August 2020 Challenge Thread - The Dog Days of Vinyl Playing

Sorry I was pretty busy the recent days, so here's my catch-up:

August 12
Vinyl appreciation

Julia Jacklin "Crushing"

A really beautiful vinyl that also sounds so good, records like this make the vinyl experience so wonderful. 😍

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August 13
Scary album

Thom Yorke "Suspiria Soundtrack"

These tracks are pretty scary. Well done! I also watched the movie remake some months ago and it's very impressive.

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August 14
Long album

Nine Inch Nails "Deviations"
These are the instrumental tracks of their amazing "The Fragile" album. Great record, also sounds very good.

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August 15
Water

Sting "The last ship"

The Last Ship was initially inspired by Sting's 1991 album The Soul Cages and Sting's own childhood experiences, particularly his relationship with his father who had been an engineer in a family of shipwrights. It tells the story about community and the demise of the shipbuilding industry in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, with the closure of the town's Swan Hunter shipyard.

Great story telling lyrics, nice songs, I haven't listened to this in a while.

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Day 15 - water

Eivor - Live in Torshavn

I've been to few places more full of water than the Faroe Islands. Obviously they're surrounded by it, all 19 islands, but it's also everywhere on land with lakes, bogs, streams and loads of spectacular waterfalls (including into the sea). This is a great souvenir of my trip, from the fabulous little record shop in the centre of the capital Torshavn, featuring perhaps the main and best-known Faroese singer.

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ranbalam said:
Day 12 - Appreciating Vinyl

Fell behind...for some reason everything is a struggle this week.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings - The Harrow and the Harvest.

This is an AP pressing and it sounds amazing. Delicate and present, just a beautiful record.

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I’m confused, there is only one pressing of this from Acony. Gillian and Dave built a lathe and then started releasing vinyl because they wanted to do it right.

that being said, all of them have been great so far.
 
August 15 - The Day the Panama Canal Opened - Play an album that makes you think of water.

I went with Jason Isbell's Southeastern today. I really love how he uses water to represent a distance both literal (Stockholm) and figurative ( Songs She Sang in the Shower). Flying Over Water is another time he uses water to be a physical representation of larger phenomenon (fears of uncontrollable phenomenon)

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August 10 - National Lazy Day - Play whatever you want, or don't. Just don't expend any effort on it.

Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear

A lazy album for this lazy Saturday morning. I chose it because the pink on the spine drew my eye as soon as I looked at my records and I feel like it was the laziest choice I could make, since it was the first one I noticed. So here it is.

Lift up your wedding dress someone was probably murdered in....
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August 11 - A certain someone's birthday - Play an album you received as a gift.

Nirvana - Nevermind

One of those albums I listened to so many times in my teenage years that I wasn't in a real hurry to buy. It's the kind of album I know I want, and that I'll get to eventually, but will always end up picking something new and exciting at the store.

So, my girlfriend bought it for me for Christmas.

It's also one of those albums that, now it's in my collection, I go back to very often. Moreso than those "new and exciting" records I bought when I should have just bought this.

....and I swear that I don't have a gun. No I don't have a gun.
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Day 12: Vinyl record day

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Not only is this one of my favourite albums from the last decade, but it seems tailor made for the format. Each of the four sides flows perfectly. Sub Pop normally does a great job with their pressings and this is no exception. Full sound, beautiful cover art that begs to be viewed in large size, and gorgeous '70s-style centre labels.

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Day 13: Scary

Murder by Death - Like the Exorcist, But More Breakdancing

MBD's first album, from back when they were college kids and more art rock than country rock, features not only a tongue-in-cheek band name and album title, but a few genuinely spooky tracks, including "Intergalactic Menopause" and the bookends "Those Who Stayed" and "Those Who Left."

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August 12 - Vinyl Record Day - Play an album that makes you appreciate the vinyl format.

Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial

This makes me appreciate vinyl, because you can't hear this version on any streaming service. This is the first pressing that wasn't supposed to ever be sold. Story goes they thought they had the rights to use a portion of Just What I Needed from The Cars, but like 2 weeks before the album came out Ric Ocasek said "as a matter of fact, nah....", so they had to destroy the initial pressing. Well, as you can tell some of them slipped out to the public. The current version has a song called Not What I Needed that used to be called Just What I Needed/ Not Just What I Needed that had and intro and outro that used the copywrited song.

now i wake up in the mornings, and all the kindness is drained out of me...
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August 13 - Alfred Hitchcock's birthday - Play something scary!

Ghost - Opus Eponomous

Okay, so this isn't really scary. It's more like spOooOOOoooky. I don't know if it was ever really trying to be scary, or if it was all tongue-in-cheek from the start, but there's a papal figure that comes out in concert and plays a sweet sax solo, now, so I don't give a shit what they're trying to do they are succeeding. The way he pronounces Elizabeth on this album is pretty scary, though. OOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOH.

Someone once referred to Ghost songs as Scooby Doo Chase Music and it's one of the shining moments of the internet.

toxic blood of not-known birth, anti-christ will walk the earth
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