Archives

Purchase log, 2022-06-07

[UA - Are U Romantic?]

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
  • Kendrick Lamar, Mr. Morale and the Right Steppers
  • The Linda Lindas, Growing Up
  • UA, Are U Romantic?

Catalog

CDs
  • Emmanuel Pahud, Paris
  • Morrissey, Maladjusted
  • The Klezmatics, Rhythm + Jews
  • The Magnetic Fields, The Charm of the Highway Strip
  • The Magnetic Fields, Get Lost
Vinyl
  • Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening
  • Talking Heads, True Stories

Reissues

CD
  • Neurotic Outsiders, Neurotic Outsiders
  • Prince and the Revolution, Live

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Purchase log, 2021-03-16

[Utada Hikaru - One Last Kiss 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

CD
  • Utada Hikaru, One Last Kiss EP
Vinyl
  • Utada Hikaru, One Last Kiss EP

Catalog

CD
  • Bobby Brown, Don’t Be Cruel
  • Natalie Merchant, Ophelia
  • S’Express, Original Soundtrack
  • Talking Heads, Talking Heads ’77
  • The Alarm, Eye of the Hurricane
  • Whitney Houston, Whitney
  • Yes, 90125
  • Zero 7, Simple Things
Vinyl
  • Dionne Warwick, Dionne
  • Emmylou Harris, Profile: Best of Emmylou Harris
  • The Manhattan Transfer, Extensions
  • Soundtrack, The Gospel at Colonus

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Purchase log, 2020-07-21

[Perfume Genius - No Shape]

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
  • Perfume Genius, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately

Catalog

CD
  • Buggles, Age of Plastic
  • Don Dixon, EEE
  • MO’SOME TONEBENDER, LIGHT, SLIDE, DUMMY
  • Protomartyr, Under Color of Official Right
  • The Coup, Steal This Album
Vinyl
  • Perfume Genius, No Shape
  • Talking Heads, Speaking in Tongues

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Purchase log, 2020-03-17

[Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing]

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
  • Andy Gibb, Shadow Dancing
  • Bauhaus, Burning from the Inside
  • Caifanes, La Historia
  • Camouflage, Greyscale
  • Camper Van Beethoven, II & III
  • Camper Van Beethoven, Camper Vantiquities
  • Henry Kaiser, Those Who Learn History Are Doomed to Repeat It
  • Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair
  • Jay Som, Anak Ko
  • Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets II
  • Melveen Leed, Melveen’s Hawaiian Country Hits
  • Mindy Smith, Long Island Shores
  • Post Malone, Hollywood’s Bleeding
  • Shakira, Pies Descalzo
  • Talking Heads, True Stories
  • The B-52’s, Party Mix / Mesopotamia
  • The Damned, Machine Gun Etiquette
  • The Dismemberment Plan, A People’s History of the Dismemberment Plan

Reissues

Vinyl
  • Spice Girls, Spiceworld

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Purchase log, 2019-05-28

[Talking Heads - The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads]

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
  • Beck, Midnite Vultures
  • Cannibal Ox, The Cold Vein
  • Electronic, Release the Pressure
  • Frida, Something’s Going On
  • Sparta, Wiretap Scars
  • Talking Heads, The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads
  • The Beatles, Help!
  • The Jesus and Mary Chain, Darklands
  • The Police, Live!
  • The Temptations, All the Million-Sellers
  • Soundtrack, The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Vinyl
  • Abe Vigoda, Crush
  • Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
  • Giovanni Palestrina, Masses and Motets
  • Iannis Xenakis, Metastasis / Pithorprakta / Enota
  • Josquin Desprez, Missa La So Fa Re Mi / Motets / Chansons / Instrumental Music
  • Matsuda Seiko, Tinker Bell
  • Murray Head, Nigel Lived
  • New Order, Brotherhood
  • New Order, Low-Life
  • Santigold, Master of My Make Believe

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Purchase log, 2019-02-12

[Atmostphere - God Loves Ugly]

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
  • Jeremy Denk, c.1300-c.2000

Catalog

CD
  • Atmosphere, God Loves Ugly
  • Built to Spill, There’s Nothing Wrong with Love
  • Del tha Funkee Homosapien, No Need for Alarm
  • Iron and Wine, The Shepherd’s Dog
  • Lou Reed, Transformer
  • Sly and the Family Stone, Greatest Hits
  • Talking Heads, More Songs About Buildings and Food

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Purchase log, 2019-01-22

[The West Wing - Original TV 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.

New releases

CD
  • Soundtrack, The West Wing

Catalog

CD
  • Beck, Mellow Gold
  • Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon
  • Talking Heads, Speaking in Tongues
  • Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Hearts of Oak
  • Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Shake the Sheets
Vinyl
  • Glass Tiger, The Thin Red Line

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 1979

[The Manhattan Transfer - Extensions]

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.

1979 is officially the year I started collecting music. And it’s all because of a post-disco hit about the Twilight Zone theme song. This list, though, couldn’t have been compiled till 2006.

  1. Gang of Four, Entertainment!
  2. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Evita
  3. Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd
  4. Philip Glass, Einstein on the Beach
  5. Midnight Oil, Head Injuries
  6. Talking Heads, Fear of Music
  7. The Clash, London Calling
  8. Michael Jackson, Off the Wall
  9. The Police, Reggatta de Blanc
  10. Emmylou Harris, Blue Kentucky Girl

Other favorites from the year:

  • The Manhattan Transfer, Extensions
  • The B-52’s, The B-52’s

The hit in question is “Twilight Tone” by the Manhattan Transfer.

Though more renowned as a jazz vocal quartet, the group wouldn’t get on my radar till “Twilight Tone” invaded the airwaves. Search YouTube for a performance of the song on a variety show — it’s amazing what people will endure for art. Or gimmickry.

My parents relented and bought the Extensions album for me. Of course, I played “Twilight Tone” to death, but I also dug the other songs on the album. Unlike “Twilight Tone”, they ranged from doo-wop to a capella. One song was a bizarre novelty with the singers voices rendered at chipmunk speed. You could say this was Manhattan Transfer’s disco album.

I’ve included it in the extended list. As fond as I am of the album, I have a better sense of what 1979 really offered as a year in music.

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Favorite Edition Rewind: 1980

[ABBA - Greatest Hits, Vol. 2]

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.

If my 8-year-old self were in control of this list, the soundtrack to Xanadu would occupy the top spot. The only other title he might have recognized would be Diana. And he would have questioned the inclusion of AC/DC.

  1. U2, Boy
  2. David Bowie, Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)
  3. Kate Bush, Never for Ever
  4. Diana Ross, Diana
  5. X, Los Angeles
  6. Grace Jones, Warm Leatherette
  7. Killing Joke, Killing Joke
  8. Talking Heads, Remain in Light
  9. AC/DC, Back in Black
  10. Emmylou Harris, Roses in the Snow

Other favorites from the year:

  • The Police, Zenyatta Mondatta
  • Soundtrack, Xanadu
  • ABBA, Super Trouper
  • The B-52’s, Wild Planet

The roots of my collecting bug are anchored in 1980.

I would bug my mom to buy me 7-inch singles. I was told I didn’t have the sufficient capacity to judge whether a full album would be worth the purchase price. My mom wasn’t about to drop cash on a set of songs if only one of them would entertain me.

So I amassed quite a lot of singles — “Tell It Like Is” by Heart, “A Lover’s Holiday” by Change, “Stomp!” by the Brothers Johnson.

I was, however, a pest about ABBA. The age of eight seems to be the right level of maturity for ABBA to sink its sugary hooks into an impressionable mind. My niece was crazy for Mamma Mia, the movie musical, right around the age I bugged my parents to get me their Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. The first volume didn’t have “Chiquitita.”

Video games interrupted my interest in music for four years, so it makes me wonder in how much more trouble I’d be today without that disruption.

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Purchase log, 2018-12-04

[Mikami Chisako - I AM Ready!]

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
  • Mikami Chisako, I AM Ready!

Catalog

CD
  • 808 State, Utd. State 90
  • Anthrax, Sound of White Noise
  • Death from Above 1979, You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine
  • Giovanni Palestrina, Missa pro defunctis / Motets (Chanticleer)
  • Helmet, Strap It On
  • Jean Grae, This Week
  • Jesu, Jesu
  • M.I.A., /\/\ /\ Y /\
  • mclusky, The Difference Between Me and You Is I’m Not on Fire
  • Peter Gabriel, Secret World Live
  • The Jesus and Mary Chain, 21 Singles
Vinyl
  • Kate Bush, Before the Dawn
  • Simon and Garfunkel, Sounds of Silence
  • Sinéad O’Connor, Am I Not Your Girl?
  • Soundtrack, Star Wars
  • Soundtrack, The Rocky Horror Picture Show
  • Talking Heads, Little Creatures
  • Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense

Reissues

CD
  • Kate Bush, Remastered Part II
Vinyl
  • Kate Bush, Remastered in Vinyl III

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