STACK #224 June 2023

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There’s nothing quite like taking home some fresh vinyl and putting it on the turntable for the first time. It’s a total experience. Each month we pull together a collection of reissues, JB-exclusives of just straight-up classic long-players to add to any burgeoning collection. Words Paul Jones & Zoë Radas

LORDE PURE HEROINE (2013)

CHART Vinyl

Our “prettier Jesus” from across the pond was still too young to legally drink or vote when she released her debut album. But youth was no barrier to the critical acclaim that Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor – AKA Lorde – enjoyed from the moment it dropped; its sparsely-painted electronic soundscapes pushed the sparkling, slacked

ADELE 19 (2008)

It seems bonkers that we were once unfamiliar with the heart-stripping power a particular Tottenham teenager’s vocals could wield. In 2008 the charts were firmly dominated by Britney and Rihanna, but upon 19 ’s arrival, Adele’s debut quickly announced as inviolable fact that this was the new voice of a generation. The wonder

grace of Yelich-O’Connor’s distinctively textured pipes to the fore, as she sang about those long stretches of teen boredom punctuated by first-love thrills, and craning your neck to see into the future of your twenties and beyond. This record remains a fantastically accurate distillation of teen ennui. TOP TRACK: Buzzcut Season FAST FACT: The title for breakout single Royals came to Lorde when she saw a 1976 photograph of baseball player George Brett in his Kansas City Royals uniform. “It was just that word – it’s really cool,” she said in 2013.

in this album is hearing Adele’s vocal influences still so clearly present – a little Sinead O’Connor here, a little Amy Winehouse there, a dollop of Mary J. on top – as she hadn’t yet settled into the sound which itself has become one of the new century’s top-shelf voices to beat. TOP TRACK: Hometown Glory FAST FACT: Adele wrote Grammy-winning single Chasing Pavements in her head, walking home, after having been booted from a London bar for punching her cheating boyfriend in the mouth.

1. ED SHEERAN - 2. VARIOUS Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 3 3. JOJI Smithereens 4. TAYLOR SWIFT Midnights 5. DAFT PUNK Random Access Memories 6. TAYLOR SWIFT Lover 7. HARRY STYLES Harry’s House 8. VARIOUS, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 9. VARIOUS, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 10. TAYLOR SWIFT Reputation

TAME IMPALA LONERISM (2012)

KENDRICK LAMAR DAMN. (2013)

If To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) cemented Kendrick Lamar on a pedestal repping self-love and dissecting the plight of Black Lives in America, on DAMN. the Compton rapper pulled one hoof free and stepped it into the soil of personal morality, questioning his own ’prophet of the people’ status (“Everything I say is from an angel” - GOD .) and how to weigh his misdeeds

Like The Beatles, Tame Impala’s multi-instrumentalist and introverted song conjuror Kevin Parker finds the answers in the studio. But while inspiration may emanate from the Fab Four, unlike them, Parker creates his stunning soundscapes alone. With an ear astutely tuned to the sound of the mid-to-late ’60s, he ingeniously shapes his psychedelic vision as if it flows from the future.

(“Is it wickedness? Is it weakness?” - BLOOD .). Across 14 all-caps with-a-period tracks (several named directly after cardinal sins), Kung-Fu Kenny asks listeners for an engagement that handsomely rewards multiple spins, and soon makes clear why this record won a Pulitzer. It finishes with the astonishing stream-of-consciousness DUCKWORTH ., itself opening with the perennially poetic “It was always me versus the world/ Until I found it’s me versus me.” TOP TRACK: DUCKWORTH. FAST FACT: According to 9th Wonder – the producer of track DUCKWORTH . – the song’s near-unbelievable story of star-crossed serendipity in Kendrick’s life is completely true.

Released in 2012, Lonerism is a mind-melding odyssey of beautifully crafted songs flowing in waves of distorted instrumentation. This excellent collection celebrates its tenth anniversary as a limited edition three-album set. The original is pressed over a double album, while the third record features demo versions of two songs – Sidetracked Soundtrack and Retina Show – that didn’t make the final cut on one side, with the other dedicated to studio ideas and noodlings called Assorted Sketches 2010-2012 . A 24-page booklet with photos and notes from Kevin Parker round out this quality set. TOP TRACK: Feels Like I Only Go Backwards FAST FACT: Lonerism was going to be called Loner Pop even after the album had been mastered.

accessible songs in a decade. There’s no waste here and no passengers. This is the Oxonians at the top of their game, crafting chasmic guitar riffs on Bodysnatchers and apocalyptic synth bass notes in All I Need , while weaving haunting and hypnotic scales on the quite brilliant Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi , and building to a galloping, epic penultimate

track in Jigsaw Falling into Place . In Rainbows is a songwriting and production crown jewel, a faultless album. The official heir to OK

RADIOHEAD IN RAINBOWS (2007) In 2007, Radiohead rediscovered their guitars. In Rainbows was an acute departure from the electronic experimentation born from OK Computer and dilated in Kid A , Amnesiac , and Hail to the Thief . It featured ten of the band’s strongest, most consistent, and emotionally

Computer ? It’s possibly even better. TOP TRACK: Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

FAST FACT: Radiohead offered the album for two months as a pay-what-you-want MP3 download.

SOUNDTRACK AND VARIOUS ARTISTS DISNEY 100 SILVER VINYL OUT 21/7 Traversing the history of Disney from Steamboat Willie to Bambi , Mary Poppins , The Little Mermaid , Moana , Encanto and everything in-between, this gorgeous collection of Disney’s biggest belters will

WHAM! THE SINGLES: ECHOES FROM THE EDGE OF HEAVEN BLUE VINYL, BLACK VINYL, 7-INCH VINYL BOXSET OUT 7/7 Sony are absolutely not doing things by halves with this brilliant collection of Wham!’s singles,

DOLLY PARTON ROCKSTAR BLACK VINYL: 4LP SET OUT 17/11

PJ HARVEY I INSIDE THE OLD YEAR DYING BLACK VINYL OUT 7/7 Polly Jean’s first album in seven years is, typically, fiercely original, and something of a companion to the artist’s 2022 novel in-verse Orlam . Harvey describes it as “a resting space, a solace, a comfort, a balm – which feels timely for the times we’re in.”

The Leading Lady of Country has gone and reinvented her approach with this guest stacked new album comprising a massive 30 tracks – nine originals, 21 classics –

with three different vinyl editions of the beloved act’s hit songs as well as remixes and even an acapella version of I’m Your Man .

which plumb the best that the rock genre has to offer.

see your singalong dreams come true.

84 JUNE 2023

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