIP FOR YOU AND MINIMIZE SHIPPING COSTS!!!  TELL ME WHICH ITEMS YOU WANT TO BUY, AND I WILL WEIGH THEM AND THE SHIPPING BOX TOGETHER AND THEN I WILL CREATE A "LOT OF 2..." OR "LOT OF 3...", OR "LOT OF 4...", ETC WITH THE ITEMS YOU WANT, AND CREATE A LISTING WITH THE EXACT WEIGHT OF YOUR LOT.   THIS WILL SAVE YOU A LOT OF MONEY!!!  IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN THIS, SEND ME A MESSAGE TELLING ME WHICH ITEMS YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AND WE'LL GO FROM THERE.  OR, FEEL FREE TO ASK QUESTIONS.
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Once you're satisfied with your purchase, please leave positive feedback and I will do the same for you.  If you're unsatisfied, please let me know so we can resolve it.  I do not give partial refunds.  Take a look at my previous feedback and buy with confidence.   I've qualified for the "Top Rated Plus" seal from eBay, awarded to the most reputable sellers who consistently deliver outstanding customer service.  Check my other items this week, check back often & CLICK ON "SAVE THIS SELLER" at the top of my listings page to be notified of New Listings as I will be adding more Rare items in the coming weeks!  Thanks!

Why buy a first or early pressing and not a re-issue or a ‘re-mastered’ vinyl album? 
First and early pressings are pressed from the first generation lacquers and stampers. They usually sound vastly superior to later issues/re-issues (which, in recent times, are often pressed from whatever 'best' tapes or digital sources are currently available) - many so-called 'audiophile' new 180g pressings are cut from hi-res digital sources…essentially an expensive CD pressed on vinyl.  Why  experience the worse elements of both formats?  These are just High Maintenance CDs, with mid-ranges so cloaked with a veil as to sound smeared.  They are nearly always compressed with murky transients and a general lifelessness in the overall sound.  There are exceptions where re-masters/re-presses outshine the original issues, but they are exceptions and not the norm.  First or early pressings nearly always have more immediacy, presence and dynamics. The sound staging is wider.  Subtle instrument nuances are better placed with more spacious textures. Balances are firmer in the bottom end with a far-tighter bass. Upper-mid ranges shine without harshness, and the overall depth is more immersive.  Inner details are  clearer.   On first and early pressings, the music tends to sound more ‘alive’ and vibrant.  The physics of sound energy is hard to clarify and write about from a listening perspective, but the best we can describe it is to say that you can 'hear' what the mixing and mastering engineers wanted you to hear when they first recorded the music.  

The Future Review

by Timothy Monger

Five years into the most successful phase of his career, Nathaniel Rateliff suffered an identity crisis. His bold 2015 transformation from lyrical indie folk act to retro-soul bandleader went about as well as he could have hoped; his full-band debut, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, went gold, effectively launching the Denver singer/songwriter into the mainstream. Their 2018 follow-up, Tearing at the Seams, was similarly successful, but when Rateliff found himself in a more introspective mood, he resumed his solo career and recorded the more subdued and personal And It's Still Alright. Faced with the prospect of having to keep dividing his material between two camps, Rateliff took a gamble and tried to fuse some of the Night Sweats' rock & roll swagger with the more thoughtful tone of his solo work. This creative reckoning leads the band down some interesting paths on The Future, their third outing together. Without fully abandoning the rugged soul-rock of their first two records, Rateliff and his crew take a more exploratory and collaborative approach that is ultimately quite satisfying. Opening the album, the rousing country-soul title track is not only the best of the bunch but one of Rateliff's best tracks to date. A world-weary mid-tempo barn burner with a host of gutsy payoffs, it sets the nervy tone that gives this album its identity. The Night Sweats could easily have carried on churning out the type of retro-R&B party music that built their career, but Rateliff made the right choice in giving them some weightier material to chew on. The question of where to go next is at the heart of the excellent Harry Nilsson-esque "Something Ain't Right," a chunky piano pop gem over which he bellows "Part of me feels I've arrived, but sometimes it don't align." A dark, almost angry grit shades cuts like "Survivor" and the punchy "So Put Out," while the sparse "Baby I Got Your Number" breaks the band down to their core elements. Likewise, the shuffling "Love Me Till I'm Gone" finds the Night Sweats channeling the autumnal blue-eyed soul of Van Morrison, a sound that suits them well. By the time they close with the fiery Motown vamp "Love Don't," Rateliff and his band have covered a nice range of moods on what is their most diverse release yet.