Radiohead – The Bends

So, my copy is of the PCS 7372 A-01-01- variety. It cleaned up pretty nicely, has very little surface noise and sounds pretty good overall. I find it to be 100% listenable but far from audiophile quality.

Be warned that sealed copies of this are highly likely to be the 2022 EU pressing which is a completely different cut, but shares the same barcode. This 2016 version uses the original DMM plates from 1995 whereas the 2022 pressing is an in-house GZ Media cut.

I think this is more original or close to what The Bends should sounds like. While 2020 Optimal cut is more digitally mastering involved, and pressing is different. Both have great soundstages and dynamics with 2020 Optimal more delicate sound. Can’t compare with GZ ones (2016 / 2022) as I do not have one of them.

this record has too many vinyl variations and it is a ballache, i recently got this album on vinyl and i was worried about it sounding horrible because reading reviews on this release page (and some other release pages) will tell you and it can either sound great or extremely horrible. i listened to mine all the way through and it sounded great so i might've gotten lucky with the version i got which has XLLP780 etched onto the runout on both sides and only that, nothing else.

apparently NOT having the long messages etched into the runout means that it's a bad pressing which conflicts with what i've found out myself so i assume that the bad pressings without the long messages are the ones that have PCS 7372 A-01-01-2 (the identifiers in the description) but no message etched / stamped in. if someone has had a bad sounding record with XLLP780 etched in then reply here because it can help with determining whether that version is a mostly good pressing or not.

Sounds great, phenomenal dynamics, a no brainer for sure, get it.

Just picked this up I can’t find the product number, duh! And the vinyl labels are switched. And it sounds poor. Just picked up Electric Ladyland too and it sounds fantastic so it’s not my set up.

Not good. Compressed. Snap, crackle, and pop all over both sides. Has a repeating light woosh on the second half of both sides. Best thing I can say is mostly flat and heavyweight vinyl. Was purchased new. Unfortunately more than half the Radiohead albums I've purchased have been crappy like this - they need to focus more on quality control rather than presentation.

What a nightmare trying to determine which of these reissues is actually a decent pressing- the reviews go back and forth between 'great' and 'poor'. I'd expect a pressing using the same original UK stampers should sound good, but not according to several reviews here :/

This uses the same stampers as the original UK press that goes for HUNDREDS. Pressed at Optimal. Buy with confidence.

Just received a sealed copy of this and I'm playing it for the first time. I can only discuss this release, as I don't have any other versions on Vinyl. That said - this one sounds really poor. I'm surprised to read positive comments below. It sounds terribly compressed with distortion all over the place. I even changed my stylus to see if I had a technical problem! But nope, it is what it is. Honestly, it can't be better than anything that went before, can it? Ouch.

Fortunately, I have the CD too. That's what I'll be playing in the future. Horrid.