Conan Gray – Wishbone

Label: Republic Records - none
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Test Pressing, White Label
Country: US
Release: August 15, 2025
Genre: Pop
Style: Indie Pop, Ballad

Tracklist
A1 Actor
A2 This Song
A3 Vodka Cranberry
A4 Romeo
A5 My World
A6 Class Clown
B1 Nauseous
B2 Caramel
B3 Connell
B4 Sunset Tower
B5 Eleven Eleven
B6 Care

Pressed By – GZ Media

Notes
One of one test pressing made available through a giveaway from the artist's team.

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Doesn't that look great? On the last day of July, Conan and his team annnounced that from July 31st through August 13th, people who pre-saved Conan's upcoming album Wishbone would be entered for a chance to win the exclusive test pressing. I absolutely entered as soon as I saw. I sent it to everyone I know asking them to enter.

It would be an honor of a lifetime to win this singular copy and be able to take care of it and document it in the discogs database. Quite frankly there is no one else I would trust to do it correctly.

Knowing my luck (having already used all of it up), I don't think I'll get it. But I hope that whoever does get it doesn't just immediately put it up for sale and make it disappear from the face of the Earth. Or maybe a lucky acquaintance who wins will allow me the opportunity to borrow the pressing for a documentation and then send it back to them.

On this monumental day in May, we get to celebrate the return of the first six studio albums from Taylor Swift back to their rightful owner–Taylor herself. At a price of $300 millions dollars (compared to the $406 million they originally sold for in 2019), Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation are now no longer under the ownership of Shamrock Holdings but Taylor Alison Swift.

Now, the question everyone's asking: what's next?

First and foremost, plans for the release of Taylor's final two re-recordings, Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version) & Reputation (Taylor's Version) have been halted indefinitely. The singer announced that future releases of the album would be for celebration purposes only instead of the "place of sadness and longing" that she released her first four re-recordings with. Reportedly, while the debut album was completely finished, it's unclear how much of Reputation was re-recorded: her words being "I haven't even re-recorded a quarter of it". Seeing as Delicate (Taylor's Version) and Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor's Version) made their ways to various television programming, it's likely these two were the only ones recorded, or two of three if we're taking the 'quarter' language seriously.

That being said, the completion of the debut album leaves one to wonder: just how close was the album to release? In comparison, the pressing runs for Speak Now (Taylor's Version) began as late as December 2022 for an announcement in May 2023 and release date in July 2023. As a result it's not uncalled for to assume that the singer's management team planned for the release of the physical albums as early as 8 months before they actually came out, so if Taylor herself claims that the debut album's re-recording is fully finished, it's not unlikely that the physical versions (as well as the artwork, photoshoot, and merchandise) have been fully planned for an, at the time, upcoming release. With the purchase of her masters, however, we may never know when that date would have been.

In addition to the indefinitely-unreleased re-recordings, many wonder about the future of the original six albums. While questions of the music on streaming services circulate, my main concern is the physical releases of these albums. Infamously released in 2018 as Record Store Day 'RSD First' releases, Taylor's first five albums were released on limited edition vinyl that ultimately never made a return despite being eligible to be repressed. More can be read about these releases here.

Now that Taylor has gained ownership of these albums, it's intiguing to wonder if she'll release these albums on color vinyl, given their current state of availability on solely black vinyl. Market value of these releases continues to climb over time as well, which all but implores higher management to address this with a new batch of vinyl that causes resale prices to tumble down just as the exceedingly high pressing quantity of Taylor's Fortnight 7" release in April 2025 did for resale prices.

At the very least, one would assume the black vinyl would see a new reissue with updated copyright text as it did in 2022 for the Vantiva pressing of 1989: new metalwork was cut for the release as well as updated center label artwork that removed Big Machine Records LLC wording that was replaced with Apollo A-1 LLC wording instead. Assuming the gravity of this purchase extends to the physical releases of the first six albums, it's probable that they'll see reissues with "℗© Taylor Swift" where it once said differently.

Let's address the elephant in the room: yes, I did wait 21 hours in line for this year's Record Store Day. My local store didn't plan on opening until 8am on Saturday morning, so I figured that I could just show up after lunch time and sit comfortably first in line and then coast my way to the next morning. 

WRONG.

Shortly before 11am, I opened my instagram and saw that the store had announced the very first person had already arrived in line, and before I knew it I was running down seven flights of stairs, onto a Lime scooter, and riding my way to the store with just a backpack of water, sandwiches, and clothes. By 11:30am I joined the line and, more or less, successfully confirmed myself the last copy of the release at this location.

Was it the most wholesome 21 hours ever? Absolutely. The first person in line (whose identity I won't mention, because god knows she deserves some privacy after what we went through) brought a cooler and she offered drinks and companionship. We spent most of the day talking and passing the time alternating breaks at the diner next door. Shortly before dinnertime, my wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL friends surprise-doordash'd me and my fellow line friend a box of cookies and water. So I am taking another opportunity to publicly thank them for their kindness and support, since it really pushed me through the rest of the day. Younger collectors joined the line and set up their tent and laughed with us. People passing by were curious but supportive. Later in the day, we were joined by my line-companion's friends, who joined us for livestream of Coachella performances. By 2am, four of us braved the night and watched the Wicked movie and then waited as the sun rose between the skyscrapers of downtown.

~~~

Anyways, I digress. Let's talk about this Wicked vinyl, shall we?

~~~

First and foremost: this was absolutely the most coveted release of this year's Record Store Day. Promoted as a pressing of only 2,000 copies, it seemed fairly impossible to get this release if you didn't fight tooth and nail for it.

That being said, reality suggests that more exists than expected: international collectors reported that they were receiving numbered copies in the 6000s by the time that Friday was barely over in the United States, and morning light revealed that there was absolutely more than 2000 copies in the world.

By my estimation, up to 7,000 copies were ultimately manufactured by GZ Media in the Czech Republic, which 2,500 of those being manufactured specifically for the US market, sporting a FBI Anti-Piracy logo and a unique numbering style that used a star/asterisk in place of the "No." that was present on European copies already photographed.

Ultimately, my personal thoughts on the vinyl records themselves aren't a glowing review. Runouts suggest that this was a collaboration between Precision Record Pressing in Canada and GZ Media and the metalwork was cut brand new for this release (naturally, since this sported a new bonus track on Side D). That being said, this one seems to be mastered in-house by GZ instead of by Record Technology Incorporated and Sterling Sound by Joe Nino-Hernes like the previous 2024 releases were. I don't claim to fully understand the intricacies of the lacquer cutting and mastering process, but it seems evident enough that an in-house DMM cut (direct metal mastering) was easier, faster, and likely cheaper than externally-produced parts from the previous studios involved.

If you thought the mastering was decent before, the combination of in-house cut and the glitter material mixed in the vinyl does not make for a good listening experience. I used a Big Fudge cleaning kit as well as an Audio-Technica carbon fiber brush before listening to the glitter LPs and they were still a very noisy listen. There were intermittent pops and static throughout, accompanied unsurprisingly by inner groove distortion as the stylus moved closer towards the center label. While admittedly present on even the standard black vinyl release, the surface noise for this RSD release was certainly accentuated by the fact I was listening with headphones and each pop was unmissable.

Most egregiously, the coveted bonus track "Ozdust Duet" was quiet enough that the static underlying the track was clearly heard and unmistakable. For a release whose claim to fame is partially because of an exclusive bonus track, it doesn't bode well that the track is partially overshadowed by surface noise.

~~~

If you're upset about missing out on this year's RSD Wicked variant, I don't blame you–I know I absolutely would've, because I rarely trust anyone to relay the technical information about these releases when I can just find them myself. 

But if you wanted this copy as your go-to spinning copy, then I can safely tell you that this is nothing more than a very pretty piece of plastic packaged in cardboard and paper that just so happens to play music.

The exclusive cover, stickers, sleeves, and interior artwork are appreciated. But at the end of the day, if vinyl collecting is about the vinyl itself, then they probably should've considered something better than a sub-par vinyl material and considered the audio quality more than they did when they underestimated the sheer amount of demand this release would gather.

~~~

Let's collectively hope that Republic Records, Universal, and Verve learn from their mistakes next year for the inevitable Wicked: For Good soundtrack release. My line-companion and I are certainly not going to miss out, but we'd appreciate just a tad bit more effort next time.