Category: Vinyl

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Camera Obscura “Underachievers please try harder”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Camera Obscura
Album Title: Underachievers please try harder
Year released: 2003
Year reissued: 2008
Details: Black vinyl, remastered, 180 gram

The skinny: Given that it’s June and we are preparing to slip from Spring and into Summer, I thought it was time for a mini Vinyl Love series, one that featured a band that screams equal parts sunshine summer and wistful heartbreak sadness. Scotland’s Camera Obscura is exactly that, sporting a brand of twee indie pop shared by their perhaps more famous compatriots, Belle and Sebastian. In fact, I got into them with their second album, “Underachievers please try harder”, because of their connection to B&S frontman Stuart Murdoch. I did also enjoy the band’s debut, “Biggest bluest hi-fi”, but never did purchase it for my record collection so it is here that where we start our four part journey. This 180 gram reissue was released five years after the album’s initial release and the remastering is quite sweet. It is an album that flashes the potential of a band still finding its feet and yet, nonetheless exhibits some excellent tracks of note.

Standout track: “Suspended from class”

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Secret Machines “Awake in the brain chamber”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Secret Machines
Album Title: Awake in the brain chamber
Year released: 2020
Details: Black vinyl, 180 gram

The skinny: Much like last week, this week’s Vinyl love post is one of my favourite albums from 2020. However, unlike “The view from halfway down”, which I came across too late for it to officially make my end of the year list, Secret Machines’ fourth long player “Awake in the brain chamber” did not escape my notice and easily found its way to the number five spot on said list. Released more than a decade after their last record and almost as much time since the untimely death of one of the band’s founding members, it was the polar opposite of a disappointing return. It had all the hallmarks of the band’s big and epic sounding first two records but scaled back into manageable serving sizes. Of course, I was going to procure a copy of this for my vinyl collection. It didn’t matter that it was a bare bones release (as is evidenced by the few photos above). It was a heavyweight, 180 gram disc and had impeccable sound.

Standout track: “Everything’s under”

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Andy Bell “The view from halfway down”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: Andy Bell
Album Title: The view from halfway down
Year released: 2020
Details: Blue vinyl

The skinny: If you follow me on Instagram as well, you’ll know that I try to post a picture of what’s spinning on my turntable every Sunday. You’ll also know that this very record was my #sundayspin last week and that I admitted there that I didn’t actually listen to Andy Bell’s solo album, “The view from halfway down”, when it was first released back in October of last year. Even now, I couldn’t tell you why, given how much of a fan I am of all the bands with which he has worked (Beady Eye notwithstanding). By the time I got around to it in December, I had already drafted my list, was deep into counting down my favourite albums of the year on these pages, and found myself kicking my own ass for my tardiness and for not being able to include it. I wasn’t too late, however, to snag a copy of it in blue coloured vinyl, a chance I would not let pass me by. The album only vaguely sounds of his work in Oasis and Ride but the sentiments are there. It is pop music that dances across a shoegaze and psychedelic canvas, a breath of fog on a grimy window, a cloudy sky with just a hint of the light blue beyond. If you haven’t listened to it, do so now.

Standout track: “Love comes in waves”