The Smile (5) – Cutouts

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 "passable" 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.

I am in love with Radiohead and hence Thom and Johnny and the band, but honestly, Skinner shines on these albums. He brings a completely different element to the music that is familiar - but not. I just love this trio, and Tom knows how to let the stars shine. In terms of the vinyl, I guess I got lucky with a flawless pressing - not audiophile, but solid. Music 9/10, pressing 7.5/10, overall A++.

Superb record with wonderful songs and the pressing quality (White, US) is top notch. Possibly their best yet. These guys are amazing.

My A side was silent; I thought I was lucky. Then I got to the B side. I’ve had channel distortion from Tiptoe onward. Anyone else experiencing this?

Good press, and of course this music is sublime! My record is warped, it still plays well, but right now it’s now sitting on a rack pressurized by other records to minimize this effect (it’s a one sided warp effect)

Musically spectacular. However, like others have said, the pressing is terrible with serious warping issues.