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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”

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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”

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: R.E.M. “Document”

(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: Document
Year released: 1987
Year reissued: 2018
Details: Limited edition, Limited to 2500 copies, 180 gram vinyl, orange translucent vinyl

The skinny: Six albums into this mini R.E.M. ‘Vinyl love’ series and here is the first sign of any coloured vinyl. Lovingly pressed to a 180 gram disc like all of the albums we have already seen, it was advertised as ‘gold’ but it sure looks like translucent gold to me. I purchased this pressing of R.E.M’s fifth studio album and first with Scott Litt producing right from the R.E.M. store back in 2018. It was an impulse buy. I saw ‘limited to 2500’ and didn’t see it anywhere else so I pulled the trigger. Of course, it was fated to be a part of my collection eventually. “Document” is one of the albums that I had to go back to discover after falling for the band with their next big three. Of course, there were a few tracks here with which I was already familiar but the rest were just as great. There’s just one more to go. See you back here next weekend.

Standout track: “The one l love”