Tag: 180 gram

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Spiritualized “Let it come 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: Spiritualized
Album Title: Let it come down
Year released: 2001
Year reissued: 2014
Details: 2 x 180 gram

The skinny: Those of you following closely along with my backwards trip through Spiritualized’s discography* might recognize an album sized gap here. I never have been a fan of the fifth album, 2003’s “Amazing grace”, being the one album I couldn’t get into and so I never expect to add it to my vinyl shelves. In fact, I wasn’t particularly fond of this fourth album in 2001 by the group, but as the years passed, I came to realize that very little Jason Pierce could have produced would have held a flame his previous studio release** and I’ve grown an appreciation for “Let it come down”. The version I purchased for my shelves and is represented in these photos is the 2014 reissue by Plain Recordings. It’s pressed to two discs in 180 gram vinyl but other than that, it’s pretty bare bones, containing only a portion of the original artwork I remember from the compact disc copy I had back in the day. Still, I am glad I have it to give a spin on the old turntable now and again and drift off to space with J. Spaceman.

Standout track: “Stop your crying”

*Especially those of you familiar with said discography.

**More to come on that in a couple weeks.

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Engineers “Engineers”

(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: Engineers
Album Title: Engineers
Year released: 2005
Year reissued: 2022
Details: Gatefold sleeve, 2 x 180 gram, white, numbered 502/1500

The skinny: Of all the great albums released during the first shoegaze revival wave of the early 2000s, Engineers’ self-titled debut was one of my favourites. The group formed as a four-piece – Mark Peters, Simon Phipps, Dan MacBean, and Andrew Sweeney – in London back in 2003. I happened upon the debut shortly after its release and latched on to a great many of the songs, recognizing in Engineers’ aesthetic the bands of my youth. Though some of their later work was pretty great as well, I wasn’t as immediately enamoured with it, always holding it up to this fantastic debut. It had been on my wishlist from pretty much the beginning of my collecting days but given what I perceived as their cult-like status, I didn’t think my chances were great at finding a copy on vinyl. My hopes were raised earlier this year when I saw that Music on Vinyl was reissuing Engineers’ debut EP, “Folly”, for Record Store Day, especially given that label’s track record of reissuing other classic shoegaze works. Then, I caught wind of this reissue of the debut LP on 2 x 180 gram slabs of white vinyl and jumped headlong aboard the pre-order train. It’s a thing of beauty.

Standout track: “Come in out of the rain”

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: R.E.M. “Life’s rich pageant”

(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: R.E.M.
Album Title: Life’s rich pageant
Year released: 1986
Year reissued: 2016
Details: Black vinyl

The skinny: So that’s that. Seven weeks ago, I started this journey. I first posted about my most recent R.E.M. vinyl acquisition, a 25th anniversary pressing of “New adventures in hi-fi”. Then, I worked backwards chronologically through their albums in my collection, sharing pics of “Monster”, “Automatic for the people”, “Out of time”, “Green”, and “Document”, and now we are at the final piece. “Life’s rich pageant” is the band’s fourth studio album and the only one in my collection not produced or c0-produced by Scott Litt. I originally picked up this album on CD shortly after graduating high school, after hearing it in the backseat of a car, driving home from some long forgotten party as the sun was coming up, the volume cranked and windows wide open. Now, these songs will always remind me of that invincible feeling of youth. And maybe also because of this memory, this vinyl reissue was the first R.E.M. record to hit my vinyl shelves. I don’t see myself purchasing any other of their records, unless someone can convince me otherwise. Who will take up that challenge?

Standout track: “Fall on me”