The Most Serene Republic - Population

There are two reasons I have this record in my collection (and have any idea who The Most Serene Republic are at all): it's on the Arts & Crafts record label, and it was the Tuesday-Record-From-Spillers year. I bought this in the July, so the plan was fully under way (to buy an LP every Tuesday from Spillers for a year) and I'd already had some highs and lows. I was taking lots of chances on things and, in the grand scheme of things, £10 isn't too bad.

This record isn't bad, it just doesn't do a whole lot for me. There is one great song, Present of Future End, which far surpasses anything else on the record. Being on Arts & Crafts I had high hopes of them being my new Broken Social Scene - that label and group of people had produced some great music and I was a huge fan at the time - but ultimately they come across as BSS-lite, which no one really needs. There are some interesting moments (which are mostly too short-lived), Present of Future End is genuinely a great song and Why So Looking Back is one of the more exciting tracks, but it mostly just fails to grab me in any way. There are lots of layered vocals throughout, which normally works for me, but here neither voice really catches me. There are also quite a few instrumental interludes, which doesn't help. I occasionally give it a play but it does have a tendency to fade into the background a bit.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Spillers Records
When: 15/07/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

The Offspring - Smash

Everyone has a copy of this album, don't they. It's an album that everyone knows backwards. The cool thing about Smash though is that creates instant good-times. I was driving with a colleague who got very excited to find this on my iPod - the next 40 minutes were far more fun than driving around the M25 should be. God knows that Bad Habit is a dangerous song to drive to, not just for the sentiment but also for the loss of concentration whilst everyone tries to remember the order of the swear words to sing along to the break.

Smash has so many huge songs - Nitro, Bad Habit, Genocide, Come Out and Play, Self Esteem, Not the One, Smash; that's a lot of highlights. The intro even deserves calling out for setting the scene so well.

I picked this album up along with a huge haul of records from Selectadisc Nottingham on my first visit there. I had found so many albums I wanted (and mostly at bargain prices) I found I was having to put some back because my arms were hurting. Smash made the cut - I knew it was a classic and an album I'd love to have in my collection. I had a few other Offspring albums on cd and had listened to Smash at various friend's houses over the years but didn't have a copy anywhere. I paid £5 for this, which is a bargain by anyone's measure.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 14
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Selectadisc, Nottingham
When: 20/02/03
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Crackout - This is Really Neat

Crackout and I go way back. When I was 16 there was a band called Vex Red who I very quickly became a huge fan of. They'd had songs played on the Radio 1 Rock Show, had been in Kerrang! magazine and seemed like a really exciting new band. The first time I saw Vex Red was on the NME Upstarts Tour - a national tour NME was putting on of three new bands - Vex Red, The Pattern and Crackout. I think four of us ended up going to the show in the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth. Crackout impressed us way more than we were expecting - I have memories of the drummer going between sitting and standing a lot during songs and the whole band wearing suits. There was a free cd given out at the end of the night featuring one song from each of the bands, which would serve as our introduction to Crackout's recorded output.

My friend Olly was the most impressed by Crackout that night and ended up buying their debut album, This is Really Neat. I don't think I heard it before I eventually got a copy, but I knew he'd been enjoying it greatly. I found a copy in MVC in Winchester when they were having a huge sale one day (it was the same day that I first discovered The Paper Chase, which was a pretty significant day for me musically). It was £4 and I figured if Olly was enjoying it that much that I'd get £4 of enjoyment out of it. Turns out that This is Really Neat is a huge album and one that I still get a kick out of now, 13 years later.

I think the charm in This is Really Neat is that it's not trying to be clever, it's just a really fun punk-rock record full of huge songs and great choruses - 142 is such a strong opener and then they take it up a level with I Am the One, which might be their finest moment and has one of the best choruses on the album. And if that wasn't a strong enough start, you then get Joey Lost His Mind; I love that no one told these guys about not blowing their load too soon. Breakout also has a huge, memorable chorus and Guillotine and Barricaded round off an incredible Side A (despite the latter being listed as being on Side B - presumably since the layout matches that on the back of the cd). You Dumb Fuck doesn't hold back in opening the second half and I remember thinking that song was great from the first time I heard it - the little break before the chorus is so pleasing, and the chorus itself is even more pleasing. I have a great acoustic version on a 7" b-side where the word "fuck" is replaced with "truck" to great effect. Over My Head is another great song and Fairytale Nothing is the classic "epic closer".

A year and a half later, I found this copy on vinyl in a record shop in Leeds that I'd almost certainly never find again (assuming it still exists). If I remember correctly, I'd been to see the Manics the night before in Manchester and stayed with my friend in Leeds. He'd left me to my own devices during the day, so I tried to seek out some record shops. I remember being disappointed I couldn't find any great shops (this was long before smartphones and Google maps) but eventually found one shop of interest. Even they didn't have much, but did have two promo copies of This is Really Neat (again, for £4). At the time I was on the fence (partly because I was knackered by this point in the day) but I'm so glad I bought this album. Strangely, the gatefold opens the wrong way to normal, and the record slides out of the middle like cds often do. It's also worth noting that I love the artwork on this album almost as much as the music.

When I went to that NME show in Portsmouth that night I expected to enjoy Vex Red (which I did) but I certainly didn't think that 15 years later I'd still be listening to one of the bands, and certainly not the support band. It says a lot about how much fun this record is that it's endured so well. It's a shame that the same can't be said for a lot of the other music I was listening to back then (and, indeed, that night in Portsmouth). This album really is really neat.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £4 second hand
Bought: Leeds
When: 18/12/04
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Weezer - Make Believe

Oh Weezer. Like most people, the first Weezer album I got was the Blue Album. What a way to start. I was pretty late to the Weezer party and they'd already released a couple of dubious albums by this time. I picked up a few more albums although, rather embarrassingly, I never got round to Pinkerton. I like that I still have that as a treat for one day in the future.

Make Believe is firmly from the dubious years and I think I knew that when I bought it. I remember people commenting on how bad Beverly Hills was at the time. However, for €5 (from the epic Virgin Megastore January sale) I figured I should chance it, despite knowing the odds of actually getting much out of it was slim. In truth, Beverly Hills isn't a terrible Weezer song - it has all the makings of a good Weezer song but Rivers' couldn't-give-a-shit lyrics really rub it in your face that this isn't early 90's Weezer anymore. My Best Friend and Freak Me Out are some of the worst Weezer songs I've ever heard; in fact, My Best Friend is just one of the worst songs I've ever heard. Perfect Situation, We Are All on Drugs and The Other Way all sound like crappy pop-punk songs by some mid-2000's band who achieved moderate fame with one album then faded away. If this was, indeed, a record by such a band, I wouldn't be inclined to defend it as much as I want to because it's Weezer. Since this is the vinyl version, it contains the "wrong" version of We Are All on Drugs with a different closing two lines to the intended release version.

There are three very positive quotes from reviews on the front, which feels like it must have been a hard job to select. On the back there is a sticker with the original price Virgin were selling it for - €25 - I'm not too surprised that Make Believe found its way to the bargain bin in that case.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £3.35 new
Bought: Virgin Megastore, Paris
When: 10/01/07
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Q And Not U - Different Damage

Different Damage was my introduction to Q And Not U. The reason why I started with this album and the reason I got into the band at all was simply that I was in Banquet and it caught my eye. I'd already found a handful of other records that day, but I also had a £10 voucher to spend so felt like being adventurous. I'd heard of the name and knew they were on Dischord. I also knew they were a little bit more experimental than the usual Dischord band and I think the description banquet had stuck to the sleeve mentioned the words "dance-punk". It's worth noting that one of my all-time favourite Dischord bands is Black Eyes, who were incredibly experimental, so I had high hopes.

I remember enjoying Q And Not U from the first listen. The music was up-beat and interesting and there was so much going on. On the other hand, they were undeniably a punk band; songs like Black Plastic Bag hit pretty hard and makes their presence on Dishord less strange. It feels like in the early 2000's there were a lot of edgy, trendy, indie-dance bands about (!!!, LCD Soundsystem) and I was worried that Q And Not U might fall into that category, but there's enough of a strong punk influence to firmly distinguish them (although that's what you should expect given that it is on Dischord). It's also given the band a longevity that I think a lot of music in that scene was missing (for me at least).

There are great songs throughout the album, although I especially like the opening duo of Soft Pyramids and So Many Animal Calls. The closer, Recreation Myth, has one of the biggest choruses on the album. I spent a lot of time listening to Different Damage when I first got it, then a month later bought their first album No Kill No Beep Beep, which I'll write about another time. This is the 2009 remastered reissue. I can't speak to the quality of the remaster since I've not heard the original, but the blue vinyl looks great and matches the sleeve very well.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £8.37 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 08/02/07
Colour: Transparent blue
Etching: Side A: "Love to I.B. and St. Nutritious" Side B: "It had hands!"
mp3s: Download code

November Coming Fire - Dungeness

November Coming Fire were an under-rated metalcore band, at least as far as I could tell. In certain circles this album is considered a classic; in others it's unheard of and I suspect some of the people in those circles would really enjoy it. 

Just after Christmas one year when I was in Cardiff, Hugh gave me a couple of cds - I think he'd acquired some bundle of cds that included Dungeness by November Coming Fire and the State Run discography, both of which he already had copies of. I was happy to take them both, despite not knowing either band.

November Coming Fire are heavier than a lot of bands I listen to - at their quieter moments they sound a bit like Envy; at their heavier they sound like a hardcore band. We were going to a lot of hardcore shows back then and I was starting to appreciate it better as a genre. I always enjoyed Dungeness despite it being so different to what I normally listen to. HMS Blackwater, Argonaut and Mascot are stand-out songs for me. I enjoy the album as a whole, albeit not very often. It's a pleasant surprise to play it and remember how much I enjoy and that I know the songs much better than I ever think I do.

I picked this vinyl copy up in All Ages a few years ago. I definitely felt that for a tenner it'd be rude not to buy it, and as an added bonus it turns out it is on a very nice gold/black splatter (which is apparently one of 250).

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £10 new
Bought: All Ages Records
When: 03/10/12
Colour: Gold with black splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Small Brown Bike - Dead Reckoning

Dead Reckoning is not only my favourite Small Brown Bike record, but it's one of my all-time favourite albums in general. It also served as my introduction to the band - nearly 10 years ago I was at a friend's gig in Cardiff and someone had brought along a distro. For £5 each I picked up Fuel For the Hate Game by Hot Water Music and Dead Reckoning both on cd; it's hard to imagine a tenner better spent - those two albums are amongst the finest albums No Idea Records has released. I didn't know that at the time, and I had help in choosing (in the form of very strong recommendations) but it worked out very well.

I instantly became a very big fan of this album - it's heavier in it's sound than a lot of gruff-punk-rock records and I like it for that. Throughout most of the songs is this rumbling bass line quite high in the mix that is really fun to focus on as you listen. Strangely, I struggled with their other albums a little more because they felt less heavy in places (although I mostly got there in the end). I stocked up on their other albums at Fest one year, so had quite the backlog to work through when I got home.

I guess the strangest thing about Dead Reckoning is its lack of choruses - very few of the songs have anything remotely resembling a chorus. What that means is that you end up getting excited about parts of songs that you might not otherwise, like the shouted lines "This is mine" and "We must understand" in More or Less or "Death is contagious / Death is courageous" in Hideaway. Needless to say, the album has many huge songs - Like a Future With No Friend, See You in Hell, My Own Disaster, This Ship Will Burn and I Will Bury You in Me to name but a few.

For years, Dead Reckoning was the hole in my SBB vinyl collection because I had a copy on cd and there were almost always other things to buy on the times when I did find it in shops. I was putting in an order with Specialist Subject Records at the end of last year so treated myself to a copy. This copy is the pink-ish marble from the 7th pressing (I think) and features some comedy lines etched into the run-off grooves.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £9.75 new
Bought: Specialist Subject Records
When: 17/12/15
Colour: Pink marble
Etching: Side A: "Bed wettening?" Side B: "Bread wreckening?"
mp3s: Download code

The Arteries - Restless

Last weekend marked the return of The Arteries after a number of years without playing any shows. They played the Deadpunk all-dayer in Bristol which I've been going to every year for a few years now. It's always a good day, but the presence of The Arteries was reason alone to make the trip. There were loads of bands I love on the bill, but I was most excited to see The Arteries. I used to see them all the time when I lived in Cardiff and they seemed to be on a fast rise.

Three years ago in March, only a few days apart, I saw them for the last time (before last Saturday) and they released their last-so-far record Restless, a 6-song EP. I've been listening to The Arteries since the Sweat EP and I've been excited for every release since. Their style of punk is fast, energetic and quite unlike most of the other punk bands from South Wales. Restless does everything I want from an Arteries record and my only complaint is that six songs is too few, especially if they were planning to tide me over for three years.

It was fantastic seeing them play live again and I'd totally forgotten just how much I love them. It might have been a particular treat given their long-hiatus, but the set hit all of the classics from Blood, Sweat and Beers and everybody seemed very pleased to hear them; I know I wasn't the only one for whom they were the highlight of the day. I've spent most of the last week playing their records and it has been a very good week indeed.

All of this begs the question: are The Arteries back or was this just a one-off treat? I really hope the former. I imagine they might not have decided themselves yet (and I hope the warm reception on Saturday was enough to convince them). I really hope they're planning to play and release more - my main conclusion after last Saturday is that the world is definitely much more enjoyable with The Arteries in it.

Format: One-sided 12", etched
Tracks: 6
Cost: £9.80 new
Bought: Specialist Subject Records
When: 18/03/13
Colour: Black
Etching: etched image on b-side
mp3s: no

Sparta - Wiretap Scars

When I moved to Australia one of the first things I did was buy a cheap hifi on eBay. I'd been browsing the local record shops and was keen to start work on a little collection to keep me going over there. The hifi I bought ended up being a similar model to the old Sony hifi I bought when I was 16 (only without the MiniDisc player). It ticked all the boxes - line-in for my mp3 player (a classic 20gb Creative Zen jukebox which was the size of a small brick), remote control and, most importantly, the alarm would play whatever cd (or tape!) was in the player. I'd used the same function on my old one for years and loved waking up to music.

Of course the collection of cds I had out there wasn't huge, so there weren't many choices and it meant that I woke up to a few of them many, many times. Two stand out in my memories more strongly than the rest - Kyuss's ...And the Circus Leaves Town (I used to have very strange dreams about rodeos if I snoozed through that one) and this album, Wiretap Scars. I'd found the cd second hand in a shop called Revolution CD in Canberra for about £6 (or whatever that was in AU$ at the time), which seemed like a bargain. I knew Sparta were the guys from At The Drive-In who didn't end up in The Mars Volta and I was keen to hear it; I'd heard they were playing post-hardcore, which I was loving at the time.

The highlight of Wiretap Scars, and the reason why this album acted as such a great alarm clock for months, is the opener Cut Your Ribbon. It's such a fine example of post-hardcore from that era and I love the slight intro before the scream of "Wake up / Can you hear me? / You're so clever, did you find me?". I honestly can't count the number of times I've woken up to that line. There are some great songs throughout the rest of the album too, like Collapse, Light Burns Clear and RX Coup, although none quite hit the high of Cut Your Ribbon for me.

A few months ago (and over 10 years since I bought the cd) I found this reissue in Truck in Oxford for a mere £13, which these days is something of a bargain for an LP. I know a lot of these reissues are dubious in that the band often has little to nothing to do with it but I can't see myself stumbling across the original pressing very often (it hasn't happened yet) and I'm happy to have it in my collection in some form. This pressing is numbered (out of 1500) and mine is #1128. The number is just stamped on the back, so nothing to get very excited about. Otherwise, it's a nice release - gatefold sleeve, lyrics sheet and red vinyl.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, insert, numbered (#1128)
Tracks: 12
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 23/02/16
Colour: Transparent red
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go

I think it was around the release of The Letting Go that I first heard Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - the first Will Oldham record I bought was a 7" single of Cold & Wet from this album - but it would be years before I heard the rest of the LP. I have vague memories of the album getting a lot of praise around that time and I can see why; of the albums of his I know it's one of the stronger ones.

I've got a scattering of Will Oldham records from various points in his career and some of them have a tendency to underwhelm. The Letting Go however has great songs throughout - Love Comes to Me, Wai, Cursed Sleep, Lay and Love, and The Seedling are all great. Of those songs, The Seedling and Cursed Sleep are both the biggest highlights of the album and between them show both Oldham's dark and light sides. I knew a few of the songs here from the Is It the Sea? live album, which is another of his stronger releases and probably the best introduction to his music.

I paid £12 for this LP at the Independent Label Market, which is bargain as far as vinyl goes these days. It didn't come with a download code which means I haven't listened to it quite as much as I otherwise would have. However, that's quite a nice thing, because I do forget quite how much I like it between listens.

Format: 12", picture sleeve, insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £12 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O.

Yanqui U.X.O. was the fourth Godspeed record I nbought. I'd had F# A# for a couple of years and 'Allehujah! since it came out. I very quickly became a fan of Godspeed but took a while to pick up all their older albums. I got Slow Riot for Zero Kanada and Yanqui U.X.O. within a month of each other. I was worried that I'd struggle to distinguish between the two without having a long time to get to know them individually, but Slow Riot very much has an EP-feel to it, which helps.

09-15-00 explodes into huge violins then falls away to a marching drum, but then spends a lot of time drifting (nicely) without going anywhere again - the hope is that it'll go mental again but it doesn't. Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls starts much spookier and keeps its calm for quite a while despite itself, and eventually explodes into something truly magnificent with layers upon layers of instruments and a swirling guitar/violin/something. Motherfucker=Redeemer straddles two sides of vinyl and spans about 35 minutes. It's instantly beautiful. The second half takes a while to get going again but it's hugely exciting when it does start building up and then reaches its peak. George Bush Cut Up While Talking feels a bit unnecessary but is easily skipped.

I hadn't planned to go record shopping on the day I bought this - I was visiting my wife's (although she was my girlfriend then) relatives in Cambridge and we were exploring the town centre. I stumbled across a record stall in the market and found a couple of albums I fancied there whilst everyone else was browsing other stalls. Later I popped into Fopp whilst Vicky and her aunt were in another shop and found this album and Mr Beast by Mogwai. Not only were they albums I hadn't seen in shops often, both were reasonably priced, so I picked them up too. I certainly hadn't left the house expecting to buy four LPs that day, but it was a nice way to return.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve, insert
Tracks: 4
Cost: £16 new
Bought: Fopp Cambridge
When: 05/10/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Tellison - The Wages of Fear

I've had quite inconsistent feelings about Tellison. I've seen them live four times now and I've really enjoy seeing them each time. After the second time (supporting Kevin Devine in the All Saint's Church in Kingston) I decided I should get one of their albums, and went for The Wages of Fear, which I think was the newest at the time. I remember feeling a little underwhelmed upon listening to it and it didn't get many plays at the time (hindered by my belief that it didn't come with mp3s - clearly my observation skills let me down because I failed to notice the sticker or download card until the other week).

A few weeks ago they played in Oxford with Muncie Girls; Oxford gets so few good shows you have to go to them all, so I popped along. In the run up to the show, I listened to the album a few more times and streamed their other ones. The show was great and I had their songs stuck in my head for days afterwards. Last Saturday they played the Deadpunk all-dayer in Bristol and I was really excited about seeing them. They are a great live band.

Despite quite liking the songs, and having seen them live enough times to remember how good they are there, I still struggle with the album. I think it's due to the way the band boarders on the indie side of indie-rock which causes issues for me - there's a poppy element to indie that has never sat well with me and that comes across as sometimes a little twee in these songs. I know they're punk-rock songs - I've heard them that way - but on the record they're just a bit flatter and less exciting. I get a similar feeling from Tellison as I do from Biffy Clyro, who are also much more exciting live but I don't often listen to on record. The songs here are undeniably catchy - I will have the choruses of Say Silence (Heaven & Earth), Horses and Letters From Pre-Med in my head for days. Get On and Freud Links the Teeth and the Heart are two more I love hearing live.

Having seen them twice recently, I feel I should make more of an effort to seek out their other albums.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £8 new
Bought: gig
When: 05/08/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

The Drones - The Minotaur + A Brief Retrospective

The Drones are an Australian band who had a couple of albums out on ATP Recordings. They played the "Ten Years" ATP festival but I didn't see them in the end - that weekend had far too many great bands in a very short amount of time; lots were missed. However, I think when I bought this all I knew was what was on the description Spillers had added to the sleeve - all I remember was that the record was on ATP and that they were Australian. Also, I'm a sucker for a picture disc, even if the picture isn't all that interesting. Plus, it was the tail end of the Tuesday-record-from-Spillers year, so it didn't take much for a record to end up in my collection.

The record itself is a strange one. The Minotaur is a song from their most recent (at the time) album, Havilah. But then so is the second (and slightly annoying) song, Nail it Down. They're followed by two songs from their 2005 album, Wait Long by the River..., and then two songs from their 2006 album, Gala Mill, neatly covering all the albums that ATP had helped release in countries outside Australia (and all the albums easily found in this hemisphere). It's quite clear that they wanted the band to get some more traction in the UK and a cheap compilation is a classic way to do it.

The Minotaur is a strong, catchy song and a pretty fine example of what the band sound like - interesting guitars, strained vocals and a huge hook in the chorus. Nail it Down, as I mentioned, is a really annoying song and quite an unfortunate way to follow on from The Minotaur (and an even stranger way to open the album Havilah). Perhaps the intention was to show the different sides of the band, but as the listener I'd have been much more excited if the second Drones song I heard was a crazy rocker like the first one; Baby^2 would have been a much better follow-up. Most of the b-side is dedicated to the lengthy album-closer Sixteen Straws which tells the story of some Catholic convict workers drawing straws to decide who would kill whom (and thus avoiding damnation from suicide). It's a bleak history lesson in song-form. Jezebel is the other song from Gala Mill and a strong opener to that album. If I were choosing their strongest songs from that album, I might have swapped Jezebel for the incredible I'm Here Now, which is by far my favourite song of theirs. Perhaps they wanted to save that treat for the album.

I assumed that nothing much had happened with the band in the last 8 years or so, but looking on Discogs they've had a couple of albums since Havilah. I figured since ATP stopped releasing their albums that they'd broken up or disappeared, but it seems not. Perhaps ATP decided to cut their loses in attempting a UK break-through. Their three ATP released albums were readily available in the second-hand stores of London and I gradually picked up all three over a couple of years on cd. Each one had some huge songs and some others that did less for me. I enjoyed all of them, particularly Gala Mill (strangely, Wait Long by the River... was billed as the "classic", or at least that's what I assumed since it was the one the band would play in full at ATP festivals).

I like The Drones but I had definitely forgotten about them. I might make some small efforts to get their other albums, although I'm not sure I'm willing to import them myself.

Format: 12" picture disc, insert
Tracks: 6
Cost: £8.50 new
Bought: Spillers Records
When: 07/10/08
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Deftones - B-Sides & Rarities

Like, I suspect, a lot of people who bought this Record Store day release, I've had this album on cd for years. It came out when I was living in Australia and I only discovered that it had been released because I stumbled across a copy in the excellent Land Speed Records in Canberra. I didn't buy a copy until sometime later when I was in Fopp in Brighton (for a bargain £5).

Of course I also have a copy of the covers album that Deftones released for RSD in 2012, and the two album share a large overlap: Savoury (Jawbox cover), Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover), No Ordinary Love (Sade cover featuring Jonah Matranga providing some excellent vocals), If Only Tonight We Could Sleep (The Cure cover), Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want (The Smiths cover) and The Chauffeur (Duran Duran cover recorded in 1994 but also made it onto the Resident Evil: Apocalypse soundtrack ten years later) all appear on Covers. Conversely there are two covers - Wax and Wane (Cocteau Twins cover) and Sinatra (Helmet cover on the b-side to to Minerva) - that are on here but not on Covers. The fact that neither represent a complete collection of either covers or b-sides is strange.

There are some nice acoustic versions (including the excellent acoustic version of Be Quiet and Drive from the single, again featuring Jonah on vocals) and a couple of rarities in the form of Crenshaw Punch / I'll Throw Rocks at You and Black Moon featuring B-Real from Cypress Hill. There were a few nice treats to be found in the package too - the d-side is etched with the band name twice (although I feel they missed a trick by not etching the flower that graces the label and cd on so many of their releases - perhaps it would be too difficult to do well). Not only that, but they've also thrown in the dvd that came with the original cd release, which was totally unexpected. The dvd has all the band's videos until 2005. I watched it back in 2006 but not more recently. I probably should. A lot of their videos were plastered over MTV2 for years, but I remember enjoying some of the videos that weren't so over-played. As a teenager I remember thinking how fucking cool those guys were in the video to My Own Summer (Shove It).

I feel like this year RSD has gone to some effort to up their game in the releases; compare this to Covers from 2012 and you can see the difference - coloured and etched vinyl, inserts, dvds vs a single LP of almost entirely re-released covers with a simple sleeve. I, for one, am glad of it.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve, insert, dvd
Tracks: 14
Cost: £26 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 16/04/16
Colour: Gold
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Thursday - Five Stories Falling

It's now been long enough since Full Collapse came out that we can all agree that it is amongst the finest albums of the 2000's. It was great at the time, but I'm pleased to see how well it has aged. I still listen to it regularly and have very fond memories of the time I saw them play it in full (and the excitement and joy I felt when they casually mentioned that they were going to be playing it in full that night).

This EP contains four live songs from Full Collapse and one new song, Jet Black New Year. As a huge fan of Full Collapse and these songs in particular (especially Understanding in a Car Crash and Paris in Flames), I'm happy to have these live versions. The introduction to Standing On the Edge of Summer reminds you just how many Thursday songs are about people Geoff Rickley knows who have died. The band have essentially broken up (but are playing a show this year?) so it's nice to have a live document of the band.

Jet Black New Year is one of the best songs the band wrote and I know I'm not alone in thinking that. In the albums that followed Full Collapse I remember people often using the phrase "the best thing they've done since Jet Black New Year". It's certainly one of their heavier songs and the lyrics are great, especially the countdown at the end. The insert with the record contains five stories - one from each band member about new year, except for the last which is about the recording and tension in the band at the time. I can see the tension in the song, but the song is all the better for it; the anger works for them.

I always thought it was strange to pair up one of their best songs with four live recordings rather than any other new songs, like you'd normally find on an EP. By the sounds of it, the band only just managed to record this one song, so perhaps the pressure to record any more to go with it just then would have been too much. I'm glad that the song exists in some form. This is the original vinyl pressing of the EP, which has different artwork to the cd and recent re-press. The sleeve is a folded bit of cardboard as a lot of the Victory Records releases were at the time. The a4 insert is numbered out of 2000 (mine is #1015) and the vinyl is one-sided clear vinyl. One-sided clear vinyl is the strangest thing, because you can see the groves on the other side but feel how flat the b-side is. I've tried to photograph it below, but it doesn't come out in the picture.

Format: One-sided 12", a4 insert, numbered (#1015/2000)
Tracks: 5
Cost: £11.50 new
Bought: eBay
When: 23/03/04
Colour: Clear
Etching: none
mp3s: no