Thug Life

I've not had many records recently, and also haven't had much motivation to post for various reasons. But today seemed like a good day to try to get back on track with one of the cheap 7"s I picked up a bit earlier in the year.

Reinforce is one of those bands that I never really knew much about, given they were around before the internet really got going properly. I picked up their 'One Life Thug Free' 7" back when it came out in 1999. I had picked up on Underestimated Records as a couple of their early releases had found their way to a UK distro that I helped run for a short period, so by the time the Reinforce 7" came out I was automatically interested in this 7". And I do remember enjoying it at the time, although I haven't listened to it too many times in the 20 or so years that followed.

Well anyway, I was enjoying picking up cheap 7"s for a while, and ona whim decided to purchase the blue vinyl version. It was priced similar to a cup of coffee, so seemed worthy of some pocket change to grab it.

As you can see, the blue marble colour goes pretty well with the record cover. And its also just a nice colour generally.

Back when this came out I picked up a clear vinyl with blue stripe copy. And then many years later I finally managed to find the extremely rare Melanie C cover version, so this blue copy takes the collection to three copies. They do look pretty good together I have to say.

One other cool thing was that the band released a full length back in 1999 which was CD only and, as such, I didn't bother with. But due to the magic of modern technology, I was able to download it and finally listen to it for the first time. I'd consider buying one if it was for sale for a reasonable price (i.e. $1), but as usual the discogs crew want considerably more, the fools. So I'll stick to my download and party like it's 1999.