Hum Dedication

Hum are a band that I feel do not get enough appreciation. I know that they got a little extra attention when that Shop Radio Cast re-press of You'd Prefer An Astronaut landed, but as a whole they remain relatively underground. I thought that whole 2012//2013 'shoegaze' revival thing would have changed things, but apparently not. I'm not sure whether to be thankful or not, I suppose the band wouldn't really benefit a swarm of kids ripping MP3's of their LP's from YouTube anyway. 

Anyway, I am talking today about You'd Prefer An Astronaut. However, it's not an SRC re-press. Fuck that noise. 

B-Side // Back Cover. All the text on here is pretty small and difficult to see, but the centre text (top to bottom) reads: 

Track-listing 

All Tracks Written by Hum 

All Tracks Pulished by Martians Go Home Music 

Produced by Hum and Keith Cleversley 

Text at the bottom of the sleeve. 

Centre labels. One of the more obvious tells as to the pressing of the LP. This is the Dedicated Records press. Twelve Inch and Cargo Records were responsible for the first US pressing of this album, and Dedicated handled the UK press. Both released in 1995, and the only pressings prior to SRC shoving their nose in. Label designation is DEDLP023. I had never heard of Dedicated Records, but believe they handled the UK press of a Spritualized LP or two.

B-Side label. I like that the Hum logo has the colours reversed on the sleeve and centre labels.

Although the LP came in a standard dust cover; there was an extra printed cover inside also. I think this was the design used with the SRC re-press. Sorry for the funny angle it is photographed at, it's that glossy stuff that reflects everything. 

Other side of the dust cover. The text is largely production and publication credits, with a little embellishment on the subject. Then there is a run down of TEAM HUM, along with band personnel and a PO box to write to. I love stuff like this, recently I have seen other bands putting up a PO box for fans to send mail and I think it's definitely a cool thing to bring back. People should connect more without using the internet. 

Finally, there was an old postcard inside to join the Hum Information Service. Again, just another quirky 'of the time' kind of deal and I'm really glad that my copy still had this after all these years.

A little on how I ended up with this. It's a similar deal with Clarity by Jimmy Eat World. A re-press was just not going to cut it with this album, and so I waited it out for the real deal. After a few years searching and missing out on eBay due to the crazy prices people will pay for this LP, I started losing hope. But a copy turned up on eBay: OG Press, old shop stock, looked mint and according to the seller could very much have been new. There was a little shelf wear (actually there wasn't but that was the description). Plus it was on at a Buy It Now deal that was way under half of what it usually sells for. It worked out that there was only a few quid in difference between this press and the SRC press once shipping came into it. I jumped on it straight away, and a couple days later it was in my hands. It looks new, there certainly isn't any scratching, scuffing or spindle marks in the centre label, and still contains all the extras that usually get lost along the way. I'm glad I waited it out and didn't settle for a re-press, this copy sounds incredible. From about 5 seconds into the A-Side I knew the waiting was worth it.