Be Well

Be Well are one of the biggest stories of 2020. A hardcore 'supergroup' with Brian McTernan (of Battery) on vocals and people from Bane, Darkest Hour and Fairweather playing the instruments, they released two records this year. I bought both, and just received them last week after a few months of listening to the songs digitally. I decided to deal with the records all in one post to make sure I squeeze them into 2020, and also decided to feature them in reverse order of release date (or in order from best to worst).

The band's full length, 'The Weight And The Cost', went up for pre-order in June. There were two labels selling the record on either side of the pond - Equal Vision in the States, and End Hits in Europe. Each label put up 4 or 5 different vinyl colours, and most of them were ugly splatter type things. I wasn't overly keen to order any of them based on this. Then the craziness stepped up a notch, with each label selling out of all the colour options and then immediately offering more different colours... all before it was even out. The fact that most colours were pressings of 100 probably encouraged some people to buy more than one, which helped sell it out and then lead on to countless other colour options. Somewhere along the way, Equal Vision offered what sounded like acceptable colours, and I ended up checking out on a bundle deal for two 'limited' colours - dark blue and clear. I think possibly these were intended to be sold on tour or something, but I may just be imagining that.

Anyway, aside from the multitude of vinyl colours, the record itself is pretty damn good. This is all over people's 'best of 2020' lists and I can see why. It reminds me of the first American Nightmare LP. I remember getting that back in 2001 and thinking it was good, but when I sat down and listened with the lyrics in front of me, it hit ten times harder. This record is exactly the same. The lyrics are all about Brian's struggle with mental health over the years, and I think it's safe to assume that anyone who has ever suffered from depression and feelings of hopelessness (which is probably pretty much everyone) will immediately find something here to identify with. I sure did. All in all I think this record fully deserves all the attention and praise it has received. It presents a subject matter than no doubt affects a lot of people in a very personal way, and which most struggle to talk about, and it unashamedly brings the issue to the table and shoves it in people's faces. And with hindsight, I don't think that there could have been a more apt year for this to have been released than 2020.

And whilst I bought two copies of this, I don't feel that I need both. I have zero interest in trying to collect all 28 versions of this that exist, so I see no point in owning two. One will be fine. So I have one for sale or trade if anyone is interested.

So that brings me on to the 7" that was released earlier in the year. With hindsight, this is a pretty pointless release as it contains two songs, both of which are on the full length. I intended to buy a copy when it came out, but the first couple of versions that went up for sale (at RevHQ and Coretex) sold out in a very small amount of time and I missed out on both. Damn, I wasn't expecting that. So when the next version went up for sale, I checked out right away. The clear blue vinyl was sold by EVR directly as a pre-order. Funnily enough, I just checked my receipts and I paid for it almost exactly a year ago, in December 2019. I'm not sure exactly when the records were sent out, but like I said at the start, I just received mine last week.

So after the blue copy soldout, EVR then put an orange vinyl version up for sale in late Feb. I think this was pressed because the demand was so high that they just decided to make another colour. I can't remember what the deal was with this one, but it sounded pretty limited, so I decided to buy one of these as well.

And then at some other point just before the world went haywire, the band played a release show in Washington, DC. They had a green vinyl version of the 7" which was given to people who attended. I was lucky that a friend of mine went along and wasn't too bothered about the 7", so she sent said she would send it to me, which she did a couple of weeks ago and it also arrived last week:

So now I have this weird dilemma and I'm not sure what to do. I have 3 versions of the 5 that exist for this 7". I'm not sure I want to try to collect the other two. But do I want to let go any of the ones I have? Plus I also have extra copies of the blue and orange ones as I figured I could use them to trade. Just like the LP, get at me if you want one.