A Lot on My Crate

My kitty cat, Charli says hi! So, I figured since the name of this blog is a record pun, then I should act upon it. Therefore, I’m going to commence this series by showing off my record collection and talk about this hobby I love by collecting all these pieces of wax. Doing this will also give me the excuse to organize my records. These things made out of PVC just give me so much joy, ever since I had started collecting them during the pandemic. It’s an expensive hobby and pretty pennies were spent, but it’s so worth it after seeing them on your shelf and spinning on your turntable. In my opinion, buying a physical copy of an album gives more meaning on how dear you hold the artist’s actual music to your heart. Whether it’s CDs, cassettes, or vinyl records, just having something tangible that’s in your hand always feels you have more of a connection to their art, as opposed to the digital streaming suits that tells us otherwise. Not only that, but physical sales helps support them financially too way more than streaming by orders of magnitude. I also love to collect music digitally in my ever growing collection of local digital files. But the concept of hearing the wax spinning on the platter just sounds so trippy to me, as I’ve listened to music on my MP3 player, CD player, or phone for most of my life. I want to show this collection, because it always seems fun to share something you’re passionate about and hopefully you’ll get to know me better! The window to my soul, if you will! Let’s start with five pieces of them for part one.

Flowerboy by Tyler, The Creator

Starting with the very first record I own, is Flowerboy by Tyler, the Creator. So, the story before my voyage of record collecting, is despite me being a lover of music, I was afraid of the pitfall that is spending a ridiculous amount of money to sate my hunger in this hobby. I’ve already owned a bunch of digital mp3 files to listen to and that was enough of me. Until a friend of mine gifted me this for my birthday during the pandemic. That was the gun that started it all and I was off to the races to search for more vinyl. I was hooked. There are more beautiful colorful pressings of this album, but this one is special to me, since it’s my first and I’m disciplined enough not to get duplicates. But Flowerboy. Man, Flowerboy is such milestone for Tyler. I liked many of his edgy tracks back in the day in albums like Wolf and Cherry Bomb, but I didn’t invest that much attention to him as I thought he was just a novel hip hop artist, but after this one came out, I was floored. I can’t think of many transformations like that as if it made him come out of his creative cocoon and starts pumping out some of the most influential music in the last few years. This is a classic.

What Color is Love by Terry Callier

I first heard of jazz and soul artist, Terry Callier through a song through one of my favorite producers, Nujabes. “Ordinary Joe” was a collab between the two on Nujabe’s record, Modal Soul. The song was just a blissful jazz number with groovy percussion, piano, and a flute solo. It exudes a warm feeling so this man was on my radar for a while. Then I came across this 1972 album that is What Color is Love and I’m going to be honest, the hot naked woman caught my eye before Callier’s name. Judge meeeee. So, after I gave it a listen, I was very moved. Some very beautiful soul music that feels like a loving embrace. Listen to this if you want to time travel to the 70s and hear Callier’s voice thrive.

Riposte by Buke & Gase

I randomly saw a flier of this indie rock duo in Chicago and decided to dive into their debut that is Riposte and it is a knock out of the park. I recommend this album if you want your rock to have a little punch and hype your day off. I love the percussive power from their songs and the unhinged vocals from Arone Dyer. I like to try to sell you on listening to them by saying there are a lot of artists with more members and more production and they couldn’t match these two. Their energy is not containable. Unfortunately, they announced they’re splitting up as they are thankfully are on good terms, but Dyer is pregnant and she has stated that the industry is crushing them by hoarding their earnings. Which is a justifiable rant on how much artists are being screwed time and time again. It sucks. She also spoke on how AI is encroaching artists’ territory on leeching their streams. More reasons to hate AI…It really bites that is their reason on leaving, but man have they made an impact. Enough of an impact that I got this badass album.

Revengeseekerz by Jane Remover

From one of the newer releases from last year, I blogged about this a while ago, but this killer album is Revengeseekerz by Jane Remover. A great rage album and puts them on the map for so many music fans. Jane really found a way to make this sound so crazy while tiptoeing on the fence of chaos. Check out my overview of this album since I’ve talked about it, but yeah I love this neon orange color pressing. I was looking for a colored pressing of this one and was considering of getting a copy at Urban Outfitters. They got some pressings I like and I bought some, don’t get me wrong, just sometimes they can be expensive, so I got this one at Turntable Lab. Great online storefront. And I love this color better!

Frozen: The Songs by Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez

Lastly on this one it’ll be something fun. I love Disney movies and their songs (not the corporation). Disney pressings of their soundtrack are many a times picture discs. And even though I heard the sound quality of picture disc pressings are better than they were before, I still swore myself off of them as I much found them to be more of a gimmick than colored pressings. So, thankfully I found this colored one made in Europe along with many other Disney soundtracks. The import shipping fees was outstanding, which bites. But yeah! “Let It Go” sung by Idina Menzel who I associate her with the Rent movie sang a banger that made both the kids go crazy and their parents go cuckoo. It was so popular back in the day as many of you would know, but now it’s Kpop Demon Hunters being cool right now. But Frozen is still a fun time! I loved the first movie and the songs. Not only do we have “Let It Go”, but we also got our “Frozen Heart”, “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”, and the paragon of American cinema songwriting that is “Reindeers Are Better Than People.” Whenever I’m in my theatrical mood, I slap this one on queue. As my inner child refuses to die and lives to spite others.

But that’s it for my collection. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I would love to show more sometime later. I really love this hobby despite it being so expensive, but it is totally worth it. If you got the passion and the bucks to shell. I recommend it! You’ll not only be fulfilling your passion for music, but you’ll also be supporting artists. Sorry for sounding like a broken record. Annnnd that is my cue to stop.