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Purchase log, 2022-11-01

[Barbara Lewis - Hello Stranger]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New releases

Vinyl
  • ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Planet Folks

Catalog

CD
  • Benny Andersson, Klinga Mina Klockor
  • Billy Joel, The Stranger
  • DJ Krush, Krush
  • Moby, Moby
  • Soundtrack, More Immortal Beloved
Vinyl
  • Barbara Lewis, Hello Stranger
  • Heaven 17, Penthouse and Pavement
  • INXS, The Swing
  • TLC, Crazysexycool
  • Yano Akiko, Iroha no Konpeitou

Reissues

Vinyl
  • Death Cab for Cutie, The Photo Album (Deluxe Edition)

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Looking ahead: September-November 2022

LOVE PSYCHEDELICO, A revolution, Sept. 28

It’s nice to see international artists make their catalogs available through streaming services. I don’t think I’ve had to go to the Evil Sharing Networks for active Japanese artists in a while. I haven’t really followed LOVE PSYCHEDELICO lately, but at least now, I can listen to this new album on release day.

Björk, Fossora, Sept. 30

The singles released ahead of this album seem to indicate Björk has gone back to the kind of beats she was making on Volta. I’m digging this low winds sound.

Darren Hayes, Homosexual, Oct. 7

I like the frankness of this album title.

easy life, MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE, Oct. 7

OK, I admit I got into this band because of the skeletons commercial for Kia. I’m ignoring the singles and waiting for release day to listen to the new material. I’m still enjoying the previous album, life’s a beach, way too much right now.

Robin Holcomb, One Way or Another, Vol. 1, Oct. 14

The last time Robin Holcomb recorded a singer-songwriter album was 20 years ago with her final Nonesuch album, The Big Time. This new album is just her and a piano.

Royal Wood, What Tomorrow Brings, Nov. 4

I can’t say I got into Royal Wood’s previous album, but the singles he’s released ahead of this album sound vastly different from what he’s done before. He’s gotten into beats and synths but in a way that enhances folk singer croon.

Luke Evans, A Song for You, Nov. 4

Luke Evans had some interesting song choices on his debut album. This follow-up doesn’t have many songs I immediately recognize, but given that he covers R.E.M., Donny Hathaway, Simon and Garfunkel and a traditional song in Welsh, he makes another set of bold choices. This album also contains two new songs Evans co-wrote.

Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion I (Deluxe Edition), Nov. 25
Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion II (Deluxe Edition), Nov. 25

Really, Use Your Illusion II is the album worth exploring, but I’m willing to throw in Use Your Illusion I out of due diligence.

Vinyl

Caitlin Cary, While You Weren’t Looking, Sept. 30

Any interest I had in Whiskeytown is all about Caitlin Cary and not one whit about Ryan Adams.

Beyoncé, RENAISSANCE, Oct. 7

I’m no acolyte of Beyoncé by any stretch of the imagination, but the queerness of this album is unmistakable.

Duran Duran, Medazzaland, Oct. 14

A loss of momentum on the heels of the highly successful The Wedding Album fated this album to obscurity. At the time, I thought the brilliance of this album would win out and prove the ambivalent mainstream audience wrong. I’m not so sure anymore. This album is so fiercely original that it may have been greeted with hostility than with a collective meh. A quarter century later, we get to revisit this album.

ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Planet Folks, Oct. 26

How much did I not get into AKFG’s previous album Hometown? I didn’t bother to snap up the vinyl pressing before it went out of print. Planet Folks is not as good as World World World or Landmark, but I like it enough to place a preorder for this vinyl release.

Duran Duran, All You Need Is Now, Nov. 11
Duran Duran, Astronaut, Nov. 11
Duran Duran, Red Carpet Massacre, Nov. 11

In addition to CD reissues back in August, three albums from Duran Duran’s third decade get vinyl reissues under the RSD Essentials series. I’m sorry to see Pop Trash not included in this set. It’s better than Astronaut and Red Carpet Massacre but still not really the band’s best. To be honest, any album in this set other than All You Need Is Now is really stretching the “essentials” descriptor.

Duran Duran, FUTURE PAST (Complete Deluxe Edition), Nov. 25

The original vinyl release of FUTURE PAST had fewer tracks than the CD, so this reissue includes additional tracks and the non-album single “Five Years”, which is a David Bowie cover.

BONNIE PINK, Blue Jam, Nov. 3
BONNIE PINK, Heaven’s Kitchen, Nov. 3
BONNIE PINK, evil and flowers, Nov. 3
UA, Are U Romantic?, Nov. 3
Hajime Chitose, “Wadatsumi no Ki”, Dec. 3
Quruli, “WORLD’S END SUPERNOVA”, Dec. 3

To confuse matters, Japan has it’s own commercial holiday to celebrate vinyl called Record Day, which is not to be confused with Record Store Day Japan, the spring event with its own set of domestic reissues. Unlike RSD, Record Day doesn’t restrict availability to brick and mortar stores. The main event happens Nov. 3, with a spillover day on Dec. 3. I’m skipping the BONNIE PINK reissues, but I’ve already pre-ordered UA, Hajime Chitose and Quruli.

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Purchase log, 2022-04-05

[Cocco - Prom]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New releases

CD
  • ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Planet Folks
  • Cocco, Prom

Catalog

CD
  • Front 242, Back Catalogue
  • I Am the World Trade Center, Out of the Loop
  • Icehouse, Man of Colours
  • Moby, Ambient
  • Tim McGraw, Greatest Hits
  • Tobias Picker, The Encantadas (Sir John Gielgud, Christoph Eisenbach, Houston Symphony)

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Looking ahead, March-April 2022

[Cocco - Prom]

Cocco, Prom, March 23

Cocco released her debut album Bougainvillea in March 1997, and 2022 marks her 25th anniversary. So she’s commemorating that achievement with a new album.

ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Planet Folks, March 30

ASIAN KUNG-FU GENRATION return with their first new album in 4 years, one year longer than their usual gap. At this point, I’ll just blame SARS-CoV2 for the delay, even if it’s not the reason.

Vinyl

Utada Hikaru, First Love, March 23
Utada Hikaru, Distance, March 23
Utada Hikaru, DEEP RIVER, March 23
Utada Hikaru, Ultra Blue, April 27
Utada Hikaru, HEART STATION, April 27
Utada Hikaru, Fantôme, April 27
Utada Hikaru, Hatsukoi, April 27
Utada Hikaru, BAD Mode, April 27

OMG Ultra Blue on vinyl! But yeah, I’m getting them all, except Hatsukoi, which I already have. By the way, I’m really liking BAD Mode.

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Purchase log, 2020-01-07

[Sam Amidon - Fatal Flower Garden EP]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New releases

Vinyl
  • Sam Amidon, Fatal Flower Garden EP

Catalog

CD
  • ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Surf Bungaku Kamakura
  • Fantastic Plastic Machine, beautiful.
  • Old 97s, Fight Songs
  • Peter Gabriel, Us
Vinyl
  • … And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, … And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
  • Gary Numan, The Pleasure Principle
  • Siouxsie and the Banshees, Superstition

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Purchase log, 2018-12-11

[Wolf Hall - Tudor Music Soundtrack]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

In addition to big scores at the thrift shops, I headed up to Vancouver, BC to visit Sikora’s Classical Records before it closed down for good.

New releases

CD
  • ASIAN KUNG-FU GENEARTION, Hometown
  • Wayne Horvitz, Those Who Remain

Catalog

CD
  • Alarm Will Sound, Modernists
  • Anton Webern, Complete Webern (Pierre Boulez)
  • Bob Mould, Workbook
  • Cocteau Twins, Heaven or Las Vegas
  • DJ Shadow, The Private Press
  • Fugazi, Instrument Soundtrack
  • George Antheil, Symphony No. 4 ‘1942’ / Symphony No. 5 / Over the Plains (John Storgårds, BBC Philharmonic)
  • ISIS, Panopticon
  • John Adams, Absolute Jest / Grand Pianola Music (Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony)
  • John Rutter, Requiem
  • mclusky, mclusky do dallas
  • The Dillinger Escape Plan with Mike Patton, Irony Is a Dead Scene
  • The Mars Volta, De-Loused in the Comatorium
  • Tweet, Southern Hummingbird
  • yMusic, Balance Problems
  • Soundtrack, Star Wars: A New Hope
  • Soundtrack, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
  • Soundtrack, Wolf Hall: Tudor Music

Vinyl

  • Giovanni Palestrina, Missa Papae Marcelli / Missa Brevis
  • The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet, Voodoo
  • William Byrd, Mass for Five Voices / Mass for Four Voices
  • Witold Lutoslawski, Concerto for Orchestra / Funeral Music / Venetian Games
  • Witold Lutoslawski, Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2
  • Witold Lutoslawski, Symphony No. 3

Reissues

Vinyl
  • Kate Bush, Remastered in Vinyl IV

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 2004

[Madvillain - Madvillainy]

A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.

The first half of the 2004 list has remained unchanged. The last half has undergone extensive revision.

  1. Arcade Fire, Funeral
  2. Eluvium, An Accidental Memory in Case of Death
  3. Kicell, Mado Ni Chikyuu
  4. Dylan Rice, Wandering Eyes
  5. The Killers, Hot Fuss
  6. Madvillain, Madvillainy
  7. Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose
  8. The Streets, A Grand Don’t Come for Free
  9. Mindy Smith, One Moment More
  10. STRAIGHTENER, LOST WORLD’S ANTHOLOGY

Other favorites from the year:

  • Pinback, Summer in Abaddon
  • SUPERCAR, ANSWER
  • Kanye West, The College Dropout
  • ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Solfa
  • Bonnie Pink, Even So
  • Fuji Fabric, Fuji Fabric
  • Sacha Sacket, Shadowed
  • m-flo, Astromantic
  • The Butchies, Make Yr Life
  • Scissor Sisters, Scissor Sisters
  • ZAZEN BOYS, ZAZEN BOYS II

A lot of these revisions are retrospective. I listened to SUPERCAR’s ANSWER when it was reissued on vinyl, and I didn’t find the album as engaging as I originally thought. I’ve come to like Hot Fuss more as time has passed, and I don’t feel as much attachment to Van Lear Rose.

My growing appreciation for hip-hop means Madvillain and The Streets knock Quruli’s Antenna off the list entirely.

I’m still a bit skeptical about keeping Mindy Smith in the Favorite 10, or bumping STRAIGHTENER into the upper echelon. I picked up Pinback’s Summer in Abaddon from Goodwill out of curiosity, and I have a sense that in short time, it will nudge Smith or STRAIGHTENER down to the extended list.

As we go further back to the start of the Aughts, the extended list grows longer. A lot of great music came out at the start of the century. If the Internet hadn’t splintered the mass market, it might have been a galvanizing golden age of popular music.

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 2006

[BORIS - PINK]

A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.

At the time, SLOTH LOVE CHUNKS edged Utada Hikaru for the top spot of 2006, but Ultra Blue has proven far more durable. This list has gone through quite a number of changes.

  1. Utada Hikaru, Ultra Blue
  2. SLOTH LOVE CHUNKS, Shikakui Vision
  3. VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE, Waiting for My Food
  4. Furukawa Miki, Mirrors
  5. Tokyo Jihen, Otona (Adult)
  6. Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
  7. Boris, Pink
  8. The Roots, Game Theory
  9. Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson, Neruda Songs
  10. Nick Lachey, What’s Left of Me

Other favorites of the year:

  • ACO, mask
  • J Dilla, Donuts
  • Hajime Chitose, Hanadairo
  • Now It’s Overhead, Dark Light Days
  • Envy, Insomniac Doze
  • The Gossip, Standing in the Way of Control
  • ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Fan Club

I’ve known about Boris for as long as I’ve been following Japanese music, but I never made time for them until I picked up Pink at Goodwill for $2. Well, hell …

I wouldn’t have listened to the Roots or J Dilla at the time. Hip-hop had diversified to have its own underground, and that was just so much history that I wasn’t willing to unpack. I’ve only started exploring hip-hop with any seriousness in the last year.

Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson was quite the late discovery. I didn’t pick up Neruda Songs till 2008, but it quickly became a favorite, dislodging Ex-Boyfriends completely off the list.

When I was first introduced to ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, I dismissed them as “eastern youth lite”. The joke was on me — I don’t even own an eastern youth album anymore, and I’ve purchased ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION on vinyl.

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 2008

[Santigold - Santigold]

A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.

The Favorite Edition 2008 spurred this exercise to revisit lists from 10 years ago. While the Favorite 10 has only one change, the other favorites include a number of new discoveries.

  1. Santigold, Santigold
  2. MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS, MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS
  3. The Magnetic Fields, Distortion
  4. Emmylou Harris, All I Intended to Be
  5. ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, World World World
  6. Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
  7. Sam Amidon, All Is Well
  8. Leo Imai, Fix Neon
  9. Nico Muhly, Mothertongue
  10. Spangle call Lilli line, ISOLATION

Other favorites from the year:

  • Matt Alber, Hide Nothing
  • ZAZEN BOYS, ZAZEN BOYS 4
  • Utada Hikaru, HEART STATION
  • Perfume, GAME
  • Jennifer Koh, String Poetic
  • Janelle Monáe, Metropolis: The Chase Suite
  • Chris Walla, Field Manual

It took me a year and a half to get around to Santigold. I’m not sure why I hadn’t, and I can’t remember what finally spurred me to do so. I’m just glad I did. Chris Walla, unfortunately, must make way.

Perfume, Jennifer Koh and Janelle Monáe are retroactive entries, replacing hey willpower, Bob Mould and VOLA AND THE ORIENTAL MACHINE.

I must have really been tough on Utada Hikaru’s HEART STATION — it didn’t even rank at the time.

Competition for this list was tough. Matt Alber and ZAZEN BOYS could have squeezed into the Favorite 10, and even Janet Jackson and R.E.M. turned out some decent work that year. The cup runneth over.

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 2012

[Cody ChesnuTT - Landing on a Hundred]

A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.

What I find most remarkable about the 2012 list is the number of albums listed under honorable mentions. The revised list has culled a lot of those titles. I probably listed so many because I didn’t feel passionate enough about any of them.

  1. Solange, True
  2. Santigold, Master of My Make-Believe
  3. Jeremy Denk, Ligeti/Beethoven
  4. … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Lost Songs
  5. Frank Ocean, channel ORANGE
  6. Cody Chesnutt, Landing on a Hundred
  7. ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Landmark
  8. ZAZEN BOYS, Stories
  9. Tokyo Jihen, Shinyawaku
  10. Duran Duran, A Diamond in the Mind

Other favorites from the year:

  • Scissor Sisters, Magic Hour
  • Roomful of Teeth, Roomful of Teeth
  • Gossip, A Joyful Noise
  • Tokyo Jihen, Tokyo Collection
  • TOUMING MAGAZINE, TOUMING MAGAZINE FOREVER
  • OBLIVION DUST, 9 Gates of Bipolar
  • Gaytheist, Stealth Beats

Cody ChesnuTT dislodges Scissor Sisters from the original list, and Frank Ocean jumps up a few spots. Otherwise, there are no remarkable changes.

If anything, 2012 has turned out to be something of a dud year. When I review my purchases in subsequent years, 2012 releases are scant, and most of the albums I bought that year only garner no more than a 3-star rating.

 

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