Silver Jews – American Water

Be careful and check the matrix number. In any case, first issue sounds great, and I recommend it to everyone.

This listing says “ From the outside, this appears to be identical to the original 1998 pressing.” but doesn’t list how you tell the difference from the inside ! Is there a way to identify a first press e.g. label rings ? Matrix ? Insert ?

I got a crap pressing, skips all over and too late for me to return to the store.

The least good sounding mastering in my Silver Jews collection - the John Golden mastered records are far superior.

not one purchased vinyl through this page listing was for an actual 98’ first pressing because there aren’t that many to begin with so why would there be 10+ “new and sealed” lol i myself do have a NM 98’ first pressing and that feels damn good with all this foolery going down

Here we go again....cheap sealed copies listed here are NOT 1998 first pressing! Why music industry allows this? Reissues need to have a different cat #, barcode, something!!!

Just bought the 2018 vinyl verison of Siler Jews - American Water, one of my favorites of all-time, sealed at local record shop and Smith & Jones Forever skips unfortunately. This incresases my disdain for certain inherent characteristics of vinyl. Other than that skip on Smith & Jones, it does however sound amazing. Thankfully I got a receipt and will be returning it.
Update: Was the only copy in stock of course, but they have a replacement coming from warehouse for exchange. I'll be all right.
8/16/23 update:
Aug 18, 2023
Mine's a bit dirty right out of the wrapper (that's what she said) and comes pre-scratched. This second sealed copy in a week is also slightly warped, but actually plays fine. My girl in the quality-control department's been cheatin' on me apparently. At least it doesn't skip on Smith & Jones Forever like the first sealed one did. Sounds pretty darn good. Wouldn't say so much "more better" than the CD to make it necessarily worth the investment and commitment half the time with vinyl IMO. When these type of commonplace but no less annoying shortcomings of the vinyl medium are encountered in one's efforts to procure favorite releases in their best sounding format and then factors in the already inherent potential for surface noise (of which this one thankfully happens to have almost none), vinyl pitfalls can just suck the joy right out of the music appreciation experience (but then so can digitization). The lyrics are just as small and hard to read as in the CD booklet which could have been "more better". As far as the music itself, it's Silver Jews - American Water, and that pretty much says it all right there. If you already know, you know. The drums on Buckingham Rabbit sound amazingly deep and rich, I guess you could say warm, but more like full, maybe it's that analogue warmth thing I've been hearing so much about lately. The music on this album is timeless in that it evokes certain nostalgic feelings, yet still sounds like nothing before it nor since. ......RIP DCB

Drag city re-pressed this album but there's no separate listing. How do I tell if I have an original? Does anyone have a repress to compare matrix runouts?

If anyone actually has a 1998 pressing of American Water they’re willing to sell, please message me.

Yup, great sounding pressing. Also, Drag City has free shipping and ships in high quality mailers, which is always pretty awesome.