Tag: Double LP

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Spiritualized “Sweet heart, sweet light”

(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: Sweet heart, sweet light
Year released: 2012
Details: Limited edition, 2 x LP, white

The skinny: Spiritualized’s latest record “Everything was beautiful” ended up on the top of my list of best albums for last year and to celebrate, I decided to kick off this new year with a ‘Vinyl love’ post featuring that very same record. Then, I thought, why stop there? And so, you’re now in for a prolonged Spiritualized ‘Vinyl love’ series, starting their 2012 release, “Sweet heart, sweet light”*, and going backwards chronologically from there. To be honest, this one is the least played in my collection. Not but because I dislike it, understand, but because it was nearly the last one to be added to my shelf. I remember seeing it on the merch shelves when I saw Jason Pierce and company touring for the record, thought about, but opted instead for a copy of it on CD because I was still very new to collecting vinyl and didn’t yet have a turntable. I’ve often heard that the only regretted purchases are the ones not made and I definitely did regret leaving that record there. I finally remedied my error a few years ago at a record store in Toronto.

Standout track: “Hey Jane”

*I’ve already featured Spiritualized’s 2018 album “And nothing hurt” in this space.

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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. “New adventures in hi-fi”

(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: New adventures in hi-fi
Year released: 1996
Year reissued: 2021
Details: 25th anniversary, gatefold sleeve, 2 x 180 gram vinyl

The skinny: Just a day over three weeks ago, I signed off from work, from social media, and from blogging on these pages for a much needed vacation. And while I can’t say it was restful time away, it was good for the soul nonetheless. Last weekend, in particular, placed me in Tarannah to find something to do to celebrate my birthday so I dragged my wife downtown to explore one of its many neighbourhoods and it just so (coincidentally) happened to be where Rotate This, one of my favourite record stores, is located. Being my birthday, my wife patiently waited outside for me while I went in to browse the wares. I came out with the new-ish 25th anniversary pressing of R.E.M.’s 10th studio album, “New adventures in hi-fi”. Not only was this the last album recorded with founding drummer Bill Berry and the last in a series of successful collaborations with producer Scott Litt, but it’s also the only album out of those that I consider ‘must haves’ from the band’s discography that was as yet missing from my vinyl collection. (Hmm… I smell the beginnings of a new ‘Vinyl love’ series…)

Standout track: “Leave”