An ultra-rare Ultra Clear vinyl copy of Tears For Fears’ new opus, The Tipping Point. These are going for $500 on eBay at the moment, as they appear to be a cancelled limited edition for an unknown Canadian retailer and a handful got out (accidentally?) to US retail. Happily, I found it in the wild for 1/20th of that price. There’s a rumor going around that only 100 clear copies were made, but I don’t know how true that is. The most important part - the music - is unquestionable, however, as it’s a stellar album.

Classic rock rarity alert! Folk trio Milkwood was The Cars before they became The Cars. The songs on the band’s lone 1972 album, “How’s The Weather,” were written and sung by Richard Otcasek (AKA Ric Ocasek) and Benjamin Orzechowski (AKA Ben Orr), and there’s even some guest musician work by Greg Hawkes—on saxophones, not keyboards. The cover is beat up (and written on; thanks for that, Cheryl, wherever you are) and was subjected to one of the worst shipping packaging jobs I’ve ever seen (saran-wrapped, then taped to some flimsy cardboard folded over a few times), but it made it here in one piece.


Back in the day, many syndicated radio shows were distributed to stations on vinyl, like this one from the early 80s. They’re cool and unique to find, the cue sheets are fun to read (see the supplemental photos) and often they have interesting interviews and such. That said, I can’t decide which section of my collection to keep it with. Maybe with the Wang Chung records?


Two months after I ordered it, Tears For Fears’ The Seeds of Love picture disc finally turned up in the mail. Gorgeous—and the record is pretty, too!


Vintage Canadian and US limited edition pressings of Simple Minds’ classic “New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)” album. 


I like meticulously over-produced harmonies as much as the next guy, but even I was surprised I bought these two 45s. 


I picked up a stellar Japanese pressing of Rio by Duran Duran today at @infinityrecordsltd and aside from the great sound, I had fun using Google Translate to read the OBI strip, which you can read on the second photo—hilarious! 
“Lonely in My Nightmare” becomes “Nightmare in Germany;” “My Own Way” is “My Own Wii;” “Hold Back the Rain” is “Holdock the Ray;” “Hungry Like the Wolf” drops “Hungry;” and my favorite is how “Save a Prayer” became “Save A Player.” Luckily, good music needs no translation. 
 https://www.instagram.com/p/CMYSoR0M6iu/?igshid=6fg6ekx8d7gy

It’s been a very long time since I listened to Marshall Crenshaw’s Miracle of Science from the 90s, but it recently got released on vinyl for the first time, so I picked it up. Back in the day, the CD was up for a packaging Grammy Award, as it was one of the first discs to have etching on it, which in turn was used very cleverly. Musically, it’s a stellar album too, though the new vinyl version kinda messes with a good thing, severely reordering the songs and doing something truly bizarre—it features an entire song in reverse, and then plays it forward. Tomfoolery like that is fine on CD because you can press the skip button but that’s irritating on record. 
All that said, even that can’t ruin the fact that this is a great collection of songs! “What Do You Dream Off” is a straight-up toe-tapper to kick things off, followed by a guitar solo barnburner, “Who Stole That Train,” for a solid one-two punch. There’s the haunting “Laughter” with its descending harmonies, “Starless Summer Sky” which was a “lost” forgotten song of his he found in a pile of demo tapes from the glory days of his debut album, and plenty more good stuff. Even throwaways like “There And Back Again” have wonderful lyrics that bring a writerly eye to the proceedings. Even with that stupid reverse song, it’s still a stupendous album.