Tag: 12″

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Keane “Hopes and fears”

(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: Keane
Album Title: Hopes and fears
Year released: 2004
Year reissued: 2017
Details: Gatefold sleeve, 180 gram, translucent green

The skinny: Back in 2004, when I first heard Keane’s single, “Somewhere only we know” (the standout track below), it reminded me of other English bands that I was already following at the time, like Coldplay, Embrace, and Travis. So, of course, I went out and got the debut album, “Hopes and fears”, on CD and found myself easily getting into the piano-focused, emotive indie rock. I had absolutely no idea how huge the album was in the band’s native country until I saw their performance at Live 8 and I was struck by their energy and dynamic as a trio led by the piano sound. From there, I became even more hooked and began to look forward to their followup album. Unfortunately, I was less enthused with that one and how it ventured further into pop territory, a trend that continued with each ensuing release. I don’t think I’ve even bothered to listen to Keane’s last two records but when I saw this green vinyl reissue sitting on the shelves at my local Sunrise Records location last year, I remembered the excitement I felt when I first listened to it and brought it home with me. I dropped the needle on it that very night and gladly reacquainted myself with every song.

Standout track: “Somewhere only we know”

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Vinyl

Vinyl love (revisited): Spirit of the West “Go figure”

(I started my Vinyl Love posts pretty much right after the launch of this blog to share photos of my growing vinyl collection. Over time, the photos have improved and the explanations have grown. And looking back at a handful of the original posts in this series, I found myself wanting to re-do some of them so that the posts are more worthy of those great albums. So that’s what I’ll be doing every once in a while, including today…)

Artist: Spirit Of The West
Album Title: Go figure
Year released: 1991
Details: Original German pressing, signed, numbered, includes a signed certificate from the band, band photo from their final show (also signed)

The skinny: Spirit of the West is one of my all-time favourite bands and one that has a special place in my heart, given that my wife and I got together at one of their concerts. 1991’s “Go figure” was my first introduction to the Canadian folk rock group and the CD copy I had of it followed me from high school into university and beyond. After carving out a celtic folk rock niche in the 1980s, John Mann, Geoffrey Kelly, Hugh McMillan, and Linda McRae ventured into alt-rock territory with “Go figure”, enlisting drummer Vince Ditrich to fill out their sound. I had been dying to track down any of their albums for my shelves ever since I began collecting vinyl again, so snapping up a copy of this album from the band’s website when they put it up for sale back in December 2017 was a no-brainer. It’s an original pressing that they found a few copies of left over from long past tours. The band all signed the cover, included with it a ‘certificate of authenticity’, as well as a signed photo taken at the band’s last ever concert in 2016. This is a treasure indeed.

Standout track: “D for Democracy”

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Camera Obscura “Desire lines”

(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: Desire lines
Year released: 2013
Details: Black vinyl, gatefold sleeve

The skinny: The fifth and final album (so far) by Camera Obscura was the first by the band to be purchased for my collection. In fact, it was a part of a good handful of discs to be sitting on my shelves before I even got around to purchasing a turntable. I had started collecting the previous spring and given that most new releases at the time were coming with download cards for digital versions of the album, it just made sense to go this route. I distinctly remember driving downtown on a Sunday afternoon and going to the now closed Compact Music location on Bank street and finding it right there on the new releases display rack. It felt so great in my hands. Of course, I didn’t know then that this would be their last album with keyboardist Carey Lander. After she died of osteosarcoma in 2015, the band went on an extended hiatus. They were just getting a tour organized and starting to think about new material when COVID-19 put a stop to everything last spring. Here’s hoping the band gets back to it soon. We could use a bit of sunshine.

Standout track: “Fifth in line to the throne”