MP3: Shearwater – “Castaways” from The Golden Archipelago, due February 23 on Matador.

Am I going deaf or does this sound unmastered…or something? It’s decidedly lo-fi, the vocals are buried in the mix, and it just doesn’t sound good. Is it just me? But Matador is doing some cool stuff for this release, including bundling up a higher-bitrate MP3 or FLAC with the single artwork and “dossier pages.”

The CD comes packaged with a 50-page perfect-bound book that is a set of extracts from a dossier of records, photos, regulations and images collected by Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg. […] Serious researchers will have a way to obtain the actual, full-sized, full-color 73-page dossier in its special envelope – this will be announced soon, so keep your eyes on this space.

Fancy! You don’t hear about too many dossiers in the history of rock and roll…

Shearwater: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, wiki, web.

FTC Disclosure: Glorious Noise didn’t receive a damn thing from the artist, label, or publicist for writing this.