Vinyl Me Please Essentials

I honestly think it's hard for them to hit the sweet spot between an unknown album and a classic, essential record.
Of course it is. While I wont be picking it up personally, after reading into the story of Jim Sullivan UFO I think that's an excellent pick. Picking a brand new Sleater Kinney album as essential on the other hand was not
 
Of course it is. While I wont be picking it up personally, after reading into the story of Jim Sullivan UFO I think that's an excellent pick. Picking a brand new Sleater Kinney album as essential on the other hand was not
I think the Sleater-Kinney ROTM pick was a poor pick. This Sleater-Kinney record is one of their weakest efforts yet. It wasn’t a unique album/listening experience like Mitski’s Be The Cowboy, St Vincent’s Masseduction or Moses Sumney’s Aromanticism was! Those were great new-release Essential ROTM picks!

You have to be very careful with picking a new album to be an Essentials ROTM. It can work, but it needs to be a “WOW” record that is unique, immaculate, contains little or no filler and really stands out. Weyes Blood’s Titanic Rising would have been an excellent pick, as would Tyler The Creator’s IGOR (for a 2019 Essentials ROTM) Both albums are very unique, relatable, have a great story behind them and have amazing instrumentation. They are both albums where the more you listen to them, the more you unfold and uncover! Sleater-Kinney’s The Center Won’t Hold doesn’t have those qualities and there are filler tracks in there.

I hope VMP continue to only do one new-release ROTM per year. If they do none, even better! But I know that won’t be the case. So only one new release Essentials ROTM is the way I hope it stays!
 
As evidenced by this very thread anyone who ardently collects vinyl likely has Soft Bulletin in the stack. Fuck, their own hi-fives séries saw the album touted. It’s a fine essentials pick But it takes nearly zero effort to come to that conclusion and probably even less to get it into production. The Lips are passionate about vinyl so I doubt there are any speed bumps. Furthermore, there is going to be zero controversy to have to defend the pick, aka boring.

I don’t think I’ve ever really faulted the essentials moniker. I think a better name would suit them. For the era and genre there are far more adventuresome and exciting picks (like say, Live Through This).

I stand by the lazy accusation.
Different tastes buddy. I would say I slot into the 'anyone who ardently collects vinyl' category, much to the annoyance of my girlfriend, but I've never even heard of Soft Bulletin and have only ever listened to 'yoshimi battles the pink robots' (which I happen to have because it was so cheap). The fact that you are pointing it out to be such an obvious pick directly translates to an 'Essential' to me, and therefore fits in with the aim of the sub.

Now equally I could point out a number of Jazz records that I would classify as essential, but theres a good chance a non-jazz listener would not have heard it.
 
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I think the Sleater-Kinney ROTM pick was a poor pick. This Sleater-Kinney record is one of their weakest efforts yet. It wasn’t a unique album/listening experience like Mitski’s Be The Cowboy, St Vincent’s Masseduction or Moses Sumney’s Aromanticism was! Those were great new-release Essential ROTM picks!

You have to be very careful with picking a new album to be an Essentials ROTM. It can work, but it needs to be a “WOW” record that is unique, immaculate, contains little or no filler and really stands out. Weyes Blood’s Titanic Rising would have been an excellent pick, as would Tyler The Creator’s IGOR (for a 2019 Essentials ROTM) Both albums are very unique, relatable, have a great story behind them and have amazing instrumentation. They are both albums where the more you listen to them, the more you unfold and uncover! Sleater-Kinney’s The Center Won’t Hold doesn’t have those qualities and there are filler tracks in there.

I hope VMP continue to only do one new-release ROTM per year. If they do none, even better! But I know that won’t be the case. So only one new release Essentials ROTM is the way I hope it stays!

I've made this argument before: take the name Sleater-Kinney off of that album, and it's a great record!
 
I guess I already knew it wouldn't happen, but seeing the 9th album clue crushes the tiny bit of hope I had of seeing 54-40's Smilin' Buddha Cabaret get a pressing.

Soft Bulletin is already easily obtained.
At $50 (canada) I want Buddha, or Scott Weiland's 12 Bar Blues, or Rusty's Fluke (all never pressed at all), or a cool repress of something actually unattainable like Beck's Mellow Gold (include Loser EP), Whale's We Care or PJ's Rid Of Me. There are myriad more essential 90s alternative albums that would be far more deserving.
 
I think the Sleater-Kinney ROTM pick was a poor pick. This Sleater-Kinney record is one of their weakest efforts yet. It wasn’t a unique album/listening experience like Mitski’s Be The Cowboy, St Vincent’s Masseduction or Moses Sumney’s Aromanticism was! Those were great new-release Essential ROTM picks!

You have to be very careful with picking a new album to be an Essentials ROTM. It can work, but it needs to be a “WOW” record that is unique, immaculate, contains little or no filler and really stands out. Weyes Blood’s Titanic Rising would have been an excellent pick, as would Tyler The Creator’s IGOR (for a 2019 Essentials ROTM) Both albums are very unique, relatable, have a great story behind them and have amazing instrumentation. They are both albums where the more you listen to them, the more you unfold and uncover! Sleater-Kinney’s The Center Won’t Hold doesn’t have those qualities and there are filler tracks in there.

I hope VMP continue to only do one new-release ROTM per year. If they do none, even better! But I know that won’t be the case. So only one new release Essentials ROTM is the way I hope it stays!
Yep I agree with you buddy
 
As evidenced by this very thread anyone who ardently collects vinyl likely has Soft Bulletin in the stack. F

Just chiming in as another "ardent vinyl collector" who doesn't own The Soft Bulletin on vinyl. I owned it on CD, at some point. I've never really liked the Flaming Lips, though (can't stand the vocals).

I think The Soft Bulletin is a good Essentials pick, but I may use this opportunity to unsubscribe because I'm not sure I want to pay $27 for it.
 
Just chiming in as another "ardent vinyl collector" who doesn't own The Soft Bulletin on vinyl. I owned it on CD, at some point. I've never really liked the Flaming Lips, though (can't stand the vocals).

I think The Soft Bulletin is a good Essentials pick, but I may use this opportunity to unsubscribe because I'm not sure I want to pay $27 for it.
Not to pile on here, but I also don't think Essentials is necessarily targeted toward the ardent vinyl collector. It's an entry point for beginners who don't know where to start and get enticed by the promise of a monthly delivery of colored vinyl, an art print, and a cocktail recipe. At least that's what it was for me when I was starting out 2-3 years ago.
 
I've never really liked the Flaming Lips, though (can't stand the vocals).

Do you like Neil Young?
I've always thought of Wayne's voice as being similar to Neil Young's, very on-the-edge but vulnerable. Truth told, I am not sure I would want to hear either of their music with other people's voices on those tracks. When it works, it works, especially on something as beautiful as "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate."
 
If it is The Soft Bulletin, I really, really hope that it includes the alternate mixes of "Race For The Prize" and "Waiting For Superman" (Mokran remix) that were on the US CD version. I've always preferred the Mokran remix of "Superman" anyway.
Thoughts on what the LP would look like? I have fingers crossed for clear with blue and yellow splatter.
 
Do you like Neil Young?
I've always thought of Wayne's voice as being similar to Neil Young's, very on-the-edge but vulnerable. Truth told, I am not sure I would want to hear either of their music with other people's voices on those tracks. When it works, it works, especially on something as beautiful as "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate."

I love Neil Young, and yes I do find his voice quite endearing. I get the comp, but my brain registers one as "fragile beauty" and the other as "please find someone else to sing your songs."
 
Do you like Neil Young?
I've always thought of Wayne's voice as being similar to Neil Young's, very on-the-edge but vulnerable. Truth told, I am not sure I would want to hear either of their music with other people's voices on those tracks. When it works, it works, especially on something as beautiful as "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate."
I love Neil Young, and yes I do find his voice quite endearing. I get the comp, but my brain registers one as "fragile beauty" and the other as "please find someone else to sing your songs."
I also love Neil Young but do not like TFL at all. Looks like an insta-swap for me.
 
Do you like Neil Young?
I've always thought of Wayne's voice as being similar to Neil Young's, very on-the-edge but vulnerable. Truth told, I am not sure I would want to hear either of their music with other people's voices on those tracks. When it works, it works, especially on something as beautiful as "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate."
I don't even think Wayne Coyne liked his own voice at first. That's why they drowned it in reverb in the early years. I heard him talk about it on XM radio a few years back.
 
If it is The Soft Bulletin, I really, really hope that it includes the alternate mixes of "Race For The Prize" and "Waiting For Superman" (Mokran remix) that were on the US CD version. I've always preferred the Mokran remix of "Superman" anyway.
Thoughts on what the LP would look like? I have fingers crossed for clear with blue and yellow splatter.
Splatter would be awesome! I’m thinking we might get one solid blue and one yellow LP. Possibly a 7” with the remix and alternates. I do think they are going to give us a nice gatefold though. Not sure if it will be the 2017 mix or not which someone mentioned earlier. I just really hope they put some good effort into the packaging here.
 
I listened to my copy of Soft Bulletin pretty recently and enjoyed it. My first experience with the album being the US CD that included the Mokran remixes and omitted "Slow Motion", it's still jarring to hear those differences on the vinyl, but not *bad*, necessarily. I guess Slow Motion has been shifted around in the tracklist on various releases over the years, too, so I hope a VMP version wouldn't create yet another change there.
 
If it's Soft Bulletin, I'd love to get the mix/tracklist on the 2006 DVD-Audio reissue on vinyl. That 5.1 mix was great too, imagine if they did a quadrophonic pressing.....

And as a stretch for an exclusive, how about a first vinyl pressing of Steve Burns - Songs for Dustmites? It's got Steven Drozd on most of the tracks.
 
If it's Soft Bulletin, I'd love to get the mix/tracklist on the 2006 DVD-Audio reissue on vinyl. That 5.1 mix was great too, imagine if they did a quadrophonic pressing.....

And as a stretch for an exclusive, how about a first vinyl pressing of Steve Burns - Songs for Dustmites? It's got Steven Drozd on most of the tracks.
I love "Mighty Little Man" and also that the Blue's Clues guy could rock so hard.
 
I love "Mighty Little Man" and also that the Blue's Clues guy could rock so hard.

That and Troposphere. Great tracks.

I saw him when he toured behind Songs For Dustmites. I think the Starlight Mints backed him up. Incredibly loud show, and it was so weird to see Steve sitting at a bar...
 
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