Variant chronology
2023 - US Anti- standard black LP, 87976-1, UPC 045778797615 <- this copy
2023 - US Anti- limited indie-retail-exclusive clear vinyl, 87976-1TCL sticker
2023 - Europe Anti-/Proper Music black LP, cat 279761, UPC 8714092797619
2023 - Europe indie-exclusive clear LP, cat 279763, UPC 8714092797633
The Album
All That Was East Is West Of Me Now is Glen Hansard's fifth solo album, his first in four years, born of an unusually public writing process: over five Tuesdays in November 2022 he road-tested dozens of new songs in the back room of a small pub in west Dublin before a crowd of fans, locals, dart players and pool sharks, reasoning that 'a song only becomes what it is through witness.' The record was then cut quickly and intuitively in the weeks that followed at longtime collaborator David Odlum's home studio on the outskirts of Dublin, with a band drawn heavily from The Frames' circle. The title reflects Hansard's realization, now in his fifties, that 'there's more behind than ahead' - yet the eight songs lean toward promise and perseverance rather than regret, from the sprawling opener 'The Feast Of St John' to the theremin-haunted mid-album trio and the closing one-two of the defiant 'Bearing Witness' and the mortality meditation 'Short Life.' Hansard first won fame fronting Irish indie band The Frames, then global recognition with Markéta Irglová in The Swell Season and the film Once, whose 'Falling Slowly' earned him an Academy Award. Critics received the album warmly - 79 on Metacritic - hailing it as his most rock-driven record since the Frames' Burn the Maps era and praising its fusion of Irish folk roots, orchestral textures and the ragged communion of his live shows.
The Label
This copy carries full-coverage moon-photograph labels (dark side A / light side B) with the track list printed directly on the artwork and catalog number 87976-1 at the bottom - the standard 2023 Anti- retail configuration, matching Discogs release 28404328-type US stock. Anti- is the Los Angeles indie founded in 1999 by Epitaph's Brett Gurewitz, Hansard's solo label home since 2012's Rhythm and Repose, and the transcribed 'EPITAH 87976-1' deadwax prefix is the Epitaph/Anti- plant's typical matrix tag. The jacket line '℗ & © 2023 Plain Records, LTD. Under exclusive license to Anti-' confirms Hansard owns the master and licenses it to Anti-, and the US UPC 045778797615 separates this from the European Proper Music edition (UPC 8714092797619). All editions - US black, US clear indie exclusive (87976-1TCL), and the two European counterparts - were released simultaneously on 20 October 2023 and remain the only pressings to date, so this copy sits at the top of the hierarchy by default as a first pressing, albeit the common rather than the scarce variant.
Fidelity
A modern digital-era production, produced and mixed by David Odlum, with the vinyl almost certainly cut from high-resolution digital masters; no dedicated analog or vinyl mastering credit is documented. As the only vinyl mastering in existence (shared by the black and clear editions), it is the reference pressing by default - there is no vintage original or audiophile reissue alternative from the likes of Analogue Productions or Mobile Fidelity. Epitaph/Anti- pressings of this era are generally competent, quiet modern pressings, and the album's dense, dynamic rock-with-strings production translates reasonably well. No significant forum consensus on this pressing's sonics has emerged given its recent release.
