The Smile (5) – Cutouts

Mine sounds fine, no warps or issues, but my god, another XL pre-order where I pay nearly $40 and then see it for HALF of that online later. FOMO is expensive, y'all.

Massive warp right out of the jacket. Noisy and distorted. One of the worst pressings of vinyl I've purchased. I'm embarrassed for the record store owner for even selling this, so won't even bother trying to get my money back. It's going in the trash, and I'll just tell him it's what I did with it the next time I visit his store.

The press quality is so poor the band, WASTE, and XL should be ashamed that this product is on the market. How can you charge people garish amounts for a limited edition only for it to be so warped the needle skips? Two copies too. This album and the fans deserve better.

Won the lottery! Initially bought the black US pressing and had really bad channel distortion issues (not inner groove distortion) and Side A had scratches.

This one came in perfect condition! I can’t believe I am saying this but this is actually one of the best sounding modern records I own. The instrument separation, dynamic range and soundstage - everything is so amazing! This one was mastered really well.

I also got a cover art on a cardboard and a sticker. Really happy to have this in my collection as this is such a good example of why modern music is amazing :)

Brand new copy, serious warp. Unbelievable. Seems to be playing okay though.

Arrived home from the record shop and unwrapped it to give it a spin. Side A sounded great. Then I dropped the needle on side B... About 20 seconds in there was a 'click'. I immediately thought there must be a speck stuck to the surface. But then another 'click', and another, and a 'click' and a skip, and it just kept getting worse. Turns out there is this insane pressing flaw all across the track. I'll drop by the record shop later, hoping they will replace it.

Standard XL pressing, always something wrong in one way or another. Edge warp that is right at the threshold of being unacceptable.

Well I wasn't expecting two releases in a year from these guys, but this one's as good as the others-- meaning it is very very good. The pressing, on white vinyl, is overall also very good. It has to be precleaned if you want to avoid the paper particles and other debris that littered my copy. This is largely the fault of the inner sleeve material. Minor surface noise here and there, but generally ignorable and not enough to make me want to try a second copy. The first two releases from this band were far noisier pressings and I had to exchange the first release several times before I settled for a "able" copy.

My copy is a bit dished and its only noticeable during the quiet parts in between tracks, but other than that it sounds great after 2 spin cleans. I can say that this one and the indie pressing of Wall of Eyes were super dirty out of the sleeve.

Great album and fairly decent pressing. My copy is pretty quiet, very slight edge warp that doesn't affect play nor am concerned about. Fairly good dynamics.

Three super high quality releases by this band is making miss Radiohead less everyday...or is at least a very excellent distraction until (or IF) we get another Radiohead record. Loving this band.