And ten years later...
Yes, I agree with the OP.
I have the US Universal Republic vinyl version and as soon as I dropped it on the plate something sounded off to me; it's as if it was mastered from an mp3 file.
I haven't compared it to the CD yet, but I looked the edition up suspecting that this was a repress issue and wondering if I should just stop purchasing records from the same company; the research led me to this thread.
It is not more clear to me now but I hope it will be more clear to you.
Regards,
Alf