One of my favorite reissues from 2021 is this highly limited sea blue with black and baby blue splatter pressing of Sprained Ankle by Julien Baker. This is from the eighth pressing of the LP, which included 3 different variants, this version being the most limited at just 110 copies.
2021 was the year Baker truly hit my heartstrings as I wandered down sweltering, late summer forest trails as leaves turned brown and began to fall. In the months after my September 2021 bike crash, it’s what kept me active.
The crash was a culmination, in a way. I had experienced a bit of an emotional breakdown three weeks prior after months of inner turmoil. I quit one job, began another, and dove hard into some very deep inner personal growth work.
That introspection paired well with Julien Baker’s stripped bare, heart-wrenching lyrics.
The Many Pressings and Variants of Sprained Ankle
The album was originally released in 2015, and there have since been 10 or so pressings of Baker’s Sprained Ankle. That seems a bit excessive for a record that came out less than 10 years ago, but it goes further: within those 10 pressings, there are over 30 different variants ranging from as low as 21 copies to as high as 3000.
Here’s one of my favorite tracks from the LP, “Good News”
As noted in the intro, my copy is from the 8th pressing, which was released in January of 2021 and contained three variants. The sea blue with baby blue and black splatter is one of just 110 copies. As such, it does come at a price. You can’t really find it for less than $50 USD.
Now, I’m not quite sure what all the other variants look like, but I’d say the $50 is worth it for the true collector because this was is downright beautiful!
Of course, given the ridiculous amount of variants, you can snag yourself a copy of one of the others at a much more reasonable price. The black vinyl pressing will run you around $15-20 before tax and shipping, and there are a few color vinyl versions around $20-30.
My Vinyl Unboxing of Sprained Ankle by Julien Baker
The record was released on 6131 Records, and it’s pretty minimal. There are no inserts. There is no printed inner sleeve. It’s just an outer sleeve and the record. But, when it comes down to it, the packaging matches the music.
There doesn’t NEED to be much — the content speaks for itself.
I love how the cover is essentially a black-and-white image of Baker with a blue-gray tint and heightened exposure. The text calling out Julien’s name and the album title are in white, making it all the more subtle. Flip it over and it’s equally as minimalistic with just the track listing centered on the back and label information along the bottom.
The wax itself, as I mentioned, it quite stunning. This may be one of my favorite records from a visual standpoint. The blue and black aligns well with the artwork, but where the sleeve is withdrawn and minimal (like Julien Baker’s music), the vinyl is rich and vibrant with plenty of depth (like Baker’s lyrics). One listen to “Rejoice” should tell you that.
Here’s my full vinyl unboxing video:
