Arts & Crafts Record Club

That sure makes a person feel welcome after dropping some bucks, eh?

Yeah, it was a little off-putting. But then the entire experience since then has been great, so I hadn't really thought of it again until just yesterday and again when you asked. I just wonder if they're spread a bit thin staffwise and email responses slip through thr cracks a bit as a result? Not sure. A few years ago I had great respons time from them around an order I'd placed, but that was pre-club, so who knows.

Maybe I should tell them to hire me to be their Record Club communications guy...

Anyhow, hopefully outside this little hiccup your overall experience is a good one!
 
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Gabrielle Shonk’s ‘Across The Room’: How do you come back to yourself? First, it’s important to understand you have become lost, and admit you’ve veered off path. How then do you begin to piece yourself back together? This is the journey Gabrielle Shonk, the JUNO Award-nominated singer and songwriter, takes us on with her sophomore album, Across The Room.

The eleven-track record chronicles the big and small feelings of heartache, and the hope that comes with endings and new beginnings. This excavation of self and purpose seemed to be a long time coming. “It's not always the easiest to look inward. But, when it is easy, you hold on to all those small victories— finding a sense of wholeness within yourself.” Every track on Across The Room began as a feeling. Each was the seed of something Shonk noted down and stashed away for later, once she had felt what she needed and could reasonably tackle such subject matter later on. Because the process of moving on begins with coming to terms with a feeling before understanding what really happened. Clarity always comes later.

And that’s the throughline of this sublime sophomore offering. Across The Room, a deeply personal and lucid record, is the result of years of feeling, thinking, and breathing life back into a creative spirit.

Sarah Harmer’s ‘Are You Gone’: Multi-award-winning, platinum-selling singer-songwriter and environmental activist Sarah Harmer released Are You Gone, her first album in a decade, on February 21st, 2020. A deeply personal and political collection of songs motivated by the beauty of life, the urgency of the climate crisis, and the question of loss, Sarah called the album a spiritual successor of sorts to her acclaimed 2000 debut, You Were Here, which made many year-end critics’ lists, and which TIME called the year’s best debut album. Its simple title, Are You Gone, is a meditation on the idea of presence, and a bookend to the questions posed on You Were Here - a sharpened, more electric confrontation with the realities of nature and human nature.
 
I contemplated swapping this Sarah Harmer for her first one as I've fond memories of that one and am not very familiar with this one, but I've decided to just keep both and hope to pick up her other one if I'm swapping down the line (Pierre Kwenders is my other top pick currently in swaps.)

@ranbalam You ever hear back?
I haven't. It's kind of weird joining a club and yet I don't know what I'm getting and when it's coming.
I'll follow Iris Dement's advice I guess: Let the Mystery Be.
 
I haven't. It's kind of weird joining a club and yet I don't know what I'm getting and when it's coming.
I'll follow Iris Dement's advice I guess: Let the Mystery Be.

That's such a bummer.

I don't recall getting anything when I signed up, I guess because I was after whatever swap window they have?

Ever since I have, though. I was getting worried about this next one, but it just came in this morning. For some reason, it goes to my "Promotions" tab in Gmail, rather than my main inbox. It's titled A&C Record Club - Next round, and their selections are in my earlier post. If you don't get the email by later today I can happily send you the link for the swap page. We have until June 25th to get our choices made.
 
That's such a bummer.

I don't recall getting anything when I signed up, I guess because I was after whatever swap window they have?

Ever since I have, though. I was getting worried about this next one, but it just came in this morning. For some reason, it goes to my "Promotions" tab in Gmail, rather than my main inbox. It's titled A&C Record Club - Next round, and their selections are in my earlier post. If you don't get the email by later today I can happily send you the link for the swap page. We have until June 25th to get our choices made.
haha, not kidding, I got an email from them at 1:59 today!
 
Now I have to decide if I want these two or if I am swapping. I really want Andy Shauf - Norm.

The last email came the day my Newberry exclusive of The Neon Skyline arrived and Norm was one of the choices, then I swapped the BSS they had chosen for Wilds and suddenly I now have the more recent half of his catalogue on the shelf! Now I really need to get a copy of The Party.
 
The last email came the day my Newberry exclusive of The Neon Skyline arrived and Norm was one of the choices, then I swapped the BSS they had chosen for Wilds and suddenly I now have the more recent half of his catalogue on the shelf! Now I really need to get a copy of The Party.
so glad you're digging him. The Party is really fantastic. The last track on that album gives me all the feels
 
so glad you're digging him. The Party is really fantastic. The last track on that album gives me all the feels

When The Neon Skyline came out I think it must have turned up in my recommendations or something because I wasn't familiar with him at all, but I took a chance on it and immediately pressed play again when my first listen ended - not something I do very often. I then did some searching and found out he'd performed on the CBC show Q that day so I immediately queued that up and during the course of that listen discovered a friend of mine I'd not seen in a decade or so was actually in his band! The next day I picked up a copy of it on CD (this was about a month or so before I got a turntable) and have considered myself a fan since, but haven't given The Party a proper listen yet. I really need to change that.
 
When The Neon Skyline came out I think it must have turned up in my recommendations or something because I wasn't familiar with him at all, but I took a chance on it and immediately pressed play again when my first listen ended - not something I do very often. I then did some searching and found out he'd performed on the CBC show Q that day so I immediately queued that up and during the course of that listen discovered a friend of mine I'd not seen in a decade or so was actually in his band! The next day I picked up a copy of it on CD (this was about a month or so before I got a turntable) and have considered myself a fan since, but haven't given The Party a proper listen yet. I really need to change that.
said this earlier in a the thread i think, but The Party was the first time I had heard of him and have followed him ever since. have only seen him live once. he actually just played in London the night we got there a few weeks ago but didn't find out until the night after! not that we could have gone anyway with the little guy but....would love to see him live again soon.
 
said this earlier in a the thread i think, but The Party was the first time I had heard of him and have followed him ever since. have only seen him live once. he actually just played in London the night we got there a few weeks ago but didn't find out until the night after! not that we could have gone anyway with the little guy but....would love to see him live again soon.

Haven't seen him live yet, myself, but would love to for sure.

He's a helluva songwriter!
 
I swapped both because there were two titles I really wanted when I first explored the store.
I got Jean-Michael Blais - aubades and Andy Shauf - Norm
 
I still haven't checked out my Gabrielle Shonk from the last shipment but the Sarah Harmer was quite nice, as expected.

I wonder if the new Hayden is going to be the next "new" pick.

I'm really hoping the "classic" pick for the next set is something from Cold Specks (which would make sense, since I finally ordered a used copy of her debut!) or Constantines.

Either way, I'm excited to find out what's in the pipeline!
 
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Gord Downie and Bob Rock’s Lustre Parfait is one of this month's selections and I couldn't be more stoked! Not only because I love Gord Downie, but also because getting it through the club is damn near half what it would cost to buy the album at any stores near me!

Hannah Georgas’ I’d Be Lying If I Said I Didn’t Care is probably a swap for me - though I'm not sure for what. Gonna have to give it and some other things a bit of a go-over to decide what I'll ultimately go with. Good thing we've got a few days...
 
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Gord Downie and Bob Rock’s Lustre Parfait is one of this month's selections and I couldn't be more stoked! Not only because I love Gord Downie, but also because getting it through the club is damn near half what it would cost to buy the album at any stores near me!

Hannah Georgas’ I’d Be Lying If I Said I Didn’t Care is probably a swap for me - though I'm not sure for what. Gonna have to give it and some other things a bit of a go-over to decide what I'll ultimately go with. Good thing we've got a few days...

Without having checked out the few bands I'm unfamiliar with yet, I'm leaning toward swapping Hannah for Sarah Harmer's debut.
 
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