Tag: Rhino Records

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Happy Mondays “Pills ‘n’ thrills and bellyaches”

(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: Happy Mondays
Album Title: Pills ‘n’ thrills and bellyaches
Year released: 1990
Year reissued: 2015
Details: 25th anniversary, reissue, 180 gram, yellow, RSD exclusive

The skinny: A few weeks ago, I shared photos of my translucent yellow, 20th anniversary copy of Coldplay’s debut album, “Parachutes”. For this edition of ‘Vinyl Love’, I decided to keep with the same colour scheme and another anniversary edition, of yet another classic alternative rock album. Picked up on Record Store Day 2015, this Rhino Vinyl reissue of Happy Mondays’ seminal third album wasn’t even on my radar when I ventured into one of my favourite independent shops that day. Indeed, I didn’t even know it was on the list of releases ahead of time but when I saw it on the shelf, the snap decision was made. And it’s one for which I’ve been thankful I’ve made ever since. Not only is the 180 gram slab of yellow vinyl quite pretty and the original album art as confusing and as arresting as ever, but the sound is amazing. “Pills ‘n’ thrills and bellyaches” is one of the greatest examples of what made Madchester so much fun: a swirling conundrum of punk DIY, druggy psychedelics, and dance floor ready beats. “You’re twistin’ my melon, man!”

Standout track: “Step on”

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Vinyl

Vinyl love: Ride “Nowhere”

(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: Ride
Album Title: Nowhere
Year released: 1990
Year reissued: 2010
Details: 180 gram

The skinny: A Facebook friend invited me to do one of those things where you post a picture a day for 10 days and then invite 10 of your own friends to do the same. Normally, I don’t go in for those things but in this case, I couldn’t resist choosing, revisiting, and sharing the pics of 10 albums in my vinyl collection that had a great impact on me and my musical tastes. So today was day ten and this album here is the final album cover I posted to my Facebook wall for this exercise: Ride’s “Nowhere”. It’s not very often that I agree with Pitchfork’s assessment of a song (see hype sticker above) and a band, but Ride”s debut and the single shared below are definitely amongst the greatest moments in the original shoegaze movement. This reissue was pressed by Rhino Records back on the album’s 20th anniversary and is of the original track list. Eight songs, all of them mighty.

Standout track: “Vapour trail”