On the 20th August 2015, The Record Deck was moored in central Oxford, just a short walk from my flat. I had the day off because we were going to Green Man Festival that afternoon, so went down there in the morning to see what they had for sale. As is often the case with second-hand records, the overlap between the stock and the sort of music I'm into was minimal. The guy who runs it asked me what music I collected, a question I suspect more often gets answered with niche things like "like-70's Americana" than with "punk-rock, post-rock and bits of metal", which is the true answer. I responded with "modern rock" because that felt like the right answer. I think we both knew I wasn't going to find much there.
I searched through all the boxes, because I had the time, and found a total of two interesting records - this one and the first Lupine Howl record, a band I'd never heard of but was drawn in by the Spiritualized connection. I bought both. This Final Fantasy record is exactly the sort of record I'd ignore in a second hand shop, but I was so surprised to see anything I knew of I thought it was worth picking up. At £2 it was a totally acceptable price.
I know Many Lives -> 49 MP from the album He Poos Clouds - it's a fun late-album track that benefits from some shouted backing vocals. Turns out I love gang vocals in any context. The b-side, The Miner Becomes Forgetful, is nice enough - mostly piano with little flourishes of violin. The back of sleeve has the details of the two other b-sides that were on the cd single but not included here, which just feels lazy.
Part of the reason I bought this 7" was that I was going to see Owen Pallett (as Final Fantasy is now known) at Green Man that weekend. I'd seen him in London in the December beforehand and was amazed by how great he was. It'd been a long time since the first time I saw him in Cardiff and the new songs sounded incredible, so I was still on something of a high from that; it was one of the gigs of the year. I was super-excited to see him at Green Man and so it was never really likely to live up to my expectations - it was great, but it's hard to enjoy yourself as much in a muddy field at the end of a long weekend compared to the comfort of a nice seat in Queen Elizabeth Hall. That said, the few of us at the front dancing around to The Riverbed and Internal Fantasy were having a great time. I didn't need to buy this 7" but the timing ties it firmly to those two live experiences, which I like about it.
Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £2 second hand
Bought: The Record Deck, Oxford
When: 20/08/15
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
