Modern vinyl quality

[IDM]

I have recently gone back to using vinyl as my primary listening source. The reason being a total rebuild of my phono-stage, which is based on Andrew's C3G design (I will write up with my findings about the phono when I can find the time).

Anyway, back to the topic. I have just bought a copy of Sufjan Stevens album Michigan and on playing it sounds terrible. Loads of background noise like rustling and clear distortion on the vocals. On picking up the record it is full of static. I have a Moth record cleaning machine, do you think it is worth cleaning or is it just a bad pressing that should be returned?

I have read a few items on the net over the poor quality of new pressings, what are other peoples experience?

Cheers
Ian

[IslandPink]

Static does seem to be a problem on some of the companies products. My main gripe is that many of the 'audiophile' reissues sound like 16-bit masters. A relatively low number of the reissues are really done properly. Sundazed are in my experience very good. I don't often spend money on re-issues now, but my phono is tolerant of scratches and I prefer to put up with slight surface noise if it's original analogue data !