It's been a bit of an insane couple weeks. 

Upon arriving in my hometown, I immediately discovered a brand new pressing of Midnights, this time made in Germany, and I just HAD to get one and see what that was all about. TLDR; it's got a thicker sleeve, slightly thicker vinyl, and a less transparent marbling pressing. Other than that, nothing too crazy.  

Before I left for the holidays, I brought along my spare copy of Lady Gaga's G.U.Y. in hopes that I would be able to trade it for Noah Kahan's Dial Drunk to be able to gift it to my sister for Christmas (given her newfound obsession with Noah's music and apparently country music in general). I was completely(!) out of the luck when all of a sudden I was messaged by the most amazing fellow FB vinyl collector who offered to sell it to me for face value because of a face value sale I had done the previous month. Good karma exists and the timing was perfect.

In fact, it was so perfect that the vinyl arrived at noon on Christmas Eve, a shocking turn of events considering it was two days early and my family celebrate Christmas on the 24th and the party was going to begin in 6 hours. Bless the USPS drivers making their holidays, honestly.

I had also gotten a couple Billie Eillish records from Target's Buy-2-Get-1-Free deal during Black Friday week so I gifted those to my sister as well. Overall, it was a really fun Christmas. I myself was gifted protective inner + outer sleeves for my vinyl and also a Big Fudge record cleaning kit and I am eternally grateful because I am SURE those are going to be continuously used until they run out/fall apart.

A couple days ago, I was browsing through my instagram for you page when I discovered that the soundtrack to Red, White, and Royal Blue (RWRB) was pressed on non-picture disc vinyl. Initially, I had seen that RWRB was getting a vinyl released but it was announced as a web-store Picture Disc and nothing was really said about other variants. I then saw that B&N was getting a release but there hadn't been a picture yet so I didn't know what to expect and passed on it, thinking it was a picture disc and I didn't know if I cared for one if it wasn't going to sound good. Little did I realize, it was a gorgeous white with red and blue splatter! I immediately went to the B&N site and reserved a copy at my local store and picked it up the next day right when they opened and I sped off to work 45 minutes away, just barely making it in time. Phew!

As the year comes to an end, I'm fortunate to have been able to start this new hobby and collect so many amazing albums and songs and expand my knowledge and taste in music. Armed with many a gift cards, I'm sure 2024 will be an amazing year in vinyl and I can't wait to dive in.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to one and all!

In just two weeks I've somehow gone from no more pre-orders to ALL of the pre-orders in the world.

Just yesterday Dua Lipa released a clear 7" single of her newest single Houdini and the amazing price got me. It was only $9.98! Not including shipping, but single digits pricing is practically unheard of in 2023. I ordered two copies because I figured someone would forget to order it and miss out so might as well see if I can help someone out.

A few days ago, Noah Kahan released a translucent 7" of Stick Season, including Northern Attitudes (feat. Hozier) on the B-side. I've heard both songs and Noah is my sister's current favorite singer so I grabbed a couple copies as well. Two copies, specifically, because they were UK exclusives and the packaging for them is never sufficient and I'm scared it'll get bent. Since they're UK exclusives, I think that they'll be slightly less common in the US and I can try and get one traded for that Dial Drunk 7" I'm still after.

Speaking of Hozier and UK shipping! I'm currently waiting for a copy of Hozier's 10th anniversary 7" of his iconic single Take Me to Church to arrive. It's apparently coming via cargo ship from Germany so it might be a hot second until it does. It comes with a die-cut sleeve which isn't amazing, but I've already designed a replacement jacket sleeve like how I did for 'the lakes' RSD from 2022.

I was tempted and eventually ordered a copy of Tate McRae's newest album THINK LATER because I thought Greedy was a BOP. It's such a fun song. I figured I'd keep it if I liked the rest of the album and resell it if not.

Further back, Frank Ocean's Blond restocked on his site. It is 100% the most expensive retail 2xLP I've EVER bought. $70 each is actually insane but I suppose it matched the demand? I'm not even going to lie, I got caught up in the hype and I only know one song from Blonde (retitled Blonde on this release): Pink + White. It was used in an episode of Shameless and it was truly a beautiful moment.

Even earlier, Varese Sarabande released the first ever pressing for the television show 'Lost' and I had to snatch it up. I believe it was limited to 500 or so, which is extremely less than I imagined for such a beloved show.

Troye Sivan's One Of Your Girls was also just released on a picture disc 7" single, and I of course had to grab it as well. When can we expect Got Me Started's 7" release? 

Time to wait and see...

This is new! I've never done blog posts before so this might just be paragraphs of me rambling and just spouting absolutely boring nonsense. But hopefully something in here is interesting to you?

Today I received the Lover House Snowglobe from Taylor Swift's merch store! I placed it next to my Lover vinyl and the two ME! singles I have and I have to say, this collection is taking shape slowly but steadily. I just wish I had Lover Live from Paris! But then again, who doesn't?

Today is my sister's birthday. During a recent trip to my local Urban Outfitter's, I found a copy of Lady Gaga's G.U.Y. 7" single. After trading it for Billie Eilish's singles day vinyl from that same collection, I had it shipped to her and now she has a copy of What Was I Made For? on pretty pink translucent vinyl from one of her favorite artists. Not going to lie, this is a big brother W.

In addition, I saw the new Hozier release: the 10th anniversary 7" pressing of his hit single Take Me To Church and I ended up getting a copy as well. I'm not a super big fan of the $9 shipping overseas but I'm the least excited about the paper thin flimsy envelopes my last two recordstore.co.uk purchases have come in. The first one was Olivia Rodrigo's vampire and that thankfully turned up fine, but the second was Olivia's Can't Catch Me Now and it did not survive the trek completely fine, sadly. But I ended up trading that one for an unsealed copy of Olivia's SOUR on translucent blue (to pair with my magenta translucent copy) so I'm not too pressed (get it? pressed? I think I can be funny).

Speaking of trading, I also traded my extra copy of Lana Del Rey's Say Yes to Heaven 7" single for her (at the time) sold out Candy Necklace 7". It's since restocked on her site but I'm okay with the original pressing, you know? I never thought I'd collect Lana's discography but her music is just hauntingly beautiful.

I'm hoping that copy of SOUR and Troye Sivan's Rush arrive in the mail sometime soon; I'm headed on an extended vacation by the end of the week so if I don't get them in-hand I won't see them until mid January! Omar Apollo's signed Live For Me is on the way as well but it's stuck in the Californian equivalent of FernJail. 

Now that my snowglobe has arrived in the mail and I've got the two folklores, the Midnights clock, and the 1989 shelves... it's occurred to me I don't have any Taylor orders on the way or in FernJail. Something ominous this way comes... Reputation (Taylor's Version) is on the way. I can feel it.

That being said, I've learned my lesson. Absolutely do not place any pre-orders for any vinyl variants when they'll 113% come back the day before the album drops as a 'Final Chance!' drop. I made that mistake during 1989's elongated release schedule and my last minute bulk order shipped wayyyy faster than most people's individual's.