this drops soon but it’s fun to come back to something you love but everything’s a little more there. a little extra bass, a little something from live tapes we don’t get on the original. honestly I wish this was the record they toured the anniversary of.
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.
One of the most controversial album mixdowns updated from 1985 to 2024. A pinnacle of indie rock and a deep introspective into balancing talent and lifestyle. With the passing of guitarist Slim Dunlap 2 days ago, The Replacements are still America’s band.
so much to talk about, the sunglasses, the scarf, the fresh baguette and coffee, the always lovely cafe setting. I think this is the most swag ever captured on camera I aspire to be at this level