As a somewhat big music fan, you would imagine that I would have had a record player for ages. So it comes as a surprise to many that I did not. It wasn’t because I didn’t want one, more so what would happen if I did buy one.
As a kid, I collected too many hockey cards and then eventually comics. Then it was DVDs and CDs for awhile, then a digital mp3 collection. You get the point, I like to accumulate shit. So in my mind, I knew if I got a record player, it would start all over again and frankly, records are not cheap. The logical thing to do was to enjoy the music as it was (mostly free) and not bother with it. However, it did feel like a part of the music world was missing.
I always knew eventually I would get a record player. In March of 2012, Suede released a box set of their albums. Naturally as a massive Suede fan, I bought it. Mostly because I figured it would be annoying to try to find all these Suede records should I buy a record player. Yet I didn’t buy one to listen to these records.
Until August of this year. Somehow a Friday night conversation about how “every day you don’t have a record player is a day you aren’t enjoying your records” came to make sense. Two days later I bought a record player – the Project Debut Carbon (which has dropped $100 in price since I bought it, much to my annoyance)
Anyways, since then I’ve been buying a lot of records (and enjoying the process). I figure I will write about the records I buy since this is a music blog or something.
1. Suede – The Vinyl Collection
Price Paid: $250??
I actually don’t remember the price I paid, but a box set of your favorite band is priceless. This box set is great and comes with a nice book that talks about each record and the record making process for that record. I still don’t have the heart to put on their record A New Morning and I doubt I ever will. Dog Man Star was the first record I played (after I played a test record to make sure I didn’t fuck up anything) and it was totally glorious. Not sure how my roommate felt about me cranking it up but she seemed cool with it.
2. Slowdive – Slowdive
Price paid: $17.99 (Dead Dog Records)
I was just hankering to buy another record. The collection must be awesome! It must be curated. In my head, I was already mentally building a collection of records that would populate my household. However, my first foray into record stores highly suggested it would be a very expensive venture. Records were even more expensive than I thought. 30 bucks for new records? WTF?
Anyways, I was getting pissed off that all the records I wanted were thirty dollars or more and then I saw Slowdive sitting in the new release section at a nice price point of $17.99. While some of my friends are obsessed with this band, I was only neutral towards them. However, I really enjoyed this album when it was released earlier this year, so I thought, this is a good price point and also an album album, not a bunch of singles with shit tracks in between. It’s also good for late night listening because it’s pretty mellow. I enjoy this record.
3. Jamie XX – In Colour
Price paid: 23.99 (Rotate This)
I loved loved loved the XX concert earlier this year (and all the XX albums) but one of the highlights of that show was Romy singing Loud Places, one of the many highlights from Jamie XX’s album. Perhaps it was the vivid recollection of that moment that spurred me to buy this record as I looked through Rotate This’s vast collection, or perhaps it was the fact that this record is pretty awesome. Anyways, In Colour has a great collection of songs that you can pretty much put on at any time. I don’t know what juice that kid was drinking growing up but the dude can produce some poppin’ tracks.
When I opened this record, a little card dropped out and it was like a download code. I was like … do I type this into … my bit torrent site? I guess some people just legit download music. Good on them.
So it’s been 9 weeks and I’ve bought 20 records. I’ve decided to write about each one, to chronicle my journey. (Maybe)