Ericj32
Well-Known Member
Is this the first anthology that doesn't have a window of availability advertised? It will just be available...forever?
Everything else aside, I'm glad that they finally dropped that gimmick. I think it would be cool if they continued in the direction of pressing enough of the anthologies so that they were available for all those interested, instead of leaning so hard into the exclusivity side of the product. I'd respect them more as a business if they put enough thought and care into their products that their goal, beyond just selling a bunch of units and making money to cover their costs, was to be a pathway for their customers into certain artists/labels that they felt were important. It would be cool if they were investing in products that they didn't necessarily want to ever sell out of because they were passionate about connecting people with music that would mean something to them over their lifetime. When I'm feeling charitable, I like to think that's what they're doing with the Fiona releases that they keep repressing over and over. They obviously can't afford to do this with everything, but it would be cool to see them lean into a handful of artists or labels and throw their weight in the market behind them. But honestly, it doesn't feel like any of the VMP staff actually enjoy music that way - they push the "you'll feel so stupid later if you miss out on this" and the "yeah, this album is great, and the artist whatever-their-name-is is a talented genius, but our version of it is the only one that matters so just make sure you buy our release specifically" angles so much. I get that they need to sell records, but I feel like they could at least pretend a little harder to convince me that they care about the underlying music.
Also, I'm one who has obviously heard about the Grateful Dead over the years, but never really made a conscious choice to listen to them. Hearing about 20-minute-long live tracks made me think it would sound really repetitive and lazy. The first time I saw Animal Collective live at a festival it was just like a lot of droning noises without any melody or energy - it felt like they were just kind of aimlessly wandering around the ideas of some of their songs and didn't really care if the show ended up coming together in any coherent way. Those memories haven't gone away.
But I'm listening through these albums now on spotify. Workingman's Dead sounded fine - I like the folksiness of it. American Beauty I liked slightly better, but still not really grabbing me. But Live/Dead - yes, this is great. Not nearly as punishingly weird or repetitive as I was bracing for. It's consistently interesting and feels like it's going somewhere. Looking forward to checking out the other albums and recommendations people have made in this thread.
Everything else aside, I'm glad that they finally dropped that gimmick. I think it would be cool if they continued in the direction of pressing enough of the anthologies so that they were available for all those interested, instead of leaning so hard into the exclusivity side of the product. I'd respect them more as a business if they put enough thought and care into their products that their goal, beyond just selling a bunch of units and making money to cover their costs, was to be a pathway for their customers into certain artists/labels that they felt were important. It would be cool if they were investing in products that they didn't necessarily want to ever sell out of because they were passionate about connecting people with music that would mean something to them over their lifetime. When I'm feeling charitable, I like to think that's what they're doing with the Fiona releases that they keep repressing over and over. They obviously can't afford to do this with everything, but it would be cool to see them lean into a handful of artists or labels and throw their weight in the market behind them. But honestly, it doesn't feel like any of the VMP staff actually enjoy music that way - they push the "you'll feel so stupid later if you miss out on this" and the "yeah, this album is great, and the artist whatever-their-name-is is a talented genius, but our version of it is the only one that matters so just make sure you buy our release specifically" angles so much. I get that they need to sell records, but I feel like they could at least pretend a little harder to convince me that they care about the underlying music.
Also, I'm one who has obviously heard about the Grateful Dead over the years, but never really made a conscious choice to listen to them. Hearing about 20-minute-long live tracks made me think it would sound really repetitive and lazy. The first time I saw Animal Collective live at a festival it was just like a lot of droning noises without any melody or energy - it felt like they were just kind of aimlessly wandering around the ideas of some of their songs and didn't really care if the show ended up coming together in any coherent way. Those memories haven't gone away.
But I'm listening through these albums now on spotify. Workingman's Dead sounded fine - I like the folksiness of it. American Beauty I liked slightly better, but still not really grabbing me. But Live/Dead - yes, this is great. Not nearly as punishingly weird or repetitive as I was bracing for. It's consistently interesting and feels like it's going somewhere. Looking forward to checking out the other albums and recommendations people have made in this thread.
