Vinyl Me Please Anthology

I do wonder, if they ever do a specific artist Anthology, who would they go for? Would they get someone who had relatively few albums in their career so they could do a comprehensive box set? Or similar to the Blue Note set - would they do something where they focus on an artist's lesser known work? Or go the other direction - focus on an artist's classic period?

For example, a Stevie Wonder set with all his early-mid 70s stuff would be pretty great, but a "career overview" of Stevie covering 60s-80s "hidden gems" I'd personally be much less inclined to get. All those classic period albums are also readily available, of course, which was also part of the pull of the BN set, that they hadn't been reissued in a while.
 
oldschoolkirby said:
I do wonder, if they ever do a specific artist Anthology, who would they go for? Would they get someone who had relatively few albums in their career so they could do a comprehensive box set? Or similar to the Blue Note set - would they do something where they focus on an artist's lesser known work? Or go the other direction - focus on an artist's classic period?

For example, a Stevie Wonder set with all his early-mid 70s stuff would be pretty great, but a "career overview" of Stevie covering 60s-80s "hidden gems" I'd personally be much less inclined to get. All those classic period albums are also readily available, of course, which was also part of the pull of the BN set, that they hadn't been reissued in a while.
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Perhaps Mariah Carey and the one exclusive was to whet everyone's appetite for it.

Now that would be a hard No for me, but I imagine some would have interest.
 
wmeugene said:
Perhaps Mariah Carey and the one exclusive was to whet everyone's appetite for it.

Now that would be a hard No for me, but I imagine some would have interest.
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I’M 100% INTERESTED IN A MARIAH CAREY ANTHOLOGY!!! 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️

It would be a 5-set 90’s Vinyl Anthology with these albums:

Mariah Carey
Emotions
Music Box
Butterfly
Rainbow

I know it won’t happen but that’ll be great. Music Box and Rainbow are more 6/10 albums for me. But they would be so fun spinning them on vinyl!

Mariah Carey, Emotions and Butterfly are all excellent albums in my opinion. Especially the vocals on those three albums!
 
I'd be shocked if it were a box set of a single artist. Those are a dime a dozen. I think the concept of focusing on a beloved label and doing a deep dig for 6 albums long overdue for AAA reissues is their best bet. Along that line of thinking, I'd say the relationship is already there with Stax, which like BN is a label experiencing a comeback. It fits.

Also, if it ain't Blue Note, limit it to 500 if you want it to sell out.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
I could never see an individual artist handing over to VMP a career spanning box set that is limited to 1000. It will always be a label or a specific genre within that label.
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High Rant District said:
I'd be shocked if it were a box set of a single artist. Those are a dime a dozen. I think the concept of focusing on a beloved label and doing a deep dig for 6 albums long overdue for AAA reissues is their best bet. Along that line of thinking, I'd say the relationship is already there with Stax, which like BN is a label experiencing a comeback. It fits.

Also, if it ain't Blue Note, limit it to 500 if you want it to sell out.
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Same - and now come to think of it, when they announced Anthology, did they even say that? I recall them saying Anthology sets would focus on "labels, scenes, and..." something... Specific time periods? IDK. Anyway, yeah, unless it was like, Daniel Norgren or Tabakin, probably no artist specific sets. ;)
 
mdmost said:
If I had to hazard a guess, I think it will be something from the soul/R&B era like Chess or Stax. Someone they have an existing relationship with.
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This is my thought as well. I have to say that I am glad the first go around was with Blue Note because I got to see from the outside how badly they bungled it. As much as I would normally be all in on a Stax or Chess box, if VMP has their paws on it, I won’t touch it. I don’t trust them to manage fuck all competently.
 
I heard on reddit that it’s the VMP Taco Bell Run For the Border Box Set. It features songs from Taco Bell commercials and each shipment contains a surprise Taco Bell menu item. Will you eat it or keep it as part of the box? It’s the biggest collectors’ nightmare from VMP yet!

The first shipment features Young MC’s classic Taco Bell commercial rhyme. Along with never before heard instrumental track, outtakes and remixes exclusive to the box set. You gotta sign up to find out what else we have planned. But it features bogo
Taco coupons and more extras.

Subscribers will have access to a premium Ello group.

We can’t tell you more, but we’ll leave you with one hint: Andrew WK.
 
I'm personally pulling for some type of hip hop anthology. Start with something really early in the makings... then go into the 80's with like NWA or something, and move every 10 or so years through the 80's, 90's, 2000's, 2010's, and current.

I think 808's and Heartbreak would need to be a lock for this, though, and that would likely be near impossible.
 
roffle24 said:
I'm personally pulling for some type of hip hop anthology. Start with something really early in the makings... then go into the 80's with like NWA or something, and move every 10 or so years through the 80's, 90's, 2000's, 2010's, and current.

I think 808's and Heartbreak would need to be a lock for this, though, and that would likely be near impossible.
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Why would 808s be near impossible? That record is pretty widely available. I'd say other Kanye albums with no vinyl like Graduation or Yeezus would be way more impossible.

A Tribe box set could be cool. My guess though, as others have said, is Chess or Stax. The only draw for me, as it was with Blue Note, was if the box contains albums that haven't had a repress in a long time. And even then, I'd probably still be out unless they drastically reduce the price. The BN one was still worth it for me because of the album selection and actual pressing quality but everything else left something to be desired (to put it lightly).
 
Unlikely they'll do jazz again right away but I could definitely be tempted back in if they did a mixed artist, mixed label Private Press set. Something like the stuff that may have showed up in the highly promising but undelivered Crate Diggers sub. The Loft Scene or something along those lines.

Same with a nice Blues set, something like Down in the Delta picking 5 or 6 lesser known artists on smaller labels from that style for example.

Still, I'll struggle to justify the $280 international price again if it's a similar offering in terms of presentation/extras.
 
I'm still conflicted about what it would take to get me to bite off on another Anthology. I'm not sure another Blue Note would do it, but I suspect that's what they've already got in the pipeline. I seem to remember them saying they had another six selected by Don Was in one of the early hype sessions from Storf.

I'd like to see some more funk/soul, or maybe a box geared entirely to bossa nova for the next one. I like the idea of some Delta blues like @Mr Moore suggested. The Son House exclusive was very well done and left me wanting to explore more of the history.

Still, VMP missed the mark when it comes to promises vs. delivery. The "extras" including the Facebook group, podcasts, and "giveaway(s)" were dull as dishwater and will not be enough to justify $230 for the next set.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
This!

This! VMP gave me a few years of training wheels to get my finger back on the pulse, but I was spending more than I needed to on stuff that, in retrospect, I didn't really care about at all. And as soon as I ended my membership with VMP, my desire to keep many of those records vanished.

Storf told me he thought I'd be pretty interested in the second Anthology after I said I didn't care about Blue Note. If the plans haven't changed, I think that points to something in the realm of indie/Americana or blues/soul.

People were never disabused of their notions about Subpop, were they? That didn't sound like a bad guess to me. Heck, even within Subpop you could pick an individual locus to tell the story of the label. Maybe curation by somebody like Mark Lanegan? That could get you some Lanegan solo, Screaming Trees, Twilight Singers, Soulsavers, Isobel Campbell collabs, and could all be timed to drop alongside a QOTSA Essentials AOTM.
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I love Subpop but would truly wonder how popular that would be? Maybe if they cut it to 500 copies and lowered the price? Knowing VMP, they will up it to 1500 copies keep the price the same and not sell out this time. I think they are going to try to hit a home run again in terms of pressing something that will likely be very popular. I think a soul box set would do well for them.
 
folsom_lives said:
I'm still conflicted about what it would take to get me to bite off on another Anthology. I'm not sure another Blue Note would do it, but I suspect that's what they've already got in the pipeline. I seem to remember them saying they had another six selected by Don Was in one of the early hype sessions from Storf.

I'd like to see some more funk/soul, or maybe a box geared entirely to bossa nova for the next one. I like the idea of some Delta blues like @Mr Moore suggested. The Son House exclusive was very well done and left me wanting to explore more of the history.

Still, VMP missed the mark when it comes to promises vs. delivery. The "extras" including the Facebook group, podcasts, and "giveaway(s)" were dull as dishwater and will not be enough to justify $230 for the next set.
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The only reason why they were able to get away with $230 was because the previous VMPxBN records were favorably compared to Music Matters which are all $40+. I'm not sure they would get people to bite on any other non-jazz anthology for that price for 6 records. It would be a tough sell for a lot of people. For Blue Note enthusiasts, it was a drop in the bucket.

I also don't think I'd sign up for Anthology and any promised extras, I would assume to just not get or be severely disappointed by.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
You're probably right re: soul. I do think I remember them saying that the price point for the first anthology wasn't necessarily indicative of what the rest of them would be like. I could see a Sub Pop Anthology at like $149 for 5 albums with a smaller pressing size. Maybe not for the second one, but if that list of 5 Essentials that QOTSA was on pans out, that would be a great opportunity to curate some stuff in the Homme family tree.

I've posted about this before in the old place, but when I bought some Wooden Wand albums during the Keepers Vinyl Club closing sale, they included a neat extra that outlined the different players on the album and some recommended works by each of them to help people continue exploring. VMP ventured into that territory once with the Betty Davis AOTM when they released that interactive page that did something similar; it was a good idea, and an element of curation that would really add some value back into the membership, IMO. Anthologies are a no-brainer home to experiment with that, if they really want to "tell the story" of the label/scene/whatever that they're focusing on.
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Yea--the "experience" in Anthology was such a total letdown because they had the opportunity to do something really cool there. I don't have my hopes up though with the VMP ethos of "if it doesn't make us money, we don't want to do it." Even the liner notes on the BN anthology were such a letdown. It was about 4 or 5 sentences per album. Making a micro site with unreleased images from the label, an element of interactivity, etc would have been amazing. Or even just some video content explaining the different eras of jazz would have been cool. Instead we got a facebook group that was mostly people bickering or posting CD album art disguised as vinyl and an amateurish podcast (which was still a good listen but not a ton of new info there).

The only way I would see them doing the recommended other listening is if they sell those recommended pressings for $30+ a piece like they are doing with that hi-fives series. The prices on those releases are insanely high and well above other retailers pricing.
 
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