Porcupine Tree – Closure / Continuation

Sounds great, plays great, I didn't even have to clean it prior to playing.

Here we have a beautiful album and sounds great to me.

As an album, this would have made a great THREE song EP...withDignity, Of the New Day, and Chimera's Wreck... The other 4 pieces are (in my opinion) superfluous and not up to usual PT standards. If continuation is in the future, I hope they will build on the style of the three mentioned.
The pressing was a mixed bag, even after ultrasonic cleaning. Side One had a huge surface mark but did not affect the playing but sides 3/4 had some pops throughout quiet passages.

Sonically impressive, but even after ultrasonic cleaning, far too many pops and clicks.

This might be the best recorded / produced rock album of all time! It sounds fucking phenomenal. Gavin Harrison is easily among the top three rock drummers ever and his playing on this record blows my mind. I really dig this album. Is it Porcupine Tree's best? Probably not, but I have a hard time ranking their albums. Herd Culling and Walk the Plank both have some elements that are a little different and fresh for PT. Rats Return has some gorgeous complex chords, and Chimera's Wreck reminds me of Gabriel era Genesis.

Yes, the volume is low. That doesn't mean it sounds bad. That means it's ultra dynamic and sounds ridiculously good! Tune into Gavin's subtle brush strokes on Chimera's Wreck. This album sounds as close to live as you're ever gonna get for a rock record.

pretty clear sound, no noticeable noise, at least not more than average vinyl. has a nice, punchy, clean sound to it. #2040/2500

My side A seems to have a lot of surface noise compared to B, hopefully a thorough ultrasonic may resolve. Happy with the pressing tho, nice marbly silver on mine. In terms of the album, not their best but worth owning IMO.

Unfortunately Porcupine Tree vinyl pressings don't really convince me in recent years. Their Transmission album reissues are often very basic, with flimsy packaging and an overall half-hearted feel to it, while charging a premium at the same time. Another infamous example is their Record Store Day 2023 EP, which had such a careless packaging that you had to be very lucky to get a clean sounding disc. And now this release, which is considered the audiophile (and very expensive) variant of their latest album and then they press it at Takt Direct, one of the most substandard pressing plants out there? My copy is plagued by surface noise across all 3 discs, propably because of two things: Firstly Takt Direct from whom I never got a clean sounding pressing so far. Secondly the use of paper inner sleeves. Why no poly-lined inners to avoid damage to the discs of a supposed premium pressing?

I mean, I like the fact that it is done on 45 RPM for the (theoretically) highest sound quality. The mastering is superb without question. But when it comes to pressing and packaging quality Porcupine Tree established a higher standard in the past with their releases on K-Scope, Gates of Dawn or Tonefloat. This is kind of sad. When vinyl was almost dead in the 2000s they kept it up with great pressings where you could feel the love for the format. Now that vinyl is big again they drop quality? I don't get it...

Why on earth does a 48-minute album run on 33⅓ and spread over 2 LPs? I guess they both should have been cut at 45 RPM, that would just nicely fit the aesthetics of Mr Wilson in terms of HiFi sound and all that. Oh, I forgot, the future bites and it's just marketing so I paid a fair price of 24,99 EUR

Good sound, definitely needed a cleaning out of the packaging which seemed to help with the crackles and pops.
Rich and detailed low end. I'm impressed with this release.