Moz Gold

Now, I would like to think of myself as being fairly sensible most of the time. However, there is always one exception and that is when it comes to Morrissey. The amount of times I have rationalised a purchase, an overnight drive, a tattoo etc. with the phrase 'because Moz' is almost scary, and this post is no exception. 

As a little back story, a week or so back HMV hosted their #lovevinyl event. The long and short of this is that they took about 15 albums or so and reissued them, either on exclusive colour vinyl or with an exclusive sleeve. I find it a little strange that HMV cottoned on to the whole exclusive vinyl thing so late, but I really have no gripe with them doing this. People on the internet got mad; I didn't care. 

What I did care about was the 3 Mozza reissues that were coming out on the day. If anyone asks me my favourite artist // favourite band - I will always either say Morrissey or The Smiths. I don't really have a favourite, but I'm not about to come out with that sentence as it cuts conversation short and makes you come across as a bellend most of the time. Moz has been a constant in my life since I was 8 years old, and considering this fact I have very little in the way of Moz records. My Uncle donated me his entire discography (at the time) on CD around 2000 so I never went back and played catch up aside from a few choice singles. This year, I am going to make an effort to change that and this was a good way to cross a few off the list. Now, with very little typing for the rest of this post, on to the important stuff right? 

Morrissey - Viva Hate - Liberty // Parlophone // His Master's Voice - ? Press - Gold /500 (HMV #lovevinyl 2015 Exclusive)

This press uses the 2012 reissue cover, and comes in a Liberty printed dust cover with Liberty labels, although the Parlophone label stays on the cover. I was expecting these 'Gold' reissues to be on Clear Orange as they normally are, but I was pleasantly chuffed to see them on this solid colourway instead. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

This particular variant always seems to leave a nice swirl or mix across the record that I can definitely get on board with. I find something charming about finally seeing these records on colour, and as long as I get a copy of each record I'll happily take what I can get (although the need to hunt down an 'Education In Reverse' copy of this record is getting quite overwhelming). 

All of these records came in nice gatefold sleeves, and feel super sturdy. Some of the photographs from this reissue were taken by Anton Corbijn, and given some of the iconic images that guy is responsible for it just makes me even happier to own this. Left panel shows the track-listing, right panel contains various credits. 

Morrissey - Your Arsenal - Parlophone - ? Press - Gold /500 (HMV #lovevinyl 2015 exclusive)

The colour scheme on this record works incredibly well. Black and Gold art with a gold record sat in a plain back dust sleeve. I remember getting all the Moz albums on CD, and this being the most immediate of the bunch. The cover photo was from a live show in New York I believe.

Back Cover // B-Side 

Classic Parlophone centre labels, and overall a great layout. I know I'm massively biased, but there is something so iconic that rests in everything Moz touches. I'm sorry if you're not a fan, this post is probably really sucking for you right about now. 

Gatefold. 

Band shot. I mean, there's not much more to say on the matter really? For years and years, there has always been a change in lineup, and no two records have the exact same players I believe (although I haven't thoroughly checked). This photograph was taken by Kevin Cummins, and the album was produced by Mick Ronson, around a year before he passed. 

Morrissey - Vauxhall and I - Parlophone - ? Press - Gold /500 (HMV #Lovevinyl 2015 exclusive) 

I often go in cycles of listening to a Morrissey album constantly for weeks at a time, and it happens with this one more than most. Again, there is no favourite record but for the sake of conversation I normally go with this one. When an album closes with a song like Speedway, there's nothing else to call it but a classic. True To You. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

There seems to be a little Black seeping into the swirl of this record, more so than the other two. Shout out to those super jazzy centre labels too. The English Martyr's Club sign is used on the dust cover too, but I forgot to photograph it. On that note, this is the only record of the three that has photography lining the inner sleeve. For saying that these records came out together for the same event, I love the little intricacies that place them apart from one another. It would've been easy to stick them all in standard sleeves with plain dust covers; and to be honest that's about what I expected from HMV. Thankfully I was proved wrong and these look great and play perfectly. 

Insert and Gatefold

Gang Shot

Every record came with the 'Limited Edition Gold Vinyl' and another 'Strictly One Per Customer' sticker on the cellophane. Some also had a 'HMV Exclusive' sticker too, but these copies did not. To bring this whole thing full circle, yes I paid £60 for these without a seconds hesitation, and honestly speaking I would've forked over just about whatever people were asking for them if I hadn't been able to grab them on the day (and honestly these things are being flipped on the bay for crazy money right now). Why you ask? 

Because Moz. 

Thanks for reading!

Pink Claws

I feel like I hit the eBay route less and less recently for buying records. With the pending change from Paypal as a payment option and with the rise in kids scraping up any *vinyls* they can get their hands on, it just seems hard to grab anything for a decent price these days. However, there will be an occasional come up and a couple of weeks ago I managed to grab a record that had interested me for some time, but I never took the dive on. 

Rise and Fall - Clawing - Deathwish Inc. - 1st Press - Pink /850 

Weirdly enough there was no interest in this 7'' and I won it at the opening bid of 99p with no fuss at all. This record was released the best part of a decade ago and I love collecting older releases from Deathwish. Such a solid label with an incredibly rich history, and I'll happily take a chance on whatever I don't have. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

The R//F centre label designs are pretty cool, and I love how bright and detailed the artwork is. It works perfectly for a 7'', although I would've loved the full art to have come in somewhere though. 

Fold Out Cover 

I believe there was a limited version of this 7'' that had the outer cover in this colour scheme. Personally I love the full colour art, but I really dig anything that Florian Bertmer does. His artwork is completely unmistakable, and the long damn list of incredible bands he has worked with still baffles me. 

Close up of the insert

Sorry this hasn't photographed up too well, the font is a little hard on the lens, but you get the general idea. Plus, the cover of 'Them Bones' is brilliant and more people should hear this record. A total gem from a label that gets it right more often than most. 

Fold Out Cover Art 

Although the original art is much larger than this, I love how this sleeve works with what it has. If the art was scaled down to fit it fully I guess it would look kind of dumb and lose all it's appeal. Maybe Shirts & Destroy should have done a similar deal with this record like they did True Nihilist? 

Either way, this record is cool, the art is cool, the label is cool and I'm going to scoop up some more Rise and Fall records in the near future with any luck! 

Cheers!

Picture Discs Going Confetti

Another quick minute, another Give record that I am playing serious catch up with. I'm so glad I'm not into the variant game on this one, but from an aesthetic point of view, waiting on it with this one kind of paid off. This press is definitely the one for me! 

Give - Singles Going Confetti - Assault Records - 2nd Press - Picture Disc /200 

I love a good picture disc, and this sounds as great as it looks to my ears. I've said before that I don't have the best hearing or the most audiophile setup, but I'm pretty impressed on all counts here. Another great selling point is the quarter fold cover that I dig, but more on that a little later. 

The cover is made of nice thick stock card, and is housed in a poly sleeve. 

Having a picture disc as a second press with such a limited quantity is a brave step I reckon. It's probably not the most financially viable option either as it involves getting new tests made for a short run but I'm definitely glad it happened! 

Back Cover // B-Side

This image is perfect, and the colours work against the record perfectly. I never knew that John had a huge Give logo on his arm either. 

From the tracklisting you can see that this record compiles the five 7'' records (I Am Love // Petal Pushing // Flower Head // Boots Of Faith // Heaven Is Waiting) alongside a bonus track at the end. 

152//200 

All copies were numbered and stamped /200. 

In the background is the back cover, containing all the lyrics. 

Inside the quarterfold. 

Personnel, band name, label name. Not much is left to explanation here. The left text above the crease is song credits and the right contains art/ layout/ photography credits. At this point, this band had a rotating lineup of 8 members. 

Some flyers that came with the order. The 'We Are Love' tour flyer looks great in person and contains that A-Side logo on the other side.

I've been tempted to grab this record many times, and I nearly caved when Different Kitchen got the US press in at Distro a while back, but this copy just works well for me. Anyway, I'm sure had I bought a copy prior, I would've ended up buying it again anyway. 

Put Walk Among Us On And Turn It Up!

There are fewer feelings out there that rival scoring a record that's been on your want list for some time. Funnily enough, I've had two offers at grabbing this record before and stupidly declined; and as a result I paid the price a little with this copy. 

Alkaline Trio - Good Mourning - Vagrant Records - 1st Press - Black /? (UK Press) 

By paying the price I don't mean that I paid much for this record. In fact I paid about 1/5 of the lowest selling Discogs price. The downside is the condition of the sleeve, it's definitely seen better days. However, no focusing on the negatives; I've been after this record for years and I'm ecstatic to finally own it. This is my favourite record from one of my all time favourite bands, and this definitely brings my collection together a little more. 

Back Cover // B-Side

The state of the cover really shows up here, but the artwork is so beautiful I don't really mind. Weirdly enough, the record itself is pretty mint. There are a bunch of songs squished on this single LP and this makes way for a little thin sound at times. This was rectified with the 2008 pressing that was a 2XLP affair, but I was really pushing for this copy. I have another post lined up that follows the same kind of lines!

Close up of the back cover. 

The cover and insert has a spot UV finish, much the same as the CD and inlay card. It shows up a little on the coffins below. You can tell the UK and US 1st press apart, as the UK edition includes two bonus tracks as listed at the end of the LP. 

I've known this record for around a decade or more, and I still fall in love more and more with every listen. 

Insert 

This design was used for one of the picture disc single 7''s released from this record, possibly This Could Be Love? Either way, it's a great design and this lineup has been going solid since this record came out. 

There's a barely legible 'Thank You' in the background too. 

Insert 

This insert has no lyrics printed, but instead collects all of the separate illustrations from the CD inlay card. The black on black shows the UV finish up quite nicely here. Art/ Production/ Mastering/ Legal Credits all reside here. 

This record is the essential one from this band in my opinion. There is a darker edge to the songs that goes deeper than anything before or since. Good Mourning got me through a bad time or two or twelve, and the connection I have to it makes me feel foolish for not jumping on it earlier. 

Cheers!

Release Show Serenity

Once again, I find myself playing catch up with a band to maintain a full collection. This time, it comes from one of my favourite current UK bands, Fade. With a new 7'' due to drop from Control Records any time soon, I thought I'd best get everything up to scratch just in time to fall behind again. 

Fade - One With Serenity - Neutral Words Records - 1st Press - Black /100 - Record Release Cover /25 

Long story short, a few weeks back Fade played a show in Nottingham with Pity Sex and Walleater. They used this show (their first of 2015) as their record release for One With Serenity that got released a couple months back - you can see my post here: 

http://23rotations.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/rest-of-serenity.html (the record release has the same insert, so I haven't photographed it for this post). 

Back Cover // B-Side 

Some new sleeves were printed up for this record release. 50 were made in total, 25 of the Black Press were used and 25 of the Green Press. Each were separately numbered. The Clear by this point is either sold out or near enough so that it'd make no sense to use it I would guess? 

22/25

Quarter fold covers are the only way to do it for record release covers right? These were put together fairly quickly from what I can piece together? The cover is a scaled up B-Side centre label photo - the same shot is also used on the inserts. 

Fade - One With Serenity - Neutral Words Records - 1st Press - Green /125 - Record Release Cover /25

The leftovers of this were stuck up online after the show on the NWR webstore and sadly that's where I had to grab them. Sometimes I love being an adult as it allows me to keep up this habit I've got going on. Other times I hate it as I really wanted to be at that show!

Back Cover // B-Side 

25/25 

Strangely enough, there are still copies of this in the webstore. I don't get how or why, but I suggest that you jump on it fairly quick if you're remotely interested in this band. 

As it stands this collection is as complete as a collection can be I believe. I'm assuming the next Fade post I do will be when I grab the new 7'', and here's to hoping I can keep this one going right? 

Cheers!

Can You Measure The Loss?

I always like it when a band makes a record that completely fucks with the majority of their listeners, and I particularly like sitting back and watching as everyone gets in a huge hissy fit about it. When a band goes for a radical change in sound, I always like to bear in mind that said band owe you nothing. They do not have to keep you in mind when making a record, your feelings seldom come into account in the creative process. Also, this album has been coming since Rohnert Park dropped and I couldn't be happier that it's finally here. 

Ceremony - The L-Shaped Man - Matador Records - 1st Press - Sea Foam - /? 

I haven't seen any other variant for this record yet, and I'm not sure even a standard Black copy exists? Either way this variant looks perfect next to the art so I have no complaints. It photographs up a more solid blue, but it definitely is a few shades closer to the colour of the sleeve. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

This record has a very Peter Saville // Factory Records layout to it I find, and I'm a complete sucker for that kind of thing. Heavy stock card, die cut cover, reverse colour centre labels and coloured stock on the inside sleeve are just a few of the details that I'm completely falling for here. 

I believe this is the first Ceremony full length that doesn't have some kind of photography for the main artwork, with the Line Drawing on the front cover being created by Ross Farrar. All other art and layout was a creative effort between designer Mike Zimmerman and Ceremony. Zimmerman works for the Beggars Group collective and I believe they do a bunch of work for Matador artists, alongside a few other labels. 

The L-Shaped Man 

Here you can see how the design fits into the die-cut sleeve. The sleeve kind of works with or without the illustration, and either way there is a great loneliness to this LP that I can't get enough of. There is very little about what was going on when this record was written, other than it's a 'break up' record. Up on the Ceremony webstore is a Poetry book to accompany the record that I'm tempted to buy; I really enjoyed Society Verse and this album is bloody incredible so it makes sense right? 

Lyric Sheet. 

This is the other side of the insert. Lyrics//Credits//Personnel//No Thanks. 

Stickered Sleeve 

This was another case of slowly peeling the sticker from the cellophane and hoping it doesn't rip type of deal. As there is no pressing info out there at the minute, I would love to know what 'Limited Edition' meant. I'm assuming there is at least a couple thousand of these kicking about? Either way I'm not remotely fussed, but I'm sure Matador have very different ideas of something being limited compared to your average indie label. 

Is this record a change? Definitely, and probably the most radical in the band's career thus far. But Still Nothing Moves You didn't sound like Rohnert Park either? Zoo doesn't sound like Violence Violence. Just go into this one with a fresh pair of ears and a little sense of adventure. From the moment I saw the video for The Separation I knew this record was going to be special, and Ceremony can do no wrong in my eyes. 

Cheers!