Hank III* – Straight To Hell

Grabbed this out of the Used New Arrivals bin at Ditch Records yesterday in Victoria BC. Have never seen any Hank III anywhere on vinyl. Wasn't a terrible price ($39.99) but Disk 1 is VERY noisy, It crackles and pops all over both sides. It is only made tolerable by the fact that the crackle pop almost works with this style. Disk 2 which is the purposely weird and noisy disk is almost crackle and pop free. LOL.

I'll give a dissenting view. The records look incredible. 10/10 for the looks/packaging.

However, my copy is noisy in places. I have repeating bursts of non-fill in the left channel for the last dozen or so rotations on side 1. There are a few pretty big pops/clicks across the 4 sides total, and some minor surface noise between some of the tracks. At other times, I would say it borders on dead silent.

Inconsistent might be the word for the pressing quality of my copy. It isn't terrible, but not as good as some of the reviews here describing it as a silent pressing with no surface noise.

Still, I recommend this overall.

For whatever reason(apparently it was like this on the original vinyl release too) "Louisiana Stripes" is not on this. Arrgh! That's arguably the best song on the entire album. It is definitely the song I was most looking forward to having on vinyl with this release(The train was a close second but it's not technically a song). It's not on the picture disc released back in the day either. In fact, I can't find "Louisiana Stripes" on vinyl anywhere. Why people make decisions like this is beyond aggravating. Just a heads up in-case you too were looking forward to hearing again how he "threw their a$$ in the creek".

I’ve never listened to an original pressing of this album, but to me this looks like the definitive version. The covers are hi res images on thick card stock gatefold. The records are heavy, flat and dead silent between tracks. I played this right after the current repress of Lovesick and this one is louder by about 50%. The mixing on this sounds really good to me, but I think the vocals are just a tad lower than Lovesick. No complaints, if you love this better pick one up before they are gone again.

Fluance RT-81 TT
Ortofon 2M blue stylus
Fluance PA-10 preamp
Pioneer VSX-516 Receiver
Marantz SX-9 Speakers
Klipsch R-101 SW

Not much of a color vinyl guy however, I’ll make an exception here. Sounds great and looks cool while spinning. Record spins flat. No surface noise. Sound is rich, full, and punchy. What a Fantastic album Hank! Giddy up

Very flat. But very much surface noice. Sad for a record in this price class

Anyone know if Damn Right Rebel is getting a planned reissue too??

I had the OG but sold. I've been waiting for this and so pleased with the sound.

Terrific pressing, flat, centered and zero surface noise. Also just sounds great, clear and dynamic. Very pleased.

Sounds fantastic. Plenty of inaudible scratches on my copy though. Bummer