After getting a chance to listen to both OCG and CB, I can confidently say that those are worth the price alone (for most of you who more than likely bought the set for those anyways). Clear, loud, no pops or clicks. And add the fact they’re actually easy and convenient to listen to is just the icing on the cake. Couldn’t be happier. Only downside is the boring art but hey, can’t have it all.
I'll chime in if not just to mix things up a little bit. I've been chipping away at this reply on and off in a separate tab for like a week now. Forgive any redundancy or incoherentness, I feel like it's probably all over the place. But the thread is starting to sputter out so... why not?
2023 felt no different than any other year of the hobby™, barring a few exceptions. In terms of how much did you end up buying?, the answer for me is – a lot. I'm either doing something very right or very wrong.
But the biggest differentiator to years prior, I think, boils down to 1 concept: patience. Sometimes it took months for pre-orders to go live. Other times a release was riddled with delays for weeks or months on end. I've come to accept [some years back] that we no longer get the luxury of spinning a record the same day an album is released digitally. If a record shows up on release day – or early! – it's a rarity, and one I appreciate. But it's absolutely not the norm among the artists and labels I frequent, and that just is what it is. The silver lining there is that we sometimes get months to allow the dust to settle and decide if that new album is truly worth picking up. With that in mind, sites like Zia, Bull Moose, and Rough Trade were all key-players in my 2023 preorders. Any site that doesn't charge until shipment, with easy 1-click cancellations – those were my bread & butter. Can't tell you how many cancellations and re-orders I'd place with Bull Moose to maintain free shipping. Sometimes that meant that I'd receive a record 1-2+ months after everyone else, but it felt worth it. Again; patience.
Record MSRP has been ass, I have nothing to really contribute to that discussion. I think Covid was just the perfect maelstrom of opportunity to up the price of records; a nice trajectory of record sales, crippled supply chains / materials, and newjack collectors thinking $50+ is acceptable to drop on a double LP because they've never known better. The wrong people took note of how willing collectors are to wait extended periods of time to receive a lackluster product of something they overpaid for... and here we are. Imagine spending $39 PPD for a bare-bone, no-frill, flimsy ass colored 12" that you had to wait 6 months to receive. You probably don't have to use too much of your imagination, because I bet that's happened to every single one of us in the last year or two, and I just see it more and more. Shit sucks. On the subject of MSRP, I will say I try my best to vote with my dollar. Labels trying to produce the bare minimum for $40 will probably still sell out of a limited release, but at least I won't be contributing to those sales. 🤷♂️ There were some pretty rare exceptions here and there since those are tough guns to stick to. Those Hum reissues were one of my favorite releases of 2024, and they were $40 a pop I think. (But also double LPs with nice jackets, and lots of love into the mastering and pressings.) Or Nouns' Still Bummed, which has been desperately overdo for a vinyl press. Also $40+ spent mumbling under my breath, but having the opportunity to own a cleaned-up mix on something that's not a lathe? Had to be done. (It was also released on the band's own label which they just opened. Overpaying for stuff sucks a little less when it's going to DIY roots.)
Trying to think of what else felt different in 2023. I think I definitely coordinated a few more imports with friends, on stuff that was only available from abroad. Gotta' soften that blow as much as possible, when possible. Also being real with myself when cheaper options were offered. Do I need the extra 12" of remixes I'll never listen to, housed in the exclusive boxset casing, for an extra $25 imported? Or could I probably settle for an equally boring variant in a normal gatefold from Bull Moose and get free shipping? This was something I'd always ask myself, but I guess in the last year or two, I've become much more comfortable not going nuts to butts on every single pre-order I was excited about.
It's cool to see more people become disenchanted with the idea that owning all releases for an artist is mandatory if you want to call yourself a true fan of said artist. There are some artists I thoroughly enjoy with an album or two that just suck. And no amount of bells and whistles on a fancy reissue are going to change that for me, so I'm not taking that bait. (Especially when said reissue is probably $30+.) On that note, I think in 2023 I've just placed more priority than ever on respecting the bang:buck ratio. People dropping $37 PPD on a 15 minute EP is cool, I guess, but it ain't for me – even if the EP is enjoyable. At the end of the day, I've found that no one gives a shit if you own every obscure split, 7", 10", comp, and cassette tape for an artist that you're into. Chase all that stuff if you genuinely love the hunt and it scratches some kinda' itch for you, but it's nonsense to feel like you need that stuff on your shelf to prove that you can hang with the "real fans". I see that mentality constantly on Reddit, it's wild.
The last thing I'll touch on is that the people who are really assessing their shelf estate and wondering "am I really going to spend time listening to this more than once?" – 100%, that's the ticket right there. I've gotten pretty good at being honest with myself over that question, as years have gone on. I can shrug off quite a few "impulse buys" I know I'd never listen to. And I think I have a pretty good track-record on preordering stuff with confidence and not getting stung by it. (The new album from Grails was my 1 dud purchase of last year.) But with everything costing as much as it does anymore, absolutely ask yourself if it's worth actually owning, yeah.
At the end of last year, I actually added a new feature to my collection's spreadsheet – an Attachment column. It's just a 1-5 rating on how attached I am to a given record in my collection, considering a few key factors (the music, the exclusivity, variant / packaging / press quality, the current value, sentimentality, etc.)
At its essence, it's like asking "if I lost this record in a fire, how bummed would I be about having to replace it?" (A 5 would be crushed; very expensive or time-consuming to find a replacement in the condition my copy is in. And a 2 or lower would be indifferent or carefree.) I'm now in the process of revisiting everything I own and assigning it a rank, and the idea is to identify anything that's a 2 or lower to weed them out. It's not a perfect system, especially since it leans so hard into my own personal value which is purely subjective. But it's already helped me spot a few things here and there that I could live without, and with the size of my collection and amount spent in 2023, that's a healthy thing. I know I'll have a problem if I start accumulating anything from 2023 / 2024 that becomes ranked a 2 or lower, because it means by ability to sniff out staying power or replay value is dwindling and that's bad news.
TL;DR – still bought a ton in 2023, but relied more on bundling for free shipping... even at the cost of waiting an extra month or two to receive my order. Coordinated with friends for imports. Avoided gimmick releases like usual and tried my best to "vote with my wallet" to dodge stuff excessively priced. Still plenty of good stuff to be had for fair prices and reputable labels, especially if you're fatigued on splatter variants and have no interest in paying extra for them. Still gunning for preferred variants, but also realistic with myself in not needing the best-of-the-best mega-deluxe-slipmat-boxset-signed-insert-bullshit version of everything, all time. That's about it.
New Hard Times headline: "Two Alkaline Trio fans confirm Dr. Dre reissue is almost worth purchase price." 😂
In seriousness, I'm glad it wasn't completely disappointing. There's hope!
Mine came in great condition thankfully but yeah that cheap mailer with no padding was terrible. Definitely should have been a gatefold as well I agree. Pressing sounds great though. Already listened one way through and no complaints here
Album title answer 👍 - “My mom worked for years as an emergency room nurse,” explains Matt of the album and song name. “She and her co-workers referred to exceptionally busy nights as ‘blood, hair, and eyeballs’. Well, we’ve been busy making an exceptional record we refer to as Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs, too "
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