I just watched an interesting video that Drew Oliver made for iZotope, where he notices a "peak level bump" in a recent release, and suggests it might be a deliberate production strategy.

And maybe he's right, but I assumed something very different when I saw what he was talking about – and in fact I can think of several other possible explanations, too.

I thought you might be interested, so I made a video explaining my thoughts. Take a look and let me know what you think ! And be sure to check out the original video - the section I'm commenting on starts @ 12:31