I am the worst person I know. I bought this record nearly eight months ago and I've only just broken the seal. I sometimes wonder if I'm a record collector or just someone who likes spending money.
I'd seen this copy of the 20th anniversary double LP of Generation Terrorists a bunch of times in the Fopp in Oxford and regularly thought "I should buy that". On what would turn out to be my last visit to Fopp before it closed down in the recent HMV collapse, I finally decided to buy a copy. I guess I was feeling rich enough to finally spare £20 on an album I already had eight copies of (yes, eight. Nine if you include the Japanese Stars & Stripes mini-album version). Of course, this version is materially different to the others because it has Theme From M.A.S.H. tacked on the end. It's also remastered, but I'm incapable of ever hearing such differences - even on albums I've heard countless times over the last 20 years (wow, in October it'll be 20 years exactly since I first heard Generation Terrorists - it's funny, at the time it felt like an old album, because it'd been out seven years and they'd already been five different bands, but now to think it was only seven years old makes it seem positively recent). Does it sound nicer because it's been remastered, or is it because it's the newest vinyl copy I have (and not a shitty picture disc)? Who can say.
As well as being remastered, there's a nice 16-page booklet to go along with the release. The boxset version had an arguably nicer booklet featuring the same essay from Simon Price so I've not missed out on any exciting content by not opening it until now. As for Theme From M.A.S.H., I have it on vinyl on a handful of other releases so the appeal of hearing it on vinyl wasn't a big driver. It's interesting though that they decided to append that and not A Vision of Dead Desire like on the Japanese version. M.A.S.H. is definitely the better song, and I guess there's something nice about cramming the other single from that era onto the album.
We should talk about the fact that this incredible album has sat in my collection for so long without the needle going anywhere near the grooves. Basically, I buy more music than I have time to listen to. I'm trying to stop, but it's hard; it's difficult to overcome the habit of a lifetime. Having a baby takes up a lot of my time, and I don't have a record player in a room where I can also play with her (yet - I've got a plan for that). That leaves me with an hour or so each evening to play records. I have a strange commitment to this stupid blog, so when I do finally sit down in front of my turntable I have a choice - play an album I'm yet to play, write about an album or actually spend some time playing those pesky albums that didn't come with a download code (I play everything on the turntable for the first time, but subsequent plays often end up being from mp3s at work or on the bus). For the last eight months, this album has constantly found itself at the back of that queue - the fact I know it like the back of my hand hasn't helped push it to the top.
Huh, well this is actually a perfect example of why it's quite so hard to keep up - half way through that sentence (and the first version of Repeat) the baby woke up so I had to go and settle her. After that was done, it was a safer bet to just go to sleep and get some hours in before she woke again. Somehow yesterday passed too; it's a miracle I ever post anything any more. Update, she woke this time during Methadone Pretty.
There's no point in me actually talking about the songs here - I've done that in the links above at least once. There's also very little left to be said about Generation Terrorists, the incredible, sprawling, ambitious beginning it was. I'm still amazed at how they could go from songs like New Art Riot to Motorcycle Emptiness, Little Baby Nothing and Condemned to Rock 'n' Roll in such a short time. It's always exciting to hear these songs; I hope it always will be.
Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve, 12" booklet
Tracks: 19
Cost: £20 new
Bought: Fopp, Oxford
When: 04/10/18
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
