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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Du Blonde “Homecoming”

(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: Du Blonde
Album Title: Homecoming
Year released: 2021
Year reissued: 2021
Details: Limited edition (limited to 500), signed, reissue, transparent with black, neon yellow and bright pink splatter, came with a small magazine, stickers and two cards

The skinny: Continuing my ‘Vinyl Love’ series that’s highlighting my favourite records of last year, here’s the album that placed number eight on that list. I liked the sound of “Homecoming”, the third album by Beth Jeans Houghton as Du Blonde, right off from the get-go. I hesitated, though, and didn’t pull the trigger on its purchase right away. As time wore on, the grrl-rock-ravaged, salacious glam wore upon me, and I found the collaborations with Ezra Furman, Ride’s Andy Bell, and Garbage front woman, Shirley Manson too much fun to bear. I finally decided the record should be on my shelf, but by this time, it became apparent that I wasn’t the only one to come to this conclusion. All of the initial pressings and variants had sold out. Luckily for me, Du Blonde decided to do another limited run late in the year and this time, I did not hesitate. It’s signed by Du Blonde herself and includes a bunch of stickers and postcards and a hand-drawn zine that explains how she came to create her own record label. And of course, the “Lil Petey’s Pick’n Mix Puke” spatter vinyl looks much lovelier than it is described.

Standout track: “Medicated (feat. Shirley Manson)”

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Goat Girl “On all fours”

(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: Goat Girl
Album Title: On all fours
Year released: 2021
Details: Limited edition, gatefold, double LP, pink transparent vinyl

The skinny: The first 2021-released record that I bought last year was Goat Girl’s sophomore album, “On all fours”, and it ended up as my fifth favourite album when I counted them down at the end of December. I had never heard of the band before but the track below caught my attention when it popped up on one of those “Release radar” playlists on Spotify last January. I checked out the rest of the album and then, checked it out again. The next thing I knew, I was hunting down a copy to order for my vinyl collection and found this limited edition pink transparent pressing. This all female quartet is post-punk, but less in the sense that we’ve come to know of late. They are their own thing, beating to their own drum, giving no f*cks, and that ethos feels truer to me to the original movement than so much of the music being put out by their peers and that is so much fawned over by the music press. Goat Girl is colourful and unique, much like the album art suggests.

Standout track: “Sad cowboy”

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Middle Kids “Today we’re the greatest”

(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: Middle Kids
Album Title: Today we’re the greatest
Year released: 2021
Details: Limited edition, tangerine vinyl

The skinny: Just over a week ago, I counted down my top ten favourite albums from 2021. This last year’s list was full of surprises for me but I still managed to procure many of these records for my collection before they flew off the shelves so I plan on featuring these purchases for my Vinyl Love series over the next little while. I’m starting off with the number ten album but won’t necessarily stick to the ranked order. Australia’s Middle Kids put out a very excellent sophomore release in March of last year. I had loved their debut but wasn’t expecting to be as blown away by this one. Still, I pre-ordered a copy of the ‘indie only’ tangerine pressing from one of my favourite independent record stores and was pleasantly surprised. “Today we’re the greatest” isn’t as immediate a rocker as “Lost friends” but it still has anthemic written all over it.

Standout track: “Today we’re the greatest”