I only just discovered this last summer, but it's become one of my most listened-to albums.
1d ago
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It's no secret that I'm Power-Pop-pilled.
and Real Heads already know this, but the Perfectly Imperfect spray logo is uhh... heavily inspired...by an obscure archival Teenage Fanclub t-shirt from the early 90s. That being said, I'm new to The Toms & this album, I'm just happy to have discovered it. Isn't the best when an artists comes out the gate with a debut that already feels like a Greatest Hits compilation? Unfortunately none of these songs ended up being hits, but they damn well sound have been.
This becomes even cooler when you consider that The Toms (which is really just a dude named Tom from Jersey) recorded all 32 songs in his garage over just 3 days. Legend shit for real.
My favorites are "Other Boys Do," "I Did The Wrong Thing," and "Passport to Heaven," but if I'm being honest I truly love every track on here. i LOVE this album.
Oct 12, 2023
this isn't a particularly rare vinyl release at all - it's still widely in print and very affordable. it's an album very very widely considered a classic. but it is, I think, the moment when I realised what makes buying music more satisfying of an experience than the lifetime of piracy I'd built up to that point.
it comes with a handful of prints and illustrations that really expand upon the feeling of the album. the record itself isn't even labelled, there's no tracklist, the sides are engraved with their descriptions "nervous, sad, poor" and "bleak, uncertain, beautiful". but most notably of all, each of these releases comes with a penny flattened on train tracks behind the studio it was recorded in. I've heard stories of copies of this album coming with handwritten notes of thanks from the label.
it was the first time I think I realised the love and the immense effort that goes into putting music out independently like this, even long after the recordings are done. I mean, I get that this one's a very special case - a lot of high-effort touches to really drive home the art, and to keep doing them decades after the album released. but I think picking this up is a big reason why I'm still buying vinyl ten years later.
the album still absolutely rips, of course.
Jan 10, 2025
one of my favorite albums Kim Deal has made. It’s right up there in quality with the Breeders and the initial Pixies run
Aug 30, 2024
