Portishead – Third

Like Melting Duck Coffin right below me, I don't agree with the majority of the comments here. My copy plays pretty fine, absolutely no pops and minimal surface noise . It's not the most audiophile and dynamic experience to listen to it, but it's also because the music is supposed to be crooked and unpleasant, as the digital/streaming versions prove. And surely it could be better pressed, as most vinyl these days, but it's defo not a bad pressing. I'm going to test it with the EU version in a couple of days, we'll see.

I do buying this brand new (and omg how on earth are these plain paper sleeves still not banned??), probably between 2013 and 2016, and wet-cleaning it multiple times, as well as adding an extra polylined inner. That maybe did the deal over time.

I bought my copy of this 45rpm WG/NRP mastered United pressing back in like 2016 or something, possibly even earlier.
I have used a VPI 16.5 vacuum machine and gave it a thorough wet cleaning and yes some crackle in spots are still present.
My copy isn’t atrocious as others have described. It’s just a noisy United pressing which I have plenty of because I got into new records in the mid 00’s and United were pressing a lot of indie stuff at the time. I also find the more fine stylus profile along with proper alignment can aid in lots of noise. I have seen improvements from those adjustments when swapping things out.
All in all the 45rpm and mastering are quite good if you can get a playable copy with minimal defects.
Also random piece worth sharing is the album might be system dependent. It sounds way more accurate and exciting through my old JBL L112s versus my ADS L810s. Take that for what’s it worth.

Sides 1, 2, and 4 on my copy are totally fine and sound better to my ears than some other reviews here seem to indicate, but I can only play "Deep Water" on side 3 (which is visibly warped to the point where it's tough to put the record on my slipmat) and then it becomes completely unplayable. I'm not usually one to complain about things like this as in this instance, I got this in 2014 along with a similar pressing of the self-titled album (which sounds AMAZING) for a deep discount, but after not having played this one for a while, I was eager to give it a listen, so it was quite disappointing.

I picked up a used copy of this pressing yesterday for a reasonable price without reading the reviews, so I was fearing the worst. I guess it's a real crap shoot for this record, but I lucked out because my copy is flat and defect free. It sounds nice and warm on this first day of the snow season.

This pressing is definitely above average and any lo-fi or crackly sound you are hearing is just part of the bands production. Would recommend.

Brilliant album, shocking pressing.

Lifeless, warped, noisy, lots of pops and clicks and mine has a piece of label embedded in the vinyl!

So disappointed.

Surprised to read many negative comments about this pressing. I bought this when it came out, but hadn’t listened to it in years. Recently put it on and my copy sounds great! Slightly warped, but virtually no pop and clicks. Sounds great to my ears, listening on a hi-fi setup.

I bought an unopened copy of this album. Straight out of the plastic wrap the LPs look nice and flat. There are several dimples and bumps present on both LPs that look unforgivable, but as far as I can tell these don't affect the music. Besides some light surface noise during quiet moments, there are no issues with the quality of the music itself. it sounds great (or at least as great as it can with the already distorted lo-fi recordings). The open edge of the jacket also appears to be frayed, presumably because of a manufacturing error (or lack of caring).

A friend of mine owns the Island Records version, and I can confidently say that it's the superior version aesthetically. The jacket is much nicer (with a more pleasant shade of green and a matte finish) and the surface of the LPs looks flawless. In of sound quality both the Mercury and Island Records versions sound pretty good, despite the Island Records version being 33 1/3 rpm instead of 45 rpm. That said, I can't imagine the surface imperfections of the Mercury version I own doing anything but putting unnecessary wear on my stylus.

TL;DR - Get the Island Records version.

The album is great, arguably their best. But the record? This pressing? Absolutely disgusting and pathetic.

my copy sounds not half bad, but disc one is pretty warped unfortunately. I can't hear it affecting the sound too much, and LP2 is pretty flat. but would warn anyone looking to get this one.