STACK #205 Nov 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

CHART Vinyl

SO, WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH ECO-VINYL?

T here are many ways to upcycle an old vinyl record: melt it into a bowl shape for your chips, turn it into a clock, make a funky dreamcatcher, or add a little pedestal and voila! You‘ve got a cupcake stand. But in terms of recycling vinyl, it‘s a little hairier: PVC (poly vinyl chloride), the plastic from which records are made, isn‘t totally environmentally friendly. But some artists are looking for ways to morph the process. While the famously eco-aware Coldplay released their album of last month Music of the Spheres on an alloy dubbed “recycled splatter vinyl“, in 2019 Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter Nick Mulvey released his single In the Anthropocene on a world-

first format called “ocean vinyl“, made entirely from recycled plastic gathered from the waters off the UK‘s southern coast. “We had fishing nets, fishing line, candy wrappers, potato chip bags,“ Mulvey said at the time. “It was rubbish. Trash.“ But through compressing all those different raw materials, Florida company Tangible Formats was able to create 100 visually gorgeous pressings of the single. But there‘s one very important angle to vinyl records that sets them apart from other plastics. In a BBC report from earlier this year, Dr Sharon George – senior lecturer in Environment and Sustainability at Keele University in Staffordshire – said that what makes records more ecologically sound than you‘d think

is the fact they‘re “non-disposable“ products. “We have this relationship with [records] like no other form of plastic,“ she said. “Vinyl records come under that category of things that we will keep for years and years, and even pass on to our children and grandchildren. As long as we treasure vinyl and it is priced accordingly, it actually stands up quite well against digital forms of music, such as streaming and downloading, in terms of sustainability.“

1. OLIVIA RODRIGO Sour 2. THE BEATLES Let It Be 3. SPIDERBAIT Ivy & the Big Apples 4. NIRVANA Nevermind 5. TAYLOR SWIFT 7. HARRY STYLES Fine Line 8. ABBA Gold 9. LUKE HEMMINGS When Facing the Things We Turn Away From 10. COLDPLAY Music of the Spheres 6. METALLICA Metallica (The Black Album)

JOHN FARNHAM WHISPERING JACK (1986) 180gm Vinyl Remastered

KYLIE MINOGUE STEP BACK IN TIME (2019)

Fearless (Taylor's Version)

This 42-song collection from our Princess of Pop guns out of the gate with sparkling debut The Loco-Motion (1987), traverses her SAW years ( I Should Be So Lucky, Better the Devil You Know ), and revels in cool-London Kylie

It‘s impossible to imagine a time when You‘re the Voice wasn‘t steeped into the Aussie hivemind, but such was the case when the 12th solo album from former Little River Band singer John Farnham hit

( Confide in Me, Can‘t Get You Out of My Head ), along with belters from 2018 LP Golden . There are also three brilliant duets: Where the Wild Roses Grow (with Nick Cave), Especially for You (with Jason Donovan), and the iconic jam Kids with Robbie Williams. Across this track list, hearing the way Minogue‘s voice has improved in control and quality is due to, the artist told us in 2019, a mix of confidence, experience, and training. “It‘s maturation of my voice, and trial and error,“ she said. “I mean, I had singing lessons when I was 16; I used my little bit of money I‘d made from doing The Henderson Kids to do singing lessons, and then to make a demo cassette with three songs on it, in one day. I burst into tears in the studio I was so nervous.“ Bless you, Queen Kylie, and long may you reign. TOP TRACK: Confide in Me FAST FACT: The famed hotpants Kylie wore in the clip for Spinning Around (included in this collection – the track, not the hotpants) are not in the singer‘s regular wardrobe rotation, but in storage: “They‘re in, like, 700 layers of tissue in a climate-controlled cupboard, I believe,“ she told us in 2019.

shelves – and then became the highest-selling Oz album in ARIA history. A worthy distinction, because there‘s not a single lemon on it; every track rivals the panache of Farnham‘s international contemporaries like Robert Palmer and Phil Collins. There‘s the free-wheeling power-jam Pressure Down , the Chariots of Fire -level epic piano in Reasons , the peerless ballad Touch of Paradise (which still brings a Ken Done sunset to the mind‘s eye), and underrated, atmospheric corker Love to Shine . Farnham‘s sensitive and powerful voice brings shivers to the soul, with smashing snare-heavy beats and vibrant horn bursts that demand immediate, joyful, bodily movement. TOP TRACK: Love to Shine FAST FACT: Farnham‘s then-manager Glenn Wheatley mortgaged his own home to come up with the cash needed to record Whispering Jack .

On The Record Radar

KYLIE MINOGUE DISCO (EXTENDED MIXES) PURPLE 2LP VINYL

TAME IMPALA THE SLOW RUSH

ADELE 30 BLACK VINYL, JB-EXCLUSIVE TRANSPARENT VINYL

TEARS FOR FEARS THE TIPPING POINT BLACK VINYL, JB-EXCLUSIVE GREEN VINYL

OUT 18/2/22

OUT 10/12/21

(DELUXE VINYL BOX SET) BLACK 2LP + 2 X 12” + 7”

OUT 19/11/21

OUT 25/2/22

NOT FINAL IMAGE / COLOURMAY VARY

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