I'm Not The Same, Man

Sometime back at the turn of the century (or possibly the one before that) the Sweet Jesus LP went up for pre-order. Being keen to hear more of their songs after they initially surfaced on the America's Hardcore Volume II compilation LP way back at the start of 2013, I eagerly placed an order for the upcoming LP and then got on with my life. At some point the label dished out a free download of the songs. I usually wait for the actual record(s) to show up before I listen to the songs, but on this occasion I decided to grab the download. I think I just needed some new music at that point. Good job too as I could not possibly have foreseen how long the actual record would take to surface.

Well, the band toured in the UK in August and I was keen to go and see the songs that I had been listening to for half my life played live. Except in the end I couldn't be arsed, because the London show took place on a Sunday evening, and I had been out to see bands play on the previous Thursday and Friday nights. Not that seeing three bands in four days itself is hard work, but more the fact that it was a Sunday night. The annoying thing about my change of heart was that I missed the chance to pick up a copy of the rare tour press of the record.

Well anyway, a few days later the band put some leftovers up for sale in their webstore, so I grabbed a tour LP. And wouldn't you know it, it showed up before the other two copies that I had pre-ordered thirty years earlier.

As you can see, the tour press comes in a plain white sleeve with a small, discreet stamp in the top right corner. I love minimal stuff like this. makes a nice change from all the albums with old men's saggy faces on the front.

So a couple of weeks after the tour LP showed up, the pre-order finally surfaced. I opened the package to find YET ANOTHER one of these goddamn saggy face covers! Shame they couldn't have gone for something original.

I ordered two copies of this record at pre-order stage - white (100 made) and purple (300). The white seems very fitting as it goes well with the cover.

And after these came out (or possibly before) there were two other colours made, being yellow and orange. Oh, and there was also a black which I decided to pass on. And not to mention the rejected and accepted test pressings. So all in all there are 6 copies of this LP (8 including tests) and it's technically only been out for just over a month.

The worst thing about the whole story, however, was that all the pre-orders that got sent out came with a free flexi containing two cover songs, as means of an apology for the mammoth delay. However, for some reason I didn't get one. Other fools, it would seem, were a little luckier. So now the quest is on to put that right. I'll expect a result sometime before I'm fifty.