Do I have these? Yes.
Do I hate them? No. Well, maybe. Actually, in UB40’s case, yes…. yes, I do. Except Food For Thought, which goes OK.
Can I imagine myself ever playing them again? No.
Will I sell them or give them away? Not worth the effort. No-one wants UB40, do they?
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Yeah, I get this. There’s a clear distinction between those who listen to music and those who collect it.
Hmmm….collect it doesn’t sound right. Sounds somewhat clinical. It’s more than that. I don’t know if I can articulate it.
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Nostalgia aside, they’re pretty garbage, huh.
I feel like that would trigger a lot of English people.
Their Neil Diamond cover is okay.
Their Live Aid collab with Chrissie is…okay.
Their collab with Robert Palmer is…okay.
But gosh, they’re bland and insignificant.
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The thing is, they laid their barrow out with their very first release. That “best of” is essentially 10 versions of the same farking song. And then they morph into a whitebread reggae cover band, after which it’s 8 more versions of the same thing, only they’re massacring other people’s work.
Oh, but this one has Chrissie Hynde, and that one has the “toasting” dude on lead vocals?
NO! IT’S ALL THE FARKING SAME…
But… it reminds me of a holiday in Torquay over NY’s Eve one year… Damn you, nostalgia…
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Weirdo Collector Example:
I bought this raggedy old record for 5 bucks from a Record Store in Castlemaine (I think?) because I liked the two colour printed cover (like a brown and white thing), it had cool ring wear, the album title font is the same as Orange Amplifiers and it appeared to be some old Australian 70s folk album about Melbourne.
Took it home. Cleaned it. Gave it a new inner sleeve. Played it.
Man it was nice. Maybe closer to country than folk for my tastes, but I just really enjoyed listening to it. The whole time I was listening I kept thinking to myself ‘Man, this fella Tim Obrien wrote these songs, poured himself into it, went into a studio and made a cool little record about Melbourne in the 70s that probably not a lot of people have heard and now 40 or 50 years later I’m listening to it in my shed. How fucken cool is that’.
I dunno a thing about Tim O’Brien. But I bet he worked real hard on this little record. Its worth nothing. But I found it and took it home, cleaned it and really enjoyed it. It lives with me now. It’s apart of my collection. I’ll play it again one day. Because collectors do weird ■■■■.
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i’ve got about 400, and all of them would have had at least one spin. i reckon 80% have had 2, and probably half had had more.
i’d average 3-4 albums a week. if i’m going to give myself some phone brainrot time at the end of a thinking-heavy day, the least i can do is have a soundtrack to it. it’s also a nice little circuit breaker to have to get up and change sides.
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Anyone ever get non remembered buying under the influence purchases show up in the mail?
I had this show up in the mail a few weeks ago and I honestly had no ■■■■■■■ idea what it was.
It used to happen a lot. But I’m drinking less and buying a lot less records. I actually thought posty had made a mistake. Went through the bank app and everything. Found a late Friday night 40 dollar eBay purchase… yep, that’d be it.
Turns out it’s a banger psych rock jazz dutch thing from 68. Must’ve been the result of a deep late night youtube dive before I staggered to bed.
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“No, never.” 
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I wanna be involved in my collection regularly but not in a way where I’m just buying more and more. I have 900+ and I reckon I don’t need that many so I’m constantly curating, culling, and collecting.
My thinking is, if I have no intention of playing it, then move it on. The Marie Kondo spark joy thing. I’m often putting stuff on for the last time, just to be sure, and then making a call. There are sometimes regrets, and I have bought stuff again and wondered why I was such an idiot, but most of the time it’s out of sight out of mind. Maybe someone else is now enjoying it, and that’s a good thing. Free it into the world.
I play maybe 10 records a week so I figure most things get a spin every few years.
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Yeah, but… it’s confessional time. What grubby little artefacts do you have hiding at the back of your music collection? You must have something back there, covered in dust, that you bought for some silly reason… an impulse buy, a nostalgic purchase… that you just haven’t gotten rid of. Something that would be out of place in amongst the carefully cultivated collection, that is not fit for display to the world at large.
Don’t worry… it’ll stay between us…
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Haha, nup. You can go to Discogs, look up mrjez, and see everything I have. It’s cos I’ve made some big moves to live in different countries, I trimmed out the undesirables a long time ago just to deal with boxing and moving and all that.
The only thing that might come close to someone scoffing at would be my Into The Groove 12”, but I stand by that as a legit banger that sounds huge on my setup.
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My wifes records (around 30 or so) are on my discogs. So there are records on there that I would be mortified to be accused of owning (a Kate Ceberano and Wendy Matthews non banger collaborative record for example).
But if we are confessing our deepest and darkest secrets, I have no good reason or excuse at all for owning this…
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Ah… now that is dubious…
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I’m pretty sure I’ve inherited both 7”s of Hangin’ Tough that my brother and sister bought.
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i’ve got a dozen or so old broadway cast recordings i inherited* from my grandma a few years back
*- they weren’t bequeathed to me in the will as such, more just mum brought them over and said “do you want these?”
I’m reasonably sure I’ll end with Dad’s collection of classical 16’s (yep, 16 rpm was a thing) and 78’s eventually. Certainly not an area of expertise for me… not sure how I can assess them… record them at 33 rpm and pitch the recording down by 52% maybe?
Perhaps the following comment belongs in the old timers thread, but l do remember record players with 4 speeds, 16, 33 1/3, 45 & 78. I don’t recall ever hearing a record played at 16, but probably did. The old 78s were 4 - 5 mm thick, were heavy and tended to shatter if dropped. I was talking with a mate about these things only this morning, as l only recently introduced him to Discogs and he is now merrily cleaning his vinyl in warm, soapy water and checking out where the various pressings came from.
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