Radiohead – Kid A Mnesia

A/B’d with the 2x10” 2008 press for Kid A. There just is no comparison. The 2x10” is the clear winner. Did no one even compare the two before before putting out this POS???

Poor press from the plant. Poor, lifeless mastering. C’mon GZ! I’ve got some really nice LPs from you guys, so I know the capability is there! Way to drop the ball on something that should have been a top priority.

Guess I got lucky, my copy is fine, no issues. Was especially worried (after reading these reviews) about HTDC, but there’s no distortion, no probs at all. I did give all records a good cleaning first.

Pretty good pressing, but How To Disappear has a lot of distortion especially towards the end. Kid A is also kinda warped

is this the Czech version?? with sticker on front shrink

I must have won the pressing lottery on my copy as it has very little surface noise throughout, although it does suffer from the How To Disappear distortion.

After reading the initial reviews of the early pressings, and being disappointed by the content of this anniversary edition, i've decided not to pull the trigger.
2 years after, i've noticed this repress at the so-called 'worst plant on the planet' and i've discovered some shops in were selling it for 26€! So, i gave it a go.

Man, this has been a hassle... I've had to get 4 copies to have something midly satisfying (but i'm becoming more and more of a 'nazi' when it comes to clean & good pressings so, take it with a grain of salt).

THE GOOD PART
- the package is nice when you have it in your hands
- no barcode on the artwork
- printing job is OK

THE NOT SO BAD PART
- like most of you, i was waiting eagerly to hear "How to..." and the now infamous saturation. After hearing 4 copies, i can say that some of them have very little of it. So, i don't know if some correction has been made or if you just have to be lucky but as far as i can tell, it doesn't seem as bad as the first reports (on the Optimal press).
- Of course, there is way too much music crammed on single LP albums, the sound is less dynamic (i have an OG Kid A & a 45 RPM Amnesiac to compare) but it's not as bad as i was expecting.
- The smaller/recessed labels are a bit weird but it's a great idea to avoid needle damages. I'm not sure it will avoid IGD though...
- The trifold is OK i guess. A slim boxset would have been better though.
- If, like me, you were here for the bonus tracks (especially, the unreleased tracks), then it's a mix-bag: i'm happy to have this just for "Follow me around" but i reckon that people who are not that into this track (or the other one) will be a bit disappointed by the rest of the bonuses. Radiohead clearly has done a shitty job at shining light on what have must been insanely creative sessions. As usual, artists should stay away from their Legacy releases.

THE BAD
- As i've said, i had to go through 4 copies to 'frankenstein' an OK copy. Each record had its own problems: marks, warps, clicks, pops, non-fills... you name it! The worst was to have an almost perfect Kid A (even on 'How to...') just to discover a huge problem on the other side.
- Kid A had clearly the most problem of all 3 records, which is a shame as a lot of people come for this album in particular.
- The package looks good at first sight but it's pretty bare-bone (especially for those who paid 50€). A booklet with more artwork and some pictures/explanations about the sessions and the tracks we have here would have been the minimum for an anniversary release.
- No anti-static inner-sleeves (they are printed on the roughest cardboard you can find).

For the price i've paid, i won't complain too much but man, i've spent hours & hours to get there, so it's clearly a sub-par pressing (as usual with Radiohead) & a missed opportunity from the band.

But, at least, we know Optimal can be as bad a GZ, and GZ can produce OK LPs (if you're lucky)!

My copy is mislabeled so it looks like amnesiac is there twice but kid a is actually one of the records sound is good

My personal copy sounds great, no scratches or warps absolutely beautiful packaging. Forever love this project

Sound is nowhere near the kid a and amnesiac 180g releases. LPs came warped, kid a being particularly bad. I do not recommend this regardless if it has tracks unreleased. After-all, its a digital master so is it really worth wasting your money when the product is garbage?