Archives

Purchase log, 2025-04-15

[Emmylou Harris - Spyboy]

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
  • downy, untitled (eighth album)
Vinyl
  • Kelela, In the Blue Light
  • Post Malone, Post Malone Tribute to Nirvana
  • Sting, Sting 3.0 Live

Catalog

CD
  • Blind Idiot God, Cyclotron
  • Lounge Lizards, Live in Berlin, Vol. 1
  • Ned Doheny, Ned Doheny
  • Various Artists, Studio One Classics
  • Various Artists, Studio One Funk
  • Various Artists, Studio One Kings
  • Various Artists, Studio One Rude Boy
Vinyl
  • D’Angelo, Voodoo
  • Queens of the Stone Age, In Times New Roman …
  • SYML, In My Body

Reissues

Vinyl
  • a-ha, Hunting High and Low: The Demos
  • Charli XCX, Number 1 Angel
  • Dead or Alive, Youthquake Remixes
  • Duran Duran, DANSE MACABRE DE LUXE Bonus Tracks
  • Emmylou Harris, Spyboy
  • Hindu Love Gods, Hindu Love Gods
  • Lianne La Havas, Is Your Love Big Enough?
  • Neurotic Outsiders, Neurotic Outsiders
  • Passengers, Original Soundtracks, Vol. 1
  • Paul Hardcastle, Paul Hardcastle
  • Prince and the New Power Generation, Live at Grand Slam
  • Rage Against the Machine, Live on Tour 1993
  • Shudder to Think, Pony Express Record
  • Slint, tweez (tweethan mix)
  • Talking Heads, Live on Tour
  • Thievery Corporation, The Cosmic Game
  • Throwing Muses, Live in Providence

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Purchase log, 2025-04-08

[SYML - Nobody Lives Here]

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
  • SYML, Nobody Lives Here
Vinyl
  • SYML, Nobody Lives Here

Catalog

CD
  • Richard Marx, Richard Marx
  • Stephen Sondheim, Frogs / Evening Primrose
  • The Lounge Lizards, The Lounge Lizards
  • The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow
  • Tom Johnson, Music for 88
  • Tom Johnson, Rational Melodies
  • Soundtrack, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Vinyl
  • Club Nouveau, Listen to the Message
  • Sting, The Best of 25 Years
  • sungazer, Against the Fall of Night
  • Tyler, the Creator, IGOR

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Purchase log, 2024-11-12

[Ray Chen - Player 1]

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
  • Ray Chen, Player 1

Catalog

CD
  • Heart, Little Queen
  • John Luther Adams, songbirdsongs
  • Linda Ronstadt, Live in Hollywood
  • Marshall Crenshaw, Live … My Truck Is My Home
  • Sting, The Bridge
  • Soundtrack, City of Angels (Original Cast Recording)
Vinyl
  • Arianna Grande, Eternal Sunshine
  • T’Pau, Bridge of Spies
  • Taylor Swift, evermore
  • Taylor Swift, folklore
  • The National, The First Two Pages of Frankenstein

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Purchase log, 2022-10-04

[Huey Lewis and the News - Picture This]

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
  • Amanda Shires, Take It Like a Man
  • Björk, Fossora
  • Santigold, Spirituals
  • Steve Reich, Runner / Music for Ensemble and Orchestra

Catalog

CD
  • Das EFX, Dead Serious
  • Dashboard Confessional, The Places That You Have Come to Fear the Most
  • Descendents, Somery
  • Huey Lewis and the News, Picture This
  • Pale Saints, In Ribbons
Vinyl
  • Aaliyah, Aaliyah
  • Cyndi Lauper, True Colors
  • George Michael, Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1
  • Robyn, Honey
  • Sting, The Bridge

Reissues

CD
  • Janet Jackson, Japanese Singles Collection
  • Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Deluxe Edition)
Vinyl
  • Caitlin Cary, While You Weren’t Looking

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Purchase log, 2022-06-28

[Tomosaka Rie - Best + 3]

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.

Catalog

CD
  • Cibo Matto, Stereotype A
  • Gidon Kremer, Tracing Astor (Kremerata Baltica)
  • Michael Nyman, The Piano Concerto / Where the Bee Dances
  • Olivier Messiaen, Olivier Messiaen Edition
  • Simple Minds, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
  • Sting, Symphonicities
Vinyl
  • Jack Wagner, All I Need

Reissues

  • Jam and Lewis, Volume One
  • Tomosaka Rie, Best + 3

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Looking ahead: September-November 2021

[Tomosaka Rie - Cappuccino / Escalation]

Explosions in the Sky, Big Bend, Oct. 1

I haven’t really cottoned to Explosion in the Sky’s soundtrack work, but I’m hoping this release feels more like an album than a cue sheet.

John Coltrane, A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle, Oct. 8

At first, I thought this album was just a reissue of Live in Seattle, till I took a closer look at the title.

Renée Fleming, Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, Oct. 8

I wonder if John Green would be interested in reviewing this album.

The Replacements, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, Oct. 22

The Replacements had, at best, a periphery influence on my teenage listening habits, and yet I’ve bought just about every deluxe edition of their albums. Clearly, I’m making up for lost time.

R.E.M., New Adventures in Hi-Fi (Deluxe Edition), Oct. 29

I’m ambivalent about this album. I had sold it for cash a long time ago, but I picked it up again from the thrift shop. I don’t know if it holds up well.

ABBA, Voyage, Nov. 3

I can’t lie — I’m pretty damn excited about a new ABBA album in 40 years. The singles preceding the album sound like time hadn’t stopped for the quartet, and the world definitely came back around to them.

Sting, The Bridge, Nov. 19

I guess I still care because there is a part of me that fondly remembers a younger Sting in various forms of undress.

Vinyl

Robbie Williams, Life Thru a Lens, Sept. 24
Robbie Williams, I’ve Been Expecting You, Sept. 24

The Ego Has Landed was one of my most played CDs of 1999, and it collected the best bits of Robbie Williams’ first two albums. About 20 years later, I would find I’ve Been Expecting You at the thrift store. So I have to say I’m very much tempted to drop cash on these vinyl reissues, even though I haven’t heard Life Thru a Lens in its entirety.

AJICO, Fukamidori, Nov. 3
AJICO, AJICO SHOW, Nov. 3
AJICO, Setsuzoku, Nov. 3
Hatakeyama Miyuki, Diving into your mind, Nov. 3
Tomosaka Rie, “Cappuccino / Escalation”, Nov. 3

Japan actually has its own Record Store Day event that focuses on domestic releases, but it’s separate from Record Day, which happens annually in November. While Record Store Day focuses on independent retailers, Record Day in Japan looks similar to National Album Day in the UK, where larger retailers are involved with the festivities.

Past Record Days in Japan have included reissues of NUMBER GIRL, YEN TOWN BAND and a number of Studio Ghibli soundtracks. For me, AJICO is the biggest news coming out of this year’s crop, but I’m also immensely pleased to see Hatakeyama Miyuki’s Diving into your mind getting a reissue. The Tomosaka Rie 7-inch single pairs two of her biggest hits, “Cappuccino” and “Escalation”, the A-side written by Shiina Ringo.

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Purchase log, 2021-01-05

[J Dilla - Donuts]

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.

Catalog

CD
  • Caron Wheeler, UK BLAK
  • Cowboy Junkies, The Trinity Sessions
  • Pop Will Eat Itself, Cure for Sanity
  • Sting, … Nada como el sol
Vinyl
  • Debbie Gibson, Out of the Blue
  • J Dilla, Donuts
  • The Alan Parsons Project, Turn of a Friendly Card
  • Tiffany, Tiffany

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Purchase log, 2019-12-17

[Various Artists - Rubáiyát]

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
  • Shiina Ringo, Sandokushi
Blu Ray
  • Shiina Ringo, Seiteki Healing Sono Go~Nana

Catalog

CD
  • Bob Mould, The Last Dog and Pony Show
  • Digital Underground, Sex Packets
  • Lana Del Rey, Norman Fucking Rockwell!
  • Midnight Oil, Earth and Sun and Moon
  • Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More
  • Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto (New York Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwarz)
  • Old 97s, Satellite Rides
  • Philip Glass, Low Symphony (Brooklyn Philharmonic, Dennis Russell Davies)
  • Roxette, Look Sharp!
  • Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd (2005 Broadway Cast)
  • Sting, If On a Winter’s Night …
  • Tag Team, Whoomp! (There It Is)
  • Taylor Swift, Speak Now
  • Technotronic, Trip on This: The Remixes
  • Various Artists, Living In Oblivion, Vol. 2
  • Various Artists, Rubáiyát: The Originals
Vinyl
  • Chic, Risqué
  • Conlon Nancarrow, Complete Studies for Player Piano, Vol. 2
  • Conlon Nancarrow, Complete Studies for Player Piano, Vol. 4
  • Foreigner, Agent Provocateur
  • Hüsker Dü, Land Speed Record
  • Sonic Youth, Confusion Is Sex
  • Soundtrack, This Is Spinal Tap

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Looking ahead, May-June 2019

[Shiina Ringo - Sandokushi]

Sting, My Songs, May 24

I had high but cautious hope for 57th and 9th. That will learn me.

Shiina Ringo, Sandokushi, May 27

This album adds six new tracks to the seven already released in various downloads and singles. Does anyone else get the sense Ringo-chan is phoning it in? I would think a 20-year anniversary would warrant a big reissue campaign in addition to a new album.

Eluvium, Piano Works, May 31

The deluxe edition vinyl release of this new album of piano works includes a sheet music book of Eluvium’s keyboard works.

Madonna, Madame X, June 14

Rebel Heart turned out better than I expected, but that seems to be the exception than the rule in recent years.

Prince, Originals, June 21

This compilation brings together demos of songs Prince wrote for other singers. I wonder if in the distant future we’ll hear The Family with Prince’s vocals.

Sigur Rós, Ágætis byrjun (Deluxe Edition), June 21

I like Sigur Rós, and Ágætis byrjun is a fine album. I’m not sure I love it enough for 4-CDs or 7-LPs.

Vinyl

James Blake, Assume Form, May 31

I hesitated on getting James Blake’s latest album till I found an unopened copy at the thrift store for $3. It’s turned out to be one of the better releases of 2019.

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 1985

[The Outfield - Play Deep]

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.

This list is the last of the original years covered in my previous survey. The Favorite 10 hasn’t changed, but the extended list has gotten longer.

  1. Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair
  2. Sting, The Dream of the Blue Turtles
  3. Arcadia, So Red the Rose
  4. ABC, How to Be a Zillionaire!
  5. 10,000 Manaics, The Wishing Chair
  6. Clannad, Macalla
  7. Kate Bush, Hounds of Love
  8. Soundtrack, Macross Song Collection
  9. Midnight Oil, Red Sails in the Sunset
  10. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Requiem

Other favorites from the year::

  • Camper Van Beethoven, Telephone Free Landslide Victory
  • Eurythmics, Be Yourself Tonight
  • Hiroshima, Another Place
  • The Pogues, Rum Sodomy and the Lash
  • Simple Minds, Once Upon a Time
  • Sade, Promise
  • Hüsker Dü, New Day Rising
  • The Replacements, Tim
  • The Outfield, Play Deep
  • INXS, Listen Like Thieves
  • Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam with Full Force, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam with Full Force
  • The Power Station, The Power Station
  • The Family, The Family
  • Prince and the Revolution, Around the World in a Day

Younger Me would approve of most of this list.

He would have gasped at the inclusion of Prince, considering the Sibling Rivalry Collection Race was at its height, and this kind of intrusion would be accompanied by a drubbing.

And he would groaned at the inclusion of The Outfield. Older Me would then advise him to wait 20 years before a real appreciation could begin.

I capped this survey at 1985 because my collection before that year wasn’t extensive enough for much punditry. Weekly visits to thrift shops in the last three years have allowed me to fill in enough gaps to keep going till 1978.

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