Sweet Jesus

 Sweet Jesus totally came out of the blue (for me at least) and surprised me with one of the best 7"s I've heard in years. It almost became my release of the year 2014. So when I read that they were going to release a full length LP I was more than stoked. As soon as the pre-orders went online, I put in my order and then the most dreadful period of time for any record nerd began: the waiting. I'm not 100% sure on the timeline anymore, but I think the band wasn't happy with the first recording/mastering, so they recorded/mastered everything again. Fine by me, I'd rather have a good sounding copy the band is happy with than a crappy record that has just been put out for the sake of having a release. Drawback: wait longer. Then the pressing plant fucked up and/or Record Store Day prolonged everything. Long story short: it took what felt like forever until the records were finally shipped in late August. Funny side note: the first version actually out there was the tour version for the European tour Sweet Jesus did in early August. Anyway, I finally have the album in my hands. Actually, I have three copies in my hands. You'll see. I really like the LP. It doesn't have as much of a 'wow factor' as the 7", but it is still a really good LP. I'm pretty sure it will rank highly on my 2015 list.

First up is the pre-order variant on white vinyl. This was the rarer of the two pre-order colours. 100 copies exist.

Next is the variant on purple vinyl out of 300.


    For people who pre-ordered the record, the label threw in a flexi. Sweet Jesus show their excellent
    taste in music and cover one Faith and one Void song. Can't go wrong with the classics. You also
    get a note/flyer explaining a little bit about the delay.

    As I said, Sweet Jesus toured the UK/Belgium briefly earlier this summer. I think it was their first
    real tour, too. For this tour they put out a tour variant. Black vinyl with blank labels. You get a tour
    stamp on the DJ sleeve, but no real cover. Bummer. I always fell that this is a lazy way of making a
    tour variant. Stamps are cool, but they should be a bonus, not the main feature. The lyric sheet is also
    different from the one that comes with the regular LP. Different layout and different paper colour. I
    ordered this after seeing a post on Facebook, saying that the band still had some tour pressings left
    over. So I grabbed one. Funnily enough this was the first variant I received in the mail.

    In the meantime I learned that there is also a Revelation Records exclusive pressing on yellow vinyl.
    Or to be precise, there was a Rev exclusive pressing, because it has already sold out. And of course I    
    missed out. Atomic Action also (re)pressed the LP on orange and black vinyl. Need to pick up these
    soon.