The Cure – Seventeen Seconds

I got this- all etchings, but with the ordinary red Polydor label. Can’t find it..! ”FICTION” is on the label belov the familiar,red Polydor half record/circle. Same as the Netherlands issue. Is there anyone who are familiar with this description of this issue? All the best!

This is a great sounding UK reissue. The sound is really fresh and crispy.

Very good sounding pressing. Surprising that it’s so affordable. Exactly the same plates as the first pressing. The music is stark and brittle but somehow comes off as warm. Credit to the mastering. I have the A1/B3. Highly recommended.

LOTS of cracks and pops. Still fine to listen, pretty cheap

sounds good, very sharp edged rim of the media which is carlessly laboured in my opinion. runout says 0703.621 Strawberry

Sound is good, but many pops and clicks, has not improved even after frequent cleaning.

The best $2 I ever spent! I find al ot of NZ releases to have great sound quality and this is definitely one of them.

This sounds very good : dynamic and clear sound.
I don't think a UK first pressing sounds much better.

Once again, GZ Media strikes! Right from the start, you can tell the experience is going to be disappointing. It begins with terrible crackling, as if it were an old, worn-out record—it lessens slightly but persists throughout the album. Unacceptable! But things get even worse on Side B, where the crackling returns with a vengeance, especially in the right channel.

To make matters worse, my copy came with two dents, as if someone had stabbed the vinyl with a pen. These create two indents that the needle has to cross, causing an annoying thump with each rotation. And, adding insult to injury, these dents appear right at the start of "A Forest". Disastrous! On this side, the noise intensifies, particularly in the right channel, and there's an added saturation in the snare hits, which further distorts the sound quality.

My recommendation: don’t buy this edition! Don’t take the risk. Nowadays, the vinyl world feels like a gamble, where you pay prices just to get something decent, but it’s a significant risk. It’s no surprise, then, to see the decline in sales of this format. Rather than a pleasurable experience, it’s become a hunt for a copy that sounds good—with no guarantees. Fiction Records and Warner, with all their resources, have no excuse for allowing such poor quality.

I have variant 1. I was hesitant to open this after seeing great reviews of the MOV and thinking I'd just give this one up, but I think it's a quite good pressing. Needs clean off the bat, printed inner is staticky-tight; take it easy upon first open. Remaster sounds v crisp. Keeping