Michael Kiwanuka – Kiwanuka

I hated this pressing, I used to get as far as Living In Denial (end of side 2) and the distorted harshness would make me take the record off the platter. I recently upgraded my speakers from a £500 pair to an £1100 pair and I now love this!! This used to stand out as a really hard listen, but now I'm totally back on board with it.
I always knew the distortion was intentional, but until now it just seemed self defeating. Good album.

No idea what the negative comments are about, my copy played perfectly straight out of the sleeve, it's not muffled, no sibilance, no distortion. A lot of the guitar on this album is played through a fuzz box, if people don't understand that it's meant to sound like that then their knowledge of music must be severely limited. One of my favourite albums released in recent years and it sounds fabulous on vinyl. No issues here at all, highly recommend.

One of the best sounding records I have. Very clean sound. Deep stage and awesome separation. Lows sound especially fantastic. Feels like you're at concert hall

I ordered this record, when it was just released and sold it immediatly after one listening session. As others mentioned - the sound is awful and totally compressed. But it's not the fail of the vinyl medium or the pressing plant. It's the mixing and mastering, that there's so much compression. Loudness war at it's best. Given the fact that Inflo produces also well mastered records (Sault, Cleo Sol), I cannot understand, why this recording got the full compression process. Maybee it works for cellphone speakers, but even on a mediocre vinyl chain this sound is a no go. Perhaps it's the record company, that wanted the album to pump like hard.
There's no reason to buy this album on vinyl or CD, because the spotify stream doesn't sound differently.

Does anyone else hear clicks on the first half of "Solid Ground?" I'm trying to see if I should return and swap.

I really don’t get all the negative comments about the mastering and distortion etc. It sounds really excellent and exactly as it should. Different =/= bad.

I’ve listened to awful pressings and this not one. It has warmth and depth.

Unfortunately my copy of this record sounds horrendous. It's muffled, comes with sibilance and there's virtually no sound stage. Judging from my own experience I would not recommend picking this up.

Was a little nervous about this one given the reviews - I did have to return the first copy I received because there was a huge scratch that ran through the entire A side, but luckily the 2nd copy was perfect. Honestly the only complaint I have is the odd decision to make this a gatefold with 2LP, but then to make one side of the gatefold sealed, so both records have to cram into one side of the gatefold.

No quite understanding the criticisms of this one. The album employs purposeful distortion all across its instrumentation and vocals, especially the guitars. That is not a defect, it's a feature. It does sound a little boxy, compressed, not the biggest soundstage, but overall it sounds very good to my ears. My copy does have a fair few pops and clicks, but I'm hoping those will be removed with another clean. Aside from this there is some distortion that is NOT intentional - crops up momentarily on a few songs and is most noticeable on Hard to Say Goodbye. Overall it's a great album with a good pressing but not a great pressing.

What a disaster. Plain and simple. Couldn’t believe my ears. This is one of the great albums of the 21st century reduced to a muddy, fuzzy, distorted garbage.