Celebrating five years of record collecting

Stuck with my little pandemic hobby, and here we are a half-decade later. Putting on a couple records is my creature comfort as life gets hectic.

I slowed down my buying this year to fund some new guitars and things for around the house, but these are my favorite adds from the past year:

- Pearl Jam - Vs. This is a first pressing in the shrink wrap. I actually got this record in the 90s and forgot I had it. My mom found it sitting on a shelf in my childhood bedroom. A dissident is here, indeed.

- American Aquarium - The Fear of Standing Still. One of my favorite bands is still putting out bangers. BJ’s one of the best songwriters to do it. Only missing a couple titles from having their entire discography.

- Fancy Gap - s/t. This band should be enormous, they’re killer writers and musicians. Excellent pressing, too. Run, don’t walk, to check them out.

- GZA - Liquid Swords. What hasn’t already been said about this record? This year I tried to fill the gaps in my collection with iconic titles like this one — and stuff like Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and Alice in Chain’s recent repressings.

- Loathe - I Let It In and It Took Everything. Took a while to get a copy of this, but the wait was worth it. And now I believe they’ve done an additional pressing with new colorways.