"It's My Confession"

Some dude has been selling some Victory Records test pressings on eBay lately. He seems to have had multiple copies of some of them. I've bid on a couple and got outbid, but one that i did win (for only $15) was this one... Victory Records number 46, the Baby Gopal LP:

For anyone unfamiliar with this LP, please excuse me whilst I rabbit on about it for a bit...

This came out in late 1996 or maybe early 1997, at a time when hardcore labels were releasing bands with a wide variety of sounds. I guess labels would release bands with people in who had some kind of hardcore background regardless of what their current band sounded like. This prticular band featured Sri Kesava (who was at the time Ray Cappo's girlfriend) on vocals. They played kinda indie pop music. They also had Graham Land on guitar, who is some dude who (I think) used to be in Shelter, Battery and Worlds Collide. I guess without these people, this band would never had got on Victory or any other hardcore label of the day.

Anyway, back in 1996 Victory was still a decent label, and I trusted their output. "Krishna themed, girl fronted indie pop? Yeah, sure, sounds good, I'll buy that". What an idiot. Mind you, I'm not the only one. Plenty of people in 1996 would buy everything that Victory released without question. Ask anyone who was around back then. If they deny it, they're lying.

One thing I immediately liked about this record was that it came on pink vinyl. What more perfect colour could there be for this bubblegum pop band?

The crazy thing is, as well as buy any old rubbish that Victory put out, I would actually listen to it! I'd also try to convince myself that I liked it... although, in most cases, I didn't need much convincing, because the records were actually good. And that's exactly the case here. I completely fell in love with this record. In doing so, I even managed to annoy my girlfriend. It bothered her that I usually listened to and liked loud screamy bands, and then I started listening to sappy, girly, pink vinyl pop music just because it came out on a hardcore label. She had a point, of course, but then again, she could never understand that the main reason that it was ok to listen to this rubbish was because it was Ray Cappo's girlfriend... and because she was hot. There was absolutely no other excuse for singing things like "let me be your stone upon the road to vraja" and "please let me live by govardhan hill". Actually, that's not entirely true. It was acceptable because the songs are so damn catchy. And even today, years later, this still sounds good and I can't help but sing along.

Now, because I am a record nerd, here's some vinyl nerdery. Most people don't know that this LP was also released by an Italian label called Banda Bonnet Records. I am not 100%, but I THINK that this version came out before the Victory version. Anyway, there are a few differences to the Victory version. The front cover is slightly less colourful, and the logo is smaller:

The back cover is completely different:

This version comes on orange vinyl and has a gatefold sleeve:

In writing this, I checked Victory's site. They still sell the CD. The band bio also says something about the band No Doubt. Suddenly it makes sense. Victory probably put this out because No Doubt blew up back then and hoped they could grab some of their market share. Ha! Oh yeah, I also found this video on youtube for one of their catchiest songs which showcases the beautiful singer pretty well: