STACK #227 September 2023

MUSIC FEATURE

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, or just straight-up classic long players to add to any burgeoning collection. Words Zoë Radas, Amy Flower, Paul Jones

PRINCE LOVESEXY (1988)

CHART Vinyl

It's late 1987. On the cusp of releasing The Black Album , Prince experienced a ‘spiritual awakening.’ Instantly perturbed with the album’s themes and sound,

he binned it. Just like that. But, as only the Purple One could, a fresh banger was written and recorded in just seven weeks.

Prince defined the outrageous Lovesexy as his ‘gospel album’. The addictive and commercially leaning Alphabet St and I Wish You Heaven streaked up the charts as singles, but elsewhere, the explosive frenetic funk of opener Eye No , bookended by Positivity , a veritable window into the future of pop, profiled Prince at the zenith of his creativity. An oft forgotten entry in his considerable body of work, Lovesexy is a head full of gunpowder. Just lean forward and light the fuse. TOP TRACK: Eye No FAST FACT: Much to the chagrin of DJs, the original CD version of the album was released as one continuous 45 minute track.

BJ Ö RK POST (1995) There's nothing quite like an album that plucks you right off the face of the planet and drops you into a world you never knew you were yearning for – and such is the effect of 1995's Post , from Icelandic iconoclast Björk. The singer-songwriter's second album dilated listeners' eager eardrums with its pioneering mix of industrial, jazz, and electronica, while entrenching Björk as an artist of prodigious vocal talent and extraordinarily original musical feel. Its eclecticism is also symbolic of Björk's fractured heart at the time of its writing; she herself felt plucked from one world (Iceland) and flung into another, London, where she'd moved following the success of her 1993 debut. At the album's opening, slowly vicious lead single Army of Me sounds like a towering steampunk centipede, and is followed by what must be one of the most majestic techno pieces ever conceived, Hyper-ballad . Also on Side A is hypnotic groove Enjoy and Björk's liberation-personified, big-band cover of Betty Hutton's 1951 track It's Oh So Quiet . Side B gives us the galloping orchestral tale of self-loving jungle girl Isobel , the pulsing love note Possibly Maybe , and Cover Me , a delicate spider's web of ambient experimentation. It's no coincidence that the lapels of Björk's cover art blazer recall the Air Mail stripes; in Post , she's written a sonic postcard back to Iceland, and filled it with all the passions of her homesick but

1. TAYLOR SWIFT Speak Now (Taylor's Version) 2. VARIOUS Barbie OST 3. TAYLOR SWIFT 1989 4. TAYLOR SWIFT Midnights 5. TAYLOR SWIFT Lover 6. TAYLOR SWIFT Folklore (In the Trees Edition) 7. POST MALONE Austin 8. TAYLOR SWIFT Reputation 9. PARKWAY DRIVE Don't Close Your Eyes EP 10. TAME IMPALA Currents

PIXIES BOSSANOVA (1990)

After 1989’s legendary Doolittle , Pixies didn’t stress about making a follow-up, they just got it done. The result? Bossanova , 14

tracks that clocked in at a total just under 40 minutes, continuing the band’s penchant for mostly short, sharp aural assaults. First single Velouria was an apt taste of things to come, an album that saw the pop sensibilities of Doolittle rubbing shoulders with the garage punk vibe of 1988’s Surfer Rosa , with a bit of surf rock hurled into the mix as well on tracks such as opener Cecilia Ann (a Surftones cover), perfect pop burst Allison , and easy singalong Stormy Weather . TOP TRACK: Dig for Fire FAST FACT: If you take the first letter of each of the six lines of the track Ana , it spells out ‘SURFER’.

ambitious heart. TOP TRACK: Isobel

FAST FACT: Considered bizarrely un-Björk upon its release, It's Oh So Quiet has become one of the artist's signature songs. Its popularity was spurred by an MTV-favourite, Spike Jonze-directed video which pays homage to old school Hollywood musicals.

TROYE SIVAN SOMETHING TO GIVE EACH OTHER ON JB-EXCLUSIVE MILKY CLEAR VINYL, REGULAR BLACK VINYL OUT 13/10/23

KYLIE MINOGUE TENSION ON JB-EXCLUSIVE LIMITED TRANSPARENT PINK VINYL, LIMITED TRANSPARENT GREEN VINYL, LIMITED TRANSPARENT ORANGE VINYL OUT 22/9/23

ANGIE McMAHON LIGHT, DARK, LIGHT AGAIN ON JB-EXCLUSIVE TRANSPARENT BLUE VINYL, REGULAR BLACK VINYL OUT 27/10/23

HOLY HOLY CELLOPHANE

ON TRANSPARENT ROYAL BLUE VINYL, TRANSPARENT RUBY RED VINYL, TRANSPARENT EMERALD GREEN VINYL, TRANSPARENT AMBER VINYL OUT 22/9/23

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