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Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Charlatans “Some friendly”

(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: The Charlatans
Album Title: Some friendly
Year released: 1990
Year reissued: 2026
Details: Remastered at Abbey Road, expanded, white

The skinny: Much like another record I posted about last November*, The Charlatans’ debut album “Some friendly” is a record reissue that I’ve had my eye for and wallet at the ready for a number of years. I’ve now purchased and owned this particular album on cassette tape, compact disc, and vinyl, in that order. I got into The Charlatans with “Some friendly” way back in high school and though I’ve followed them through all their ups and downs, even up to their excellent fourteenth studio album, “We are love”, released just last year, the debut is still my favourite** and will always hold a special place in my heart. This special edition was remastered at Abbey Road and pressed to two white vinyl slabs and includes bonus tracks ‘curated by [frontman] Tim Burgess’ that consist of the tracks from the “Then” and “Over rising” singles, released in the year after the album. I’ve given it a few spins in the week since it arrived at my door step and it makes me very happy indeed.

Standout track: “Sproston green”

*The jury’s still out on whether this post will start another series of vinyl posts. I’ve already posted about a couple of The Charlie’s records in my collection but there’s still a few more prizes to share.

**It came in as second favourite of the year in which it was released when I counted down my best albums of 1990 last fall.

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Secret Machines “Ten silver drops”

(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: Ten silver drops
Year released: 2006
Year reissued: 2019
Details: gatefold, 2 x 180 gram, expanded deluxe, limited to 1227 copies, numbered 970

The skinny: Last week, I posted about “Now here is nowhere“, the very excellent debut album by Secret Machines, and the pressing by Run Out Groove vinyl that I couldn’t help but purchase for my collection when it was announced. As I mentioned there, Run Out Groove is a label that solicits votes from music fans on its website for three options each month and the potential reissue with the most votes gets a limited run based on the amount of advanced orders. Well, Secret Machines’ fans must be a rabid bunch because Run Out Groove has already done three pressings from the band in the label’s short history: the aforementioned debut, a rare live record, and this sophomore record, “Ten silver drops”. I’ve read the complaints about the low volume levels on the mastering for this pressing but that doesn’t bother me at all. It just needs to be cranked and it sounds amazing. And yeah, “Ten silver drops” is an album that demands to be cranked.

Standout track: “Lightning blue eyes”