14/10/2023
I lived through the 1990s in my twenties and remember it as a time of musical shifting sands (and going to gigs six nights a week).
I used to support National Album Day but it seems to have become an excuse to rerelease a load of forgettable albums on ‘limited edition’ coloured vinyl.
Look at that list!
What have they missed? I’ll start with Portishead’s Dummy.
I used the box!
https://www.nationalalbumday.co.uk/news/national-album-day-announces-lineup-of-exclusive-90s-releases-reissues-to-coincide-with-annual-event-on-saturday-14th-october/
To be fair, I have the 808 State, Buckley, Blur, Cherry, Dinosaur Jr., Garbage, Hole, James, Leftfield, REM, Fannies, and Tricky.
Now is your golden opportunity to get Wu Tang.
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I have that on old-fashioned CD.
Usual suspects.
Hawkfallās recent series of Q Top Ten albums of the 90s had more interesting material than this, albeit much of the good stuff suggested by the AW, rather than the Q editorsā¦
Seems like a great opportunity to get one’s hands on a pristine pressing of Lighthouse Family’s Ocean Drive
First time on Ā£30 vinly for that rare-as-hen’s-teeth album you never see for a quid in a charity shop.
Quid? More like 10p.
I was listening to 606 the other day and the question of Chris Sutton’s favourite music came up – well it’s only going to be that or who’ll finish fourth – and, yep, he said, bold as brass, Lighthouse Family.
Is it any wonder England used to be shite?
Robbie Savage, whose angle on such things is going to be no more cutting edge, barely raised an eyebrow.
I always wondered who bought it… it’s pro footballers isn’t it.
Yes, you could probably buy the whole list for a quid with some careful chazza shopping.
I see it’s the first time a Garbage album has been released on transparent blue vinyl. The world’s gone mad.
And it’s their ‘orange’ album, so wouldn’t it have made more sense to re-release the orange vinyl it came out on a couple of years ago? Mine’s black vinyl, natch.
At least they’ve decided not to put patterns on it – I’m only happy when it’s plain.
But your lips spoke gold and honey.
I dun a lol.
I thought we were meant to be outlawing single use plastics? Who is going to play most of that bobbins more than once?
Are we to gauge from all this that the most important criteria now is that something is on vinly not what it is which is actually on that vinly?
I go to the cinema a lot, and vinly is a signifier (used in every arty/trendy film anywhere in the world) that the character is hip, on message, sophisticated etc.
I’m not entirely sure that assumption is the correct one!
One more thing. If someone want the “1990s experience” – good luck with that – the way people consumed mainstream recorded music in that era was on CD or cassette. If you buy one of them, you’re buying the original… and it is likely to be 30 times cheaper.
Itās the Zippo lighter of music formats..
I keep thinking we have reached peak vinly, but apparently not.
We donāt learn do we? Everyone in the 80s/90s rebought their record collection in a new format, and are now apparently doing it again becauseā¦wellā¦just because!?
The 90s were mostly vinyl-free years so, if you like the format, many of the above are first time on vinyl. And vinyl from the late 80s was often very poor quality, so modern vinyl is (potentially) much better quality.
It makes no sense to press vinyl from a CD, though. I bet a few of the above are. Cough. Master tape. Cough.
.I have worked a few stints in our local record shop and have learned that apparently many vinyl records that were actually released in the years 1990 to 1993 are of potential value as relatively few vinyl records were released on those years.
Also in my last shift I sold 7 cassettes to 3 different customers – I had no idea that anyone still listened to cassettes.
Yes. My last full-price vinyl purchase was PJ Harvey’s Dry with the limited-edition demos (1000 copies, apparently) in March 1992. From the same shop I bought a carrier bag full of Rolling Stones albums for 50p each.
Until the recent PJ Harvey remaster/re-releases, my double Dry LP was worth at least Ā£120.
I routinely go into shops to see original releases of things I bought at the time (Nevermind, Screamadelica, Cocteau Twins, etc) with a Ā£100+ asking price.
I thought there was a cost of living crisis in the UK?
Asking price is not the same as sale price.
Asking price = Mug’s price, frequently.
Itās a bit weird when you see Oasis or R.E.M. on 12ā LP!
I was a late adopter of CDs, for all sorts of reasons, but I wasnāt really aware of any drop off in quality of vinyl pressings. It was more the sense that the CD was becoming the standard issue, particularly for reissues (lots of two albums on one disc, brilliant box sets etc.). But, I hated my first CD player and took it back – it was a Marantz and it was so edgy I really couldnāt listen to it, and it took me a while to find a set up that I could go with.
REM on vinyl? Normal for Green and below, wannit? (OK, Green was the first I bought, but it was before I had a cd player.)
Vinyl quality was already deteriorating as the ’70s started. Waffair -theen RCA Dynaflex discs that drooped at the edge, given the opportunity, arrived in ’69.
Then there was vinyl recycling, after the ’73 oil crisis created a shortage …