New Vinyl - "scratchy"?

I have to ask the obvious, did you clean it thourghly before listening? You know, mold release chemicals and all that crap.

If you cleaned it well first, you're probably just the unlucky purchaser of a poorly pressed copy. Unfortunately, If you buy enough new vinyl releases, you're bound to occasionally get a noisy copy. It's one of the annoying pitfalls of this hobby. Some labels/pressing plants are worse than others. There's little accountability for this as far as the pressing plants and record distributors. If a retailer chooses to replace a noisy copy for a customer, they generally aren't going to be reimbursed by anyone.

Maybe it needs to play a few times. I have read statements on older MFSL pressings indicating MFSL records will sometimes exhibit ticks and pops on the first few plays because the records are not "dehorned" at the factory, done in an effort to preverve the highest possible fidelity. Maybe this is the same thing. Or, its a poorly pressed copy-its happened to me. Any good record store will exchange it.

Also worth trying on a friends system to see if it's not specific to your sysytem. When I got my 45rpm Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince G Trio it was scratchy. A year later after I changed the Dynavector XV-1s for a Colibri XGP I coencidentaly found that it sounds perfect on this combo. The only thing that stopped me returning it to AcousticSounds as faulty was the shipping costs, but as it turns out it sounds okay now.

I don't know the answer but I can attest to similar issues I have had with some new records I have purchased.
Tom Waits Mule Variations is one such example. I am on my second copy due to noisy grooves, and the new copy is just as bad as the first. I have played it on three different turntables with the same noises in the exact same places of the songs, so I am sure it is not equipment related.
Tbromgard's reply might have some truth to it. I had never thought vinyl would need to be broken in, but perhaps it does, depending on the place it was made.