Show some spine!

throwingthings

throwingthings

Active Member
I can’t be the only person on here who never sees a photo of some record shelves without feeling the urge to zoom in and scan the spines. I’ll cruise Facebook Marketplace for record shelving, just to linger on the unlikely discovery of an obscure Scott Tuma LP among the contents, or pause the frame on a YouTube clip to confirm that Chloe Sevigny has a Blonde Redhead CD in her closet. Post a pic in the What’s Spinning thread? I’m eyeing those Numero catalog numbers peeking out from under your table. Invite me over to your house for a cocktail party? You know I won’t be straying too far from the Kallax.

Then there’s the subtle art of spine design, where a scant few elements—typography, color, the occasional wraparound of cover art spilling over the edge—bear the weight of a record’s identity, either leaping out from a shelf with bold lettering, or blending in with a label’s rigid aesthetic.

Whether it’s the thrill of recognition, the mystery of subjective taste, or just good old dopaminergic, pattern-seeking hunting behavior, I can’t get enough of those slender edges pressed together, each a narrow portal to another world…

So, here’s a thread for posting spines. Snap a pic of the A-H run of your jazz section, or a wad of new arrivals. Or flex that macro lens on your fancy cell phone to capture one record’s singular spinal majesty. Or just comment on the perplexity of another boarder’s chaotic organizational method!

A couple shots to get us going—one night, imagining an impending tornado, I decided to gather see how many of my favorite records I could grab in 20 minutes. What would I reach for? Rare treasures or beloved commons? Here’s what I came up with:
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And, conversely, here’s what a small selection all sporting what might be my favorite spine font—today, at least:
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Love this!

I've always been a big fan of spine design: in books, graphic novels, CDs and LPs. They can bring such joy (like a sweet run of Impulse! orange spines) and annoyance (blank spines, inverse spines and spines that misalign with the rest of their series.)

Figured the most obvious place to start for me would be here:
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I particularly love the slightly warped quality gained from taking this shot as panoramic. Also, there are 3 or 4 titles missing because they are still in one of my "to play" boxes. Also the box sets and a bunch of my Ra-adjacent stuff had to shift out of here due to spatial constraints over the past year or so.

And here's the shelf above:
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avecigrec said:
Love this!

I've always been a big fan of spine design: in books, graphic novels, CDs and LPs. They can bring such joy (like a sweet run of Impulse! orange spines) and annoyance (blank spines, inverse spines and spines that misalign with the rest of their series.)

Figured the most obvious place to start for me would be here:
View attachment 205926

I particularly love the slightly warped quality gained from taking this shot as panoramic. Also, there are 3 or 4 titles missing because they are still in one of my "to play" boxes. Also the box sets and a bunch of my Ra-adjacent stuff had to shift out of here due to spatial constraints over the past year or so.

And here's the shelf above:
View attachment 205927
Click to expand...
The shrine of a true acolyte!! What was your first Sun Ra LP? Mine was an old Scorpio-type pressing of Other Planes of There. Such a daunting discography…

I found the Aye Aton book in my office at the museum where I work. We had one of his paintings on display (with black light!) last year—I got to walk by it every day on my way in.
 
throwingthings said:
What was your first Sun Ra LP?
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My first Sun Ra album was an Impulse!-spined digipack CD copy of Space Is The Place about 20 years ago.

My first Sun Ra LP was the Norton Records compilation of old doo-wop and vocal group recordings, The Second Stop Is Jupiter about 5 years ago.

Definitely a very daunting discography, but a very rewarding one too! I very much enjoyed being as haphazard as could possibly be in my exploration, but also take great joy in helping guide others into it in ways that hopefully best suit their tastes.
 
Mtcvinyl said:
I cycle in a spine shot of one of my shelves as my phone wallpaper from time to time.

Here is a couple of mine.

View attachment 205929

View attachment 205930
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that “fight club” OST spine is an unusual one—looking it up on discogs, i see the vertical obi bears an epigram that hits a little too close to home: "We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like." 😳
 
throwingthings said:
ok this first name alphabetical order stuff is bonkers. i hope you don’t file all of the artists that start with “the” together!!

the weirdest sandwich here has to be american football➡️ amon amarth ➡️antonin dvorak
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I keep looking at the two cubes I did like it and thinking to myself, "I'm going to sort those out properly today, it's just not right."

Haven't done it yet :D
 
OMC said:
Fun thread. Here’s the jazz section with random box sets and 12” singles on the bottom row:
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And then a random portion of it:
View attachment 205958
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really nice collection! my jazz spines look a lot like this—fewer outers than in my other sections, reflecting the fact that a lot of my jazz pickups over the years have been at garage sales, estate sales, thrifts and vintage stores, rather than record stores where they are almost always priced at top dollar.

as much as i understand the audiophile frenzy in jazz, i'd take an earlier VG pressing over a tone poet for all but the most perfect of albums. having a well-loved 6-eye copy of "kind of blue" gives me a greater sense of connection with the music, and to the social history that surrounds it, than a new AAA pressing. i also find that listening to jazz is really an exercise in focusing one's ears, so to speak—one has to be an active listener. the emphasis on mastering and perfect pressings tends to shift my listening focus away from the playing and towards the production. learning to hear through some surface noise has been a crucial part of my jazz education!

based on the stuff you have here, i think you would dig serge chaloff's blue serge—one of my favorite jazz lp's that can typically be found for under $5 in a perfectly good "capitol jazz classics" reissue
 
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