Mogwai - Central Belters

 

I feel like curating the Mogwai best-of must have been one of the easiest tasks whoever did it did that week; if you put their back-catalogue on shuffle and took the first three hours of songs that came up, you'd have a collection that was both a) uniquely Mogwai and b) full of bangers. It goes without saying that the actually-curated best-of is an amazing listen and a brilliant use of 12 sides of vinyl and well over three hours of your time.

My Mogwai collection still has some glaring holes, but I've been enjoying gradually working on it – one large hole is their debut album Mogwai Young Team, one of the first albums of theirs I heard (which I bought on cd in Spillers a week after buying The Hawk is Howling). Whilst under-represented here (on paper at least - do we count the original version of Summer separately? Does it's 16-minute runtime balance out the multiple shorter songs from other albums?), it is great to finally have Mogwai Fear Satan on vinyl. There's still something really pleasing about seeing one song take up a whole side of vinyl and Mogwai Fear Satan does that perfectly. It's then quite surprising that the other song that takes up a whole side of vinyl never made it onto an album, despite being a live favourite and ridiculously huge song – it takes a lot of sides of vinyl to get to My Father My King but it is absolutely worth it every time. I suspect at some point after getting most of the LPs on vinyl I'd have got round to seeking out the single, but I'm glad I've been listening to this for the last six years, rather than waiting for the point in my life when I got round to seeking it out. I love that you can see the quiet part in the grooves of the vinyl.

Mogwai have been around long enough to have a number of different eras, and I think I'm firmly a circa-2010 era guy. It might help that The Hawk is Howling was the first album of theirs I heard, but I also love Hardcore Will Never Die and I think Les Revenants is the greatest soundtrack they've done by a good distance – it’s a contender for the "best soundtrack that actually works even better as an album", running against The Fountain, which they were also involved with, although I'm never very sure how much was Clint Mansell and how much was Mogwai. Anyway, as a result I think the selections from those albums are great. The songs from Mr Beast also sound amazing, more-so than I remember them sounding on the actual LP. We're No Here sounds particularly great. The early era has some highs and some lows for me – Summer is a huge way to start (I love the way it races ahead of the xylophone) and Christmas Steps is the highlight of Come On Die Young. I've never really loved that album as much as everyone else seems to, and Cody feels like a bit of a downer here. Similarly, Stanley Kubrick from EP (or EP+6, as I know the release) is a bit nothingy. 

The odds and ends that make up the final two discs are interesting - Hugh Dallas is always good (classic slow build) and Devil Rides with it's vocals from prolific musician Roky Erickson is unexpected and a bit bizarre, but great to hear. Strangely, we get one song from Les Revenants in the usual chronological section as well as one in this section - not sure why. Personally, Hungry Face is the one I associate more with the show, but Wizard Motor is probably the better song in the usual sense. Earth Division is another nice one I wouldn't have heard. I didn't realise until just now that the song itself isn't on the Earth Division EP (which I regret not buying when I saw it in Banquet around the time it came out - I can't remember why I didn't buy it).

It'd be wrong to not dwell on just what a nice package this boxset is too. Each record has one letter from the word "Mogwai" on the cover and a selection of incredibly brightly coloured sleeves, contrasting the grey, fabric-lined outer box. The booklet is brilliantly detailed and a good read - the concert tickets and set-lists from over the years are particularly nice. All this for just under £50 is a ridiculous bargain - they could have charged twice as much and I'd still have bought it and still have been raving about how great it was.

Format: 6x 12", boxset, booklet

Tracks: 34

Cost: £49 new

Bought: Norman Records website

When: 23/10/15

Colour: Black

Etching: None

mp3s: Download code

Run the Jewels - Stay Gold Collectors Box

With Record Store Day just around the corner again, it's probably time to write about some old releases again. Musically, this was a luxury purchase for sure. There's a lot of stuff in the photos below, but ultimately there are four songs here - Kill Your Masters from RTJ3, an instrumental version, a remix of Stay Gold and an instrumental version of the remix - so nothing vital as such.

Kill Your Masters is a great song and Zack de la Rocha's verse is nice. For reasons I don't understand, it's listed together with A Report to the Shareholders on the LP - maybe because they're thematically linked? Anyway, I appreciate that instrumentals are a thing, but I rarely get excited about them. I mostly just miss the lyrics. It is nice to focus on El's beats though. The remix of Stay Gold by Smiff & Cash works well - the whole feel of the song is different - kinda haunting, which somehow has less of an effect on the instrumental version - and there's some extra verses added.

At £43, I probably should have left this behind on Record Store Day in 2018, but it looks so lovely that I couldn't resist. Plus, I was already spending an obscene amount that morning, so this wasn't that big a percentage, sadly. I missed RSD the year before, and the year after (and probably will this year too), so it kinda evens out on the years when there was nothing I was after. In the gold metal box we have a poster, a slip mat, and alternate sleeve for RTJ3, some stickers and, of course, the four songs on a one-sided, etched clear 12". It's a nice package for sure, and given that some LPs are edging near to £30 on their own, it's not even that expensive really.

Despite it having space for the three RTJ LPs to fit in, I've never put them in there - just doesn't seem necessary. Maybe I'm missing the point (I'm not much of a Marvel fan, so the effort that's gone into the Marvel version of the sleeve is lost on me too). A strange detail to get wrong (if you consider it wrong) is that the writing on the edge of the box goes in the wrong direction (wrong by UK/USA standards - in continental Europe I think most books and records are oriented this way around).

Format: Etched one-sided 12", gatefold sleeve, box, stickers, posters, slipmat
Tracks: 4
Cost: £43 new
Bought: Truck Store
When: 21/04/18
Colour: Clear
Etching: etched b-side
mp3s: no

Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible 20 [Boxset]

The Manics have been doing a great job of reissuing their albums in recent years – they started off strong with a very nice 10" boxset of Generation Terrorists, but then upped their game with the 20th anniversary release of The Holy Bible, and kept it at a similar level with the reissue of Everything Must Go. Send Away the Tigers has had a lighter re-release, but the key difference is that it's only 10 years old, and the release is similar to the 10-year releases of Holy Bible and EMG in that sense; more recently This is My Truth Tell Me Yours had a reissue that sits somewhere between the two.

They really treated us with the re-issue of The Holy Bible – four cds and the whole album on vinyl, as well as a book about the album. In a lot of ways, they had to go big – the album had been reissued 10 years earlier with a bunch of live songs and demos, a dvd and, crucially, the infamous US-version of the album. Here we get a lot (but not all) of the same stuff, and a whole load more. The original album and the US-version are presented on their own discs, while cd3 covers a lot (but not all) of the b-sides from the era, most I had in their original forms. They're presented in the order they were released in and filled in some gaps I had (at the time) in the form of the cd2 for Revol and She is Suffering; Love Torn Us Under was the only whole song that was new to me – it's a classic Manics b-side in the sense that it's a great, simple acoustic song that wouldn't have worked at all on the album. Sculpture of Man has long been a favourite b-side for me for its uncharacteristically fast punk sound; Too Cold Here is another great one. Missing are Comfort Comes, Are Mothers Saints and Charles Windsor from the Japanese Faster/PCP release, as well as a couple of live recordings.

It's nice to hear the songs recorded at Glastonbury 1994, especially after watching the 2007 Glastonbury performance on the Send Away the Tigers reissue – this would have been a very different set. Plus, it's always nice to hear Gold Against the Soul songs live (don’t get me started on the glaring omission of a reissue of GATS so far - fingers crossed this is in the works). The version of Revol with the spoken word section was definitely one of the strangest additions – I like seeing these glimpses into how the songs could have ended up, but I think most people would agree that it’s better without that verse!

The final cd is live songs - mostly at the Astoria in December. It's a good set, heavy on songs from The Holy Bible and Gold Against the Soul (and lighter on Generation Terrorists than they normally are these days. It's always nice to hear New Art Riot too - they play it better by that point in time, but James still sings it in the same scrappy way - almost like an accent). It's also nice to hear 4st 7lb and This is Yesterday live - aside from the recent Holy Bible tour, they're not songs you'd often hear live. I'm not sure if it's the whole set or not since it's only an hour, but maybe back then they played shorter sets than they do now that they have nearly 30 years of songs to choose from. The fade out between the songs imply its been edited a bit (I'm sure the full setlist is online somewhere if I wanted to check). James sounds tired but otherwise they sound great, and it’s great to hear Nicky’s backing vocals make an occasional appearance, especially on Yes. Finally, there are four live acoustic recordings from Maida Vale in 2014, which are a nice and rarely heard take on the songs.

That's a lot of talk about what's on the cds for a blog about vinyl. The LP contains the regular album in a nice gatefold sleeve. I've written about the album itself before here, and the US mix here, but I'll say again that I think it’s great. It’s hard to not get swept up in all the excitement when these big reissues come out – the band were playing a bunch of shows where they’d play the album in full (I saw two – one in London and another in Cardiff Castle – the latter was a strange show, a very beery, excitable crowd for a bleak album about depression, played on a hot day in the sun). I bought a copy of NME (for the first time ever) because they had a piece about the album that I wanted to read; everybody was reflecting on what a great album it was. I've kept that NME in the box since I bought it and it's in the pictures below. This is the first edition of the boxset with the signed booklet and the typo around which side of vinyl 4st 7lb is on. The book was a nice read and full of pictures from the era (including one of Richey wearing a Dub War t-shirt).

The thing with The Holy Bible is that it really is a great album - genuinely amazing. All the hype helps, and reminds you just how great it is, but you know it regardless. I enjoyed reading all the articles I could find about it, because it’s good to take the time and focus on these noteworthy albums from time to time. This boxset was a good way to dwell on that.

Format: 12", four cds, boxset, gatefold sleeve, picture sleeve, book, signed
Tracks: 75
Cost: £56 new
Bought: Band's website
When: 08/12/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: cd

Nine Inch Nails - Survivalism

Similarly to the The Hand That Feeds boxset, I got a box (#672/2000?) to store the 9" singles that the band released from their With Teeth follow-up, Year Zero. I had high hopes for Year Zero, having enjoyed With Teeth quite so much, but it was less my thing - it was a concept album and heavily relied on electronic sounds, so it was really everything that I was glad With Teeth wasn't. It had some highlights, but overall wasn't as strong.

However, I did love the alternative reality story that sat alongside the album - the effort that went into that was crazy. I won't go into all the details - I’m sure they're well documented across the internet, but there were messages hidden on t-shirts, billboards, hidden USB drives containing songs and clues and endless websites of back-story; it was genuinely very cool - I bored some friends a few times with my excited stories re-telling what I'd read online (sorry).

The single doesn't do a whole lot for me - it’s a fine NIN song, but nothing to write home about. The b-side is unexpectedly interesting though (given that most NIN remixes aren't great): Saul Williams and Thavius Beck remix Survivalism but, crucially, add a lot. In particular, Saul sings the choruses, which is great. In a lot of ways, it feels closer to a Saul Williams cover of NIN than it does a NIN remix, which is cool. This was all happening around the same time as Trent Reznor producing Saul's Niggy Tardust album, so I guess they were spending a lot of time together. Nine Inch Nails were the reason I got into Saul Williams in the first place, since they had him support them at their Brixton Academy shows just before I went to Australia.

Format: 9", numbered, boxset 

Tracks: 2

Cost: £3 new

Bought: Virgin Megastore, Cardiff

When: 14/04/07

Colour: Black

Etching: none

mp3s: no

Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds

In 2005, Nine Inch Nails came back from their lull/disappearance/hiatus with the album With Teeth, one that I'm very fond of. As a precursor to that, they released The Hand That Feeds as a single.

In another case of me not remembering the exact order of events, I think I read something on their website about a free gift for fans, so I signed up and received in the post the numbered 9" box that this record lives in (#1668/2000). I think that made me go out and buy the single, which my local HMV had an offer on - if you bought all three UK versions together you got a small discount. It was enough to tempt me, so I got all three (which basically had the same song and two remixes spread across them. I also ended up with a promo single that Hugh had got from his university radio station, containing just the a-side and being one of the most redundant cds in my collection). I never got round to buying the other 9" single(s) from With Teeth to flesh out the boxset, so this record lives in there alone, along with the letter that came with it (photographed below). It'd taken a minor beating in the post, but is in reasonable condition.

The single is great. Like I said, I have a lot of time for With Teeth and love that it’s just a very regular, heavy Nine Inch Nails album. Sometimes, when a band routinely has such grand ideas, it's nice when they do something simple. At the time, I compared it to Broken in that sense - just very good, heavy songs. The dub remix on the b-side is largely nothing of interest - longer but in no way better.

Format: 9", numbered boxset

Tracks: 2

Cost: £1.80 new

Bought: HMV, Lancaster

When: 18/04/05

Colour: Black

Etching: none

mp3s: no

Bob Dylan - Biograph

Shortly after I started this blog I had the realisation that I'd have to write about this boxset at some point; it filled me with dread. It's important to note that I'm not anti Bob Dylan, but I've found over the years that I have a tolerance of about 20 minutes, half an hour at most, of his music. I fully appreciate his status as a musician and I see why he's so popular, but I find large doses of him very difficult. This record might well be the reason for that.

In 2006, after a two-week trip around New Zealand my friends and I ended up in Auckland and had the last day of our trip to explore the city. I made a line pretty much straight for the huge record store, Real Groovy and spent a number of hours trying to check out everything they had. I bought a lot - two weeks of incredible scenery had left me starved of record shopping. One of the finds I was most excited about was this 5-record Bob Dylan boxset, for a mere £11. It's not in great condition, but it felt worth it for the sheer quantity of music.

I'd never really sat down and listened to Bob Dylan before. You hear a lot just about the place, especially given that a lot of my friends were very big Dylan fans. That year we were going to Roskilde Festival for the second time and Bob was playing - this pleased at least two of the friends I was going with. When close friends are that excited about a certain musician, you really have to check them out properly (and, to be honest, I really should have many years before). By buying this record I thought I'd have a great chance to get to know him - what could be better than a huge best-of and rarities compilation?

There are a number of reasons I struggled with this boxset, and one of them is certainly the sequencing, which lacks any coherent flow. I'm a fan of chronological best-ofs, but I see that some work best in a more curated order. Whatever the intended flow was here, I can't see it. The album starts with Lay Lady Lay, which is underwhelming. I'm probably in the minority of people that suffered this problem, but I was very familiar with Ministry's slightly dodgy cover of the song from Filth Pig, so I was probably off to a dubious start. That is my own fault really.

Side two (of ten!) steps it up a notch - I remember thinking this was more like it. The Times They Are A-Changing and Blowin' in the Wind were classic Dylan songs I was aware of, and Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll was a pleasant surprise. However, the true gem and highlight of the 53 songs here for me was Masters of War. That political, bitter epic came out of nowhere and instantly became my favourite Dylan song. It was worth the £11 and other 52 songs just to hear that song alone.

Side three features some upbeat songs in the form of Tombstone Blues, Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar and a live recording of Most Likely You Go Your Way as well as Like a Rolling Stone, which has a great chorus. I was very familiar with Subterranean Homesick Blues from the much-parodied video but also, more regrettably, from the Red Hot Chili Peppers cover (there's a bit of a theme here - I've heard good Dylan covers since hearing this album, but the ones prior to that point were mostly somewhat dubious).

The big problem is just that there are a lot of songs that do absolutely nothing for me. It's unfair to single these out, but Visions of Johanna or Every Grain of Sand are prime examples (and both on the same side) - nothing really happens. They're fine, but there are a lot of other songs that are equally fine, and it adds up to a lot of kinda similar, rambling acoustic-guitar-and-harmonica numbers. If I had to, I could put together a single LP best-of that would be incredible. He has so many memorably great songs that it's probably make for a hugely enjoyable listen. But I appreciate it wouldn't be the "best" to everyone, so they include the many rambling, forgettable acoustic songs too to even it out. I guess the modern solution is a playlist of the Dylan songs I actually like.

The sides 6-8 are a little lighter on songs I enjoy, but they bring it round with the last disc. Even the very-80's-sounding Gotta Serve Somebody is quite enjoyable. The final side ends up being one of the most hits-heavy with I Shall Be Released, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, All Along the Watchtower and Forever Young

The boxset is pretty detailed - Wikipedia tells me it was considered to be the first "boxset", which is quite cool. The picture sleeves contain a few paragraphs about each of the songs and there's a 36-page book giving a not-so-brief history of him and his music. You'd be lucky to get such an attention to detail these days. I remember trying to read about each song as I listened to it on the first play, but I quickly got tired of that. A year or so later I tried again, spreading the task (or chore - it felt like it at times) over a few days. None of the content has stayed with me it seems, except the intro to the book where the author talks about attending a Bob Dylan themed party - you had to dress as a character from his songs. At the time, the only character I could immediately think of was an eskimo, since that song had featured heavily in road trips in my friend's VW camper van.

That summer we saw Bob live and it was quite the disappointment. I shouldn't be too harsh, he's very old and it's quite the miracle he can still play and I do feel lucky to have seen him, even if I'm not the biggest fan. However, the peak of my disappointment hit when he played Masters of War, my new favourite Dylan song - he decided to change so much about it that it had none of the anger or excitement of the version I was used to. His set was long, and my friend Vicky got particularly bored (although it's worth noting that even Hugh and Rachel who were big fans were struggling too) so we went for a wander mid-set and caught about 15-minutes of Wir Sind Helden, a German band my friend Nadine had got me into, and then returned to catch the end of his set.

I always felt that the boxset was chronically missing Hurricane, a Dylan song I knew and loved beforehand, and felt that it was a shame that the sprawling best-of I had was missing such a huge song (and contained so many songs I didn't care for). I ended up buying the more recent and equally sprawling Dylan boxset (on cd, for a bargain £6 in Fopp), mostly so that I could have that song. It turned out that buying another huge collection of Dylan songs was maybe not wise, given my tendency to prefer him in small doses. I also have a 4LP covers record in the form of the soundtrack to I'm Not There. I seem to only indulge in Dylan in large amounts (rather shamefully, I've still not consciously listened to album in the traditional sense), which might be where I'm going wrong. I should probably rectify that at some point (but where to start!?).

Format: 5x12" boxset, picture sleeves, 12" book
Tracks: 53
Cost: £11.10 second hand
Bought: Real Groovy, Auckland
When: 20/04/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Manic Street Preachers - Everything Must Go - 20th Anniversary Boxset

I was pretty excited when I heard that the Manics were putting out a 20th anniversary boxset of Everything Must Go. I'd been very happy with the boxsets for Generation Terrorists and The Holy Bible. My collection has long been missing a vinyl copy of EMG - it wouldn't have been too difficult to pick one up over the years and there's been a pricey Music On Vinyl reissue knocking around for while now. However, it has avoided me, so this is a nice way to include it.

First off, there was no way I wasn't buying this. At the most basic level, I'm a sucker for a boxset and I love the Manics. On top of that, Everything Must Go is a huge album and full of great songs from a very important era of the band. After all that, there's all the bonus songs, the book, the signatures, the dvds; it's a very strong offering.

On the other hand, I have the 10th anniversary cd/dvd set which overlaps with this release significantly - almost all of the songs from the two cds there match the two cds here. Both contain a dvd with a documentary about the album but this set also contains a classic live show (more on that later) and the LP. On the surface, this is the obvious winner. I enjoyed the dvd documentary here but it made me want to watch the one from 10 years ago again too - in hindsight I dare say that the 10th anniversary dvd is a better documentary, plus it includes a bunch of live videos and the music videos from the album.

It's interesting, because The Holy Bible had a similar affair - both a 10th and 20th anniversary edition and, in that case, the 20th anniversary boxset was far superior. The same can't be said for Everything Must Go. However, that's not to say this isn't a great release just not as great as history has lead me to believe it could be.

With regards to the album, Everything Must Go is, of course, huge. I wrote about how incredible A Design For Life is when I wrote about the 12" single; make no mistake, that is a truly magnificent song and equally defines the album. I could never understand why the album didn't start with that song. I enjoy Elvis Impersonator and in any other setting it would make perfect sense as an opener. Maybe they were hoping to downplay A Design For Life by casually throwing it in as the second track - it doesn't work however, as that song will always dominate. There are so many great songs on Everything Must Go beyond A Design For Life (it's almost a shame they have to be compared relative to that song because it would still be an incredible album without A Design For Life) - all the singles are fantastic and Removables and No Surface All Feeling were always highlights.

Australia has always held a very special place in my heart - when I lived in Australia it was the first song I listened to when I got off the plane and when I left it was the last song I listened to before boarding. It was a strange bookend-ing to the trip - I had all these ideas for how life there would be which were so far away from how it actually was but I had such a great time that it was hard to imagine it any other way; I also realised I hadn't really thought about how I imagined life would turn out for a whole year. I think about those two moments every time I hear the song - sat on the airport shuttle at the start of my time there and then sat by the boarding gate about to leave. I love that music can transport you back to such precise moments in your life.

I was lucky enough to see the Manics play Everything Must Go in its entirety in the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year, which was incredible. If the Roundhouse was the right venue for the Holy Bible shows then The Royal Albert Hall was definitely the right venue for Everything Must Go - suitably grand but I could still be very near the band. The show was fantastic, so much so I toyed with the idea of going back the next night. I've been through many ups and downs with this band, but every time I see them live they reel me back in so easily. It was the tenth time I've seen them live and they always impress.

Which neatly brings me back around to the second dvd in this boxset; the live show from the Nynex Arena in Manchester. Having that show on dvd was certainly a large part of my excitement about this boxset. Nearly 18 years ago I bought a copy of Everything Live on VHS from a music (instrument) shop in Winchester that has long closed and I've forgotten the name of. I'd been listening to TIMTTMY for a year at that point and Generation Terrorists for a couple of months. I would end up buying Gold Against the Soul, The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go all on one day just over a week later; clearly the live show had impressed me. Of course there were a lot of songs that I didn't know and there were elements of Brit-pop to the crowd and the show, but there were these snippets of the classic leopard-print fans that reminded you (or, 18 years ago, educated me) that this band really meant something. Watching it again now (needless to say, I've not been able to watch the VHS for some years now) I still get excited when they play Faster, Roses in the Hospital, Motown Junk and Motorcycle Emptiness.

One of the things I loved the most about that VHS was the instrumental, orchestral version of A Design For Life playing at the start, with the whole crowd singing along. I've long been a sucker for a sing-along and I suspect that this was a key reason; I wished I'd been there singing with thousands of other people. My only real complaint with this release is that the cd reissue comes with a cd version of the Nynex live show, which I feel I need. Back when I was a teenager I dubbed the audio onto a MiniDisc, but my MiniDisc player has long died so I'd love to have the mp3s; I'll inevitably buy the cd release too at some point. I hope the sing-along version of A Design For Life is still at the beginning.

Format: 12", 2cd, 2dvd, booklet, signed, boxset
Tracks: 74
Cost: £58.95 new
Bought: Band website
When: 24/05/16
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: cd

Songs: Ohia - Journey On: Collected Singles

Journey On is one of my most prized possessions; it's the highlight of my Jason Molina collection and one of the nicest - and now rarest - boxsets I own. Nearly a year after Jason died, it was announced that there would be a Songs: Ohia boxset as one of the Record Store Day 2014 releases; I got very excited. Details emerged that it was a nine 7" boxset containing songs from all of his 7" releases as Songs: Ohia. I still hadn't (and still haven't) heard all of the albums, but I knew I had to get this album. I'd been listening to so much of his music prior to his death, and even more following it that I couldn't resist the opportunity to hear even more of his music, especially given that the originals are so hard to come by.

On RSD itself, I set off to Truck Store very early (5-ish) with my friend Hugh. I'd just moved to Oxford (a few days total) but I was very happy to have a store within walking distance. The queue was blissfully short (we were numbers 6 and 7 I believe) but most important was that I felt Truck had a good chance of having got some the boxsets in - the guy who runs the shop is a huge Jason Molina fan too and has sold me many of his other albums. Banquet, my old RSD go-to, was less likely given that I'd never known them to stock any of his records (also the queues, for various reasons, are notoriously long). Luckily Truck had precisely one copy and I snatched it up. At £65 I think it may have put the five people in front of me off from picking it up on the off-chance. I don't know how many people who came in after me were disappointed that there were no more - I can't have been the only person after it. I'm not sure what I would have done had I not been able to get a copy that morning. It quickly sold out and sells for quite a lot now (possibly helped by the high starting price).

The boxset is lovely - the cloth-lined box contains the nine 7" records with sleeves and labels that match the cd sleeves from the Sojourner boxset, a 24-page booklet with details about all the original releases and a cd of all the songs. Most enjoyably, there is a special adapter for playing 45s (although all of these play at 33rpm) made from wood and has the Songs: Ohia logo carved into the top. It's a great thing to be included and sits very proudly through the stack of records. Unusually, here is a track-by-track:

The compilation starts with a bang on Boys, which has the sparse style of a lot of the songs on the self-titled "black" album, but with a huge chorus that allows Jason's voice to soar. Trans Am, from another early split release is fuller-sounding but dominated by Jason's cry of "Life" at the end. In comparison to those first two, Freedom Pt. 2 and Soul (from the first Songs: Ohia 7" release on Will Oldham's Palace Records, called Nor Cease Thou Never Now) are more traditional folk songs - there is no screaming, possibly a sign of Jason moving further away from his metal past. In fact, there is something quite Bonnie "Prince" Billy-esque to Soul and I think it is the stronger of the two.

The songs from One Proclamation of Glory are nice - I'm not too keen on the slide guitar on Waltham but Napoleon is a pretty heavy song, as folk songs go. Vanguisher, from a 1998 split 7", is a re-working of Crabwaylingo from the first album. Across my Jason Molina collection there are a number of instances of re-worked songs, or different versions; it's nice to hear these songs in different states, but I also like the idea that they continued to change after they were recorded a little. This version is a little more haunting, which is appropriate given the lyrics about "former ghosts". Nay Tis Not Death, from another split 7", is a beautifully simple song, slow and comprising just vocals, guitar and a very sparsely played drum-kit. There's a sadness in the way Jason sings it and it is one of the highlights.

7th Street Wonderland is a brooding number with more fuzz than anything that proceeded it but it's b-side, Darling You Are..., is less exciting. How To Be Perfect Men, from a split with Rex on Temporary Residence, somehow reminds me of Boys, both musically but also thematically; it's a great song. The b-side to that is the title-track, Journey On, from a split with Oneida. At nearly 7 minutes, it's one of the longer Songs: Ohia songs and plays at an appropriately slow pace for the sad lyrics. Fade Street, from a split with Glen Hansard, follows on in a similar vain - slow and moody but there's an angry way to how Jason plays guitar and a lovely "oooh-ooh" outro that could easily go on for twice as long.

All this brings us to The Lioness, which I fell in love with the instant I heard it. I'd not heard the album The Lioness at this point, so the song came out of nowhere and blew me away. The version here is the "Didn't It Rain Translation" (so I assume recorded sometime around the recording of Didn't It Rain) and appeared on another split. The addition of Jennie Benford's vocals on the chorus add so much to the song and somehow make it feel more frail. Given the nature of the song, the male and female vocals together work so well. The song instantly stuck in my head and I remember taking a moment after playing it for the first time before putting on the next record - I just wanted to let it sit for a moment to fully enjoy it. The lyrics are beautiful and the songs matches it perfectly. There have been many treats in Jason's music, but The Lioness is the finest and my favourite of his songs. I can't say enough good things about it.

The rest of the album always struggles to compare to The Lioness but The Gray Tower makes for a good way to follow (and also benefits from Jennie Benford's vocals). Black Link to Fire Link is one of Jason's heavier songs but still fits with the other material from that time. Keep It Steady and United or Lost Alone then finish the collection much as it began - sparse, solo, sad and raw.

Journey On is a real treat to own and play; I think the fact that I never bemoan the fact I have to get up 17 times to turn the records over shows what a wonder it is.

Format: Nine 7", boxset, 24-page book, wooden carved adaptor

Tracks: 18

Cost: £65 new

Bought: Truck Store, Oxford

When: 19/04/14

Colour: Black

Etching: none

mp3s: cd included

Manic Street Preachers - Generation Terrorists - 20th Anniversary Boxset

Just over a year ago, I received an email from the Manics' webstore wishing me a happy birthday (I assume I filled out a form some time ago with my date of birth, and there's not some deeper level of web stalking going on). Anyway, that email entitled to 10% off anything in the store. I hadn't had a look in a while so figured I'd see if there was anything I fancied and, to my surprise, there was a 20th anniversary reissue of Generation Terrorists coming out in various formats. I had no idea about this beforehand, so it was all very well-timed. Best of all, the limited edition boxset hadn't sold out yet (it would shortly after I bought it) and the £4.50 off made it a perfectly reasonable £40.50.

As boxset/reissues go, this one is pretty lovely. Most pleasingly, there's a 10" of Radio One sessions included (meaning I get to write about it on here). Reissue boxsets tend to totally neglect vinyl with the cd version being the one with all the extra music, so I was very excited with this. On top of that, there's a cd featuring demos of all the album songs (something the Manics have been favouring on the deluxe versions of their recent albums) although no demo of Damn Dog was to be found, and Condemned to Rock 'n' Roll is missing. Even more interesting is cd3 collecting the b-sides and a bunch of early songs that I'm pretty sure have never heard the light of day before (more on them to come). There's also a dvd of old footage and new interviews, a 28 page book, a photograph and replica tour pass (which I didn't really need, but some people might enjoy that). Someone dropped the ball on the measurements because the inside of the box is marginally too small causing the photo and book to a bit curled up, but no damage and no harm. I'm still very happy with it all.

I've written about Generation Terrorists before (see here), so not much needs be said about cd1. For some reason they tacked on Theme from M.A.S.H. (Suicide is Painless) to the end of the album, when Motown Junk would have been the more obvious choice (I also have a copy of the Japanese cd which has A Vision of Dead Desire as track 19). I guess it was also a single from the era, so why not. The demos on disc 2 are much more exciting; the extra lyrics "We love you" at the start of Love's Sweet Exile follow on brilliantly from the end of the Heavenly Records version of You Love Us and it's fascinating hearing early versions of Little Baby Nothing (nearly acoustic) and Methadone Pretty. Also included are demos of the three early singles Suicide Alley, New Art Riot (more on both of those another time) and Motown Junk.

I barely even know where to start with disc 3, because there are so many treats crammed in. It starts with a demo of Motorcycle Emptiness that sounds so far from the original that you'd barely recognise it - the riff is there, and towards the end it turns into the song we all know and love but in the meantime we are treated to a strange chorus of "Go buzz baby" (or something to that extent). The title-track Generation Terrorists is what Stay Beautiful was originally called (along with the unedited chorus) and Faceless Sense of Void later became Love's Sweet Exile. More interestingly, the song UK Channel Boredom became A Vision of Dead Desire, one of the b-sides from that era. I think there are two holy grails for any Manics collector and they're those two early 7"s: Suicide Alley and UK Channel Boredom. I've heard about these records for countless years, but had no idea that the latter was a song I already knew. The main difference comes in the chorus (although both mainly consist of the title of the song). Colt 45 went on to become Spectators of Suicide but starts off further removed than some of the other songs here.

There are three songs that appear nowhere else in any form on disc 3: Poleaxed, Spent All Summer and Behave Yourself Baby. They're great to hear and pretty good songs too. I once read something that claimed Australia was the Manics' first love song, but Spent All Summer takes that place now surely. Behave Yourself Baby even contains some lyrics that would find their way into Motorcycle Emptiness. The way that all these songs contain elements of each other and show how the songs became what they ended up being is truly fascinating, especially when they're songs I've been listening to for nearly half my life. The b-sides aren't comprehensive, but I have the majority of them in some format somewhere (more on these another time too). I always thought I had a copy of all the early b-sides on at least one format, but it turns out that Starlover had passed me by - it was one of the b-sides on the 12" Heavenly version of You Love Us and I hadn't noticed that I was missing it. Made for a very pleasant surprise when working through the b-sides. Bored Out of My Mind always deserves a special mention, for reasons you can read about (at length) here. I watched the dvd once last Christmas, which also made for interesting viewing.

Finally, on to the vinyl! On the 10" record we're treated a 1992 Radio One session featuring You Love Us, Alice Cooper cover Under My Wheels, Slash 'n' Burn and Natwest-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds. They make for good listening and sound excellent (especially after some of the dubious renditions on discs 2 and 3). I can't imagine the Manics covering Alice Cooper these days, but I'd love to see it!

All in all, I'm very pleased indeed with this boxset. Musically and historically there's so much in there and there's no denying that those first few years were some of the most fascinating the Manics have had. I still love them now, but those first three albums were so exciting and I have so much time for that era. I heard James pass comment about the possibility of a 20th anniversary boxset of The Holy Bible in the future (despite it already having a 10th anniversary version) which would be very cool, but does make me wonder if I'm the only person holding out for an equally impressive Gold Against the Soul reissue too?

Format: 10", 3cd, dvd, 28 page booklet, photograph, tour pass, boxset
Tracks: 66
Cost: £40.50 new
Bought: Website
When: 03/11/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Various Artists - Earache:Nextgen98 Tour - The Singles

This is a funny one. I knew that one of the last records Dub War released was a 7" featuring a song I hadn't heard called Dreams and Illusions backed with a string version of Silencer. When I wrote about Wrong Side of Beautiful, I ranted and raved a lot about how much I loved Silencer. Anyone who's read this blog before will know that I'm also a sucker for classical instruments in rock music, so this 7" was something I very keenly wanted to hear. However, I never saw it come up on eBay, so after a while I did a bit more hunting. I went on the Earache website and noticed, to my great surprise, that they were still selling it seven years after it came out. Not only that, but they had the whole series of records it belonged to for less than a fiver (the text etched into the b-side of the Dub War 7" seeming very ironic - see below). I excitedly purchased.

A bit of history: in 1998 Earache put on a tour of five bands called the Nextgen98 Tour. Earache was more of a metal label, but I think they were trying to edge into the increasingly popular nu-metal scene. This wasn't only obvious from the music of the bands featured, but by the comical late-90's cover-art. Anyway, they put out a 7" by each band each week in December, with the tour starting the following January. The first record came with a box to keep them all in.

Despite the largely terrible music included, there are a lot of thing about this project that I like: the whole idea of releasing a series of 7"s is one that all record collectors love, but even more-so when you can collect them into a nice boxset. It's also a great way of encouraging people to actually buy the whole lot. One of the greatest things here is the way that the art on each sleeve makes up part of the final picture (check the pictures below). It's not quite as cool as Les Savy Fav's Inches project, but pre-dates it by a few years. It's a shame the picture isn't more interesting, but I love the idea. I only have one other 7" boxset, and I'm constantly disappointed by the plain white sleeves inside and the fact they didn't do something similar.

So on to the bands. Janus Stark have very little going for them, and Pulkas are mildly more interesting. Misery Loves Co were the only band other than Dub War who I'd heard before (possibly on a Kerrang! cd). They were slightly sludgier and heavier, and I enjoyed that. Even now the a-side is quite listenable. The b-side is a remix and really does little for me. Dub War's Dreams and Illusions sounds like where they would have gone had there been a third album; much like a lot of Wrong Side of Beautiful, it's a much smoother, softer affair - more raggae than ragga. The strings version of Silencer is suitably dramatic, but just strings and vocals. It's nice, not as good as the original. I like what it adds, but I think I'd have preferred a middle ground - strings with some guitars. Benji's vocals still soar towards the end and it just shows that his vocals can be backed by pretty much any genre. The final 7" is by Ultraviolence, who sound like a shit Prodigy. Their b-side is a cover of Sabbath's Paranoid, and it is dreadful. Truly terrible.

Despite the vast majority of the music on it, there are a lot of things I like about this boxset, and it was definitely worth the money for the Dub War record alone.

Format: five 7" boxset
Tracks: 10
Cost: £4.64 new
Bought: Earache Records website
When: 20/04/05
Colour: Black
Etching: see below
mp3s: no

Etchings:
Record 1, Side A: "Only four more to go"
Record 1, Side B: "Same channel next week is Pulkas"
Record 2, Side A: "Serious collector, eh?"
Record 2, Side B: "Don't miss Misery on Monday"
Record 3, Side A: "Over half way there now"
Record 3, Side B: "Next instalment ... Dub War"
Record 4, Side A: "Only one more to go"
Record 4, Side B: "It'll be worth stacks in years"
Record 5, Side A: "You've got the set"
Record 5, Side B: "Now see the show"

The Cooper Temple Clause - See Through This and Leave

I remember buying this thinking "what an awesome idea". On paper a 7" boxset sounds fantastic - a nice variation on the LP - but in reality it means I have to get up eleven times rather than just once to turn the records over. Not that I'm complaining (well, just a little) because I do like this boxset a lot. See Through This and Leave is a cracking album and one I've been enjoying for more than 10 years now.

I'm reasonably sure the first time I heard of The Cooper Temple Clause was because they were supporting Muse on a tour. A lot of people at school were into Muse and went. I wasn't a Muse fan and so ignored The Cooper Temple Clause too. Somehow I ended up hearing them and realising they were actually pretty cool. I think I saw the video for Let's Kill Music (a song I still often put on mixtapes) or heard Panzer Attack on a free Kerrang! cd. I picked up the cd with a bonus disc of early songs for a bargain £9 in my local MVC not long after it came out. About a year later I was in Nottingham having visited Lancaster University the day before (university visits were always about record shopping in new cities for me) and found this boxset version for an even more bargainous £7 (everything in Selectadisc was cheap). I had already decided it was enough of a classic to warrant two copies, so picked it up.

The music is still exciting today. They were undoubtedly an indie band but had way more balls than most of the others at the time. The songs were heavy, messy and noisey (all things I enjoy) and there was a lot going on. Even listening to it now you notice hints of instruments that weren't there before. Did You Miss Me? makes for a fantastic start and has a brilliant level of arrogance to it (that certainly wouldn't have worked so well on anything but a debut album). The album had more than it's share of singles, but the two closers are truly the gems of the record; The Lake is a brooding beast and Murder Song explodes twice into the perfect, powerful outro the record deserves.

The band had a fair innings. Their second album was a sleeper-hit with me - it took a few years before I really got it and now I consider myself a big fan of it too. My friend Matt and I went to see them at university, one of the very few things we did with the "Rock Society", who we'd signed up with after cynically scorning everything at Freshers Fair but feeling we really should try. Neither of us could get on board with university societies, but the very occasional organised trips to gigs were a bonus. I bought a few singles from the third album but was even less into that at the time. Matt bought it and I enjoyed hearing it, although many years on and I'm yet to buy it. The band eventually called it a day a short while later. If they were to do what Hundred Reasons and Hell is for Heroes have done and reformed to play their debut album ten years later in full, I for one would be very excited. Man, 2002 was a strong year for music.

The box is numbered (#1387 for me) which is a nice touch. I'd have put the cd sleeve notes on the six 7" sleeves rather than the plain white sleeves they are in. To be honest, even the cd sleeve thrown in with the box would have been better than nothing at all. I once saw a Michael Jackson album on six 7" square picture discs where they made the picture of the cover when arranged in order; that was pretty cool. Still, what this boxset lacks in features like that, it makes for in being a truly excellent album.

Format: 6x7" boxset, numbered
Tracks: 11
Cost: £7 new
Bought: Selectadisc Nottingham
When: 20/02/03
Colour: Black
Etching: None
mp3s: No