Safe And Sound

Another release from last year that I have only just got the vinyl for is the debut LP from Safe And Sound, 'Only In Death'. The band released a 7" on New Age a couple of years ago that I picked up mainly to keep my collection of 77 pressings complete. Every release these days gets a limited pressing with the same labels that were on the 1st release that the label ever put out (the Walk Proud 7"). As the name suggests, there are only 77 of each made, and collecting these became a mission in itself. And even though I wasn't overly impressed with the 7", I still wanted the LP, for the exact same reason - to keep the 77 pressing collection complete.

I also kinda wanted this for the cover. Is that an old fashioned concept these days? I'm not sure. But plenty of times over the years I have bought records because I liked the front cover. For some reason this artwork really appealed to me and made me want to pick up the record.

This band reminds me of some other band, although I can't quite put my finger on who exactly. It could be Harvest. Definitely something in that ballpark. The band are from the NW corner of the States, and have been going for a good few years now. I was surprised to discover that they have a couple of other 7"s out dating back to 2014, which I may attempt to track down at some point. But I definitely dig this LP more than I did the last 7". It feels like a big step forward, and had been my gym soundtrack these last few weeks.

So I also managed to pick up a test press of the 7" on New Age. It was just sitting there for sale at a fair price, so I couldn't really say no.

It's great to see New Age pumping out new music again. They have a pretty good bunch of bands on their roster, with more stuff coming out regularly, and generally it's good to see all their efforts going into new bands, rather than pumping out reissues of their old stuff. There will be more New Age releases on this blog this year for sure.