Idles – Crawler

Got the Eco and this version. The 45rpm is much better. dead quiet. not as flat as it could be but not to wavy to get a loss of quality.
Sadly my record got a little damage on B by factory.
Sounds amazing, Better then the stream

I didn't expect the bass would be so strong - it almost blew me away from the speakers.

Excellent ! Do you know why this 45rpm is very good, whereas the 33rpm is flat ? Is it the same mastering ?

Phenomenal mastering mired by an excessively noisy pressing. Washed with a vacuum machine multiple times to no avail.

Tape quality is poor, pressure pad sucks, and ink on shell rubs off easily. Disappointing since it's a good album.

This record is punchy as hell and by far the best version out there

This pressing is great: to have single-quality sound for every track is wonderful. Vinyl production quality is a tricky business depending on many variables – this Crawler double album rides the crest of the wave regarding vinyl sound production.

The 45 rpm is NOT a “weird novelty” (as mentioned below). The whole point of this 2 x disc, 45rpm, Crawler album is to maximise the sound quality to its highest vinyl standard. It is done to a few classic albums, but obviously expense prohibits it being common. This edition is certainly worth having.

7” singles and 12” EPs are produced at 45rpm BECAUSE you get better quality. 7” singles can sound better than their album counterparts because of the higher speed. (12” EPs are magnificent.)

Google sound quality and 45 rpm (“Dr. Dub”) and you will see the many reasons for why the sound quality is higher. The reasons are technical, to do with the angle and width of the groove, speed etc. Basically, by spreading the tracks over two pieces of vinyl – having more space and deeper / wider grooves you get a more immersive sound experience with greater detail and stronger bass.

The higher speed essentially shortens the length of the groove per sound time, hence the reason why you get less playing time at 45 rpm, and for an album have to properly fit the music onto two discs.

Sound quality also depends on mastering, pressing and audio equipment.

How is this punk in any shape or form? its way more modern pop like Billie Eillish et al.

Very nice object. Fantastic Sound. Great album. Isn'it their best, so far ?

The pressing itself doesn't sound too bad, but the PVC packaging was a terrible idea. It's well known what PVC sleeves do to vinyl and this is no exception. I just took this out of the sleeve to play it, and the disc is absolutely covered in sheen. It's as if they intended for us to throw this sleeve away and find a replacement because it's only going to get worse over time. The sheen causes a noticeable hiss throughout the record, heard in between tracks. Great album, shoddy pressing.