Vinyl motherlode!

Well, o well - we have been blessed with a generous mid-Winter haul of glorious new and reissue LPs - just to help you make it through the chilly season. Not least of which are the Blur reissues - all the individual LPs on double vinyl, remastered, and with downloads. The individual CD albums with extra tracks on a bonus disc of B-sides and outtakes. And, then, of course the big bad box sets - the vinyl one (very limited, all 7 albums) and the CD/DVD set - 18 CDs, 3 DVDs and a 7". Good heavens! What a magnificent catalogue of songs - the best British group since The Smiths?! Also impressing as of late are The Eversons superb debut "Summer Feeling", on lurid pale green vinyl from the good folks at Lil Chief. A bold collection of songs, great singing, hilarious lyrics. Buy it now so you can say "I've been into them for ages, actually" when they 'go imperial'... The other candidate for album of the year for me so far would have to be Lawrence Arabia's "The Sparrow". A dark, uncompromising suite of songs that really does grow on you over time, and we have limited copies of the limited vinyl for a limited time, etc. It comes with a CD of the album, too. And the strings and horns-enabled show at the Wellington Opera House was really quite terrific. We also got our hands on some copies of the reissue of David Kilgour's dynamite debut LP "Here Come The Cars" - a light, airy collection of sweet, melodic songs that are guaranteed to warm the air they float through. Or - how's about more copies of Flying Nun's "Time To Go" 2LP compilation of predominantly Christchurch southern psychedelic sounds - tres magnifique! Plus - just arrived - a 2LP, gatefold sleeve reissue of The Clean's "Oddities". We also got a few stray copies of Paul & Linda McCartney's magnificent, and underrated "Ram" - the big kahuna 2LP set, plus the very limited mono issue. You snooze, you lose, you know the drill... On CD at the moment, we are digging on Light In The Attic's awesome "Country Funk 1969-1975". Funky country - who'da thunken it could be so much fun?! And yes, we should have vinyl soon... We are also loving, still, Rodriguez' socially-aware, funky folk-pop opus "Cold Fact", as well as the underrated follow-up "Coming From Reality" - and the film about him, "Searching For Sugar Man" looks to be a bit of a highlight of the soon-come International Film Festival... And - we are planning some more in-store action that will be totally bangin' - watch this space! Take care, keep warm, drive safe - come see us sometime. The Slow Boat Crew X