Adele (3) – 21

Really bed pressing, album is great, but record mastering kills it for me

Superstar Adele has arrived. The front half of this album is littered with classic Adele moments. The one knock I have is that the B side of the record is quite forgettable, particularly after all the hits we get in the first act. The choice to end the album with someone like you was brilliant. It’s one of her most memorable and rawest moments that we are left with.

I really like Adele and her songs on this particular album, many of them are masterpieces and I feel will stand the test of time. My copy of this album is very good in of pressing quality, quiet and flat. But the recording (or mastering?) quality is quite bland. It sounds spatially flat, clean and sterile, the dynamics won't win any prizes either. To be clear, sound quality is fine, nothing really objectionable or bad here. But for a masterpiece record like that "just fine" stands out as a negative. Still, absolutely no regrets in buying this, highly recommended.

This pressing sounds somewhat dynamically flat and sterile. Less engaging than what I’d hoped for. Overall it’s a balanced mix but with better mastering, it could be sensational. Especially as a double 45RPM for max groove space and dynamics. In my humble opinion, 21 was (and still is) Adele’s best album.

4 star out of 5. Lots of cracking noise on side B. It's there every round on the tracks themselves especially because side B consist of slow compositions. This type of the cracking noise is there from track 1 up to the "Lovesong". I'd say only last track on side B is less of the cracking noise every round. However, the noise is not too much annoying. Whoever looks for very quite record, it's not for you for the side B. Side A is much better in this sense thought it consist of more dynamic and fast compositions implying lots of the instrumental parts. The overall sound engineering work and mastering are very fine. I don't find it to be too much compressed. The record still sounds like a fine vinyl record not like your standard digital CD record. This particular release is a fine vinyl record close to the finest analog stereo experience: warm, rich and dynamic. 4 out of 5 stars. It could be 5 out of 5 on the level of the nowadays vinyl records, but still side B's got some cracking noise every round for most of the tracks. In that sense, side A is not perfect as well yet still is much, much better comparing to side B. Fine vinyl record otherwise of the fine Adele's album. Buy this particular release for the price knowing some cons described above. It's still enjoyable one. Make sure you get it flat fine on both sides, and, then, it'd be the best one out of Adele's 21 albums released on vinyl.

I love Adele and 21 is still my favourite album. After listening to it via streaming many, many times, I got the LP as I've got back into that hobby. I got the LP on the same day as my new turntable and thought I had set up the turntable incorrectly. Lack of presence in the voice and lack of dynamics, it sounds uninspired and flat. Put on some other LPs which confirmed that it was not the turntable's fault, this release is sadly not what Adele deserves...
UPDATE: The above was written with a properly calibrated AT VM95E stylus. Upgrading to a VM95ML stylus much improved playback performance for this pressing in particular so that I have no problems recommending it anymore for people with better than entry-level setups.
Oh, and my copy already came with a few micro scratches, and it has quite a few pops and clicks and the center hole is too tight due to manufacturing residue... (UPDATE: scratches/pops/click much less noticeable with the upgraded stylus as well)

I have this copy and I must say, it's pretty good. No obvious distortions or compressed sound that I hear. It's not one of the greatest pressings I own, but it's more than acceptable. Maybe I'm just lucky.

This pressing is outstanding. No compression, clean / flat vinyl. Maybe I lucked out here. I expected the worse, but ended up with the best. I would argue that you need a really good reference system to deal with the vocal dynamics in this recording. Mine almost distorts a tiny amount on ‘Someone Like You’; at one point, but that is because the vocals are mixed at a very loud level in this recording, so I’m guessing that is what other reviewers are reporting here. Reference system Technics SL1200G / VanDenHul Frog Gold MC cart.

Record ok, but deserve better pressing, still better than mp3.

It started out really bad. For some reason "Rolling In The Deep" sounds terrible! But the rest of the record is okey!