Tin Cans And Solutions

I've been trying to avoid reissues and represses the last couple of years. I think it was 2009 when I realised that a massive chunk of what I had bought was reissued classic LPs that I already owned. I guess when vinyl started to become more popular again, there was more and more demand for certain titles on vinyl, and I assume a lot of people don't care about owning an original pressing. So a lot of labels started repressing or reissuing old records. I just reached a point where I didn't want to spend money on records I already had. So I intentionally stopped. Except for Revelation and Integrity that is.

The other occasional exception, however, is where a reissue is actually the first time something has been put on vinyl. So here are two examples - a couple of FAR albums, both of which were released by a major label in the late 90s. I only got into this band in about 2001, but these two records I must have played every day for like 4 months or so. You know how sometimes you find an album and it is literally the only thing you feel like listening to? Well, I was like that with these two records throughout the spring and summer of 2001. But I spent the whole time listening to them on minidisc (remember those?), recorded from CDs that I bought used on eBay, as there was no vinyl made. Fast Forward to the end of 2013, and these things have finally been released on a proper format.

First up, the band's third album, 'Tin Cans With Strings To You'. This was pressed as a double LP, on two colours. I picked up the yellow vinyl. I'm not sure why they picked yellow. Perhaps because there's some yellow on the front cover, although it's clearly a different shade than the vinyl.

For some reason, the fourth LP, 'Water And Solutions' was pressed only as a single LP. Don't get me wrong, I don't like double LPs as a rule, but I would have thought that these things being reissued together they would have both been treated the same. So to have both in gatefold sleeves, but only one as a double LP seems not quite right. Anyway, at least this one seems to be on a nicer and more suitable colour. The clear blue goes much nicer with the cover.

Nice to have these things on vinyl, finally. The only let down is that 'Water And Solutions' is a bit of a shit job. The first couple of notes from the first song got missed off, so it sounds wrong. Jake also thinks that the pitch sounds off, although I'm not sure about that myself. Still, I don't really need these for the music at this point. I just want them for my record shelf rather than my CD box.