Sincerely

Even though I've been a big fan of Revelation Records for many years, a year or so ago I realised that there are several Rev releases that I had never heard before. Why? Because they were released on CD only. The majority of the CD only releases are in the Rev 110 - Rev 140 catalog range, which were released in the period from 2002 to 2006. In total there are 24 Rev releases that were released by Rev on CD only, of which 17 were in the 2002-2006 era. And I bought none of them, because i always prioritised whatever money I had for records. I always figured that CDs would never be hard to find or rare or expensive, so I skipped buying them. I guess it helped that most of the CD only releases were by bands I didn't have much interest in anyway.

So I went on a mission to download all of the CD only releases and give them a listen. And in doing that, I found a couple of gems. One of them I then discovered was actually released on vinyl, albeit by a differnt label. So I added it to my wants list and a few weeks ago a copy popped up for sale in the UK.

This record is titled 'Sincerely' and is by a band called End Of A Year. It was originally released in 2006. I genuinely had no idea that Rev even released this album until a year or so ago. But here I am picking it up in 2023, some 17 years after it first came out, which seems nuts.

This vinyl version was released by a label called Slave Union. Cool that they left the Rev logo on the back though. A quick check on discogs tells me that Slave Union have released nothing else I have ever heard of, or have any interest in. Apparently there were 400 copies on this sky blue colour vinyl. There's also a green colour which is rarer. If I ever see one I'll probably pick it up.

I have no idea how I'd describe this record musically. I read something that compared it to Embrace and Rites of Spring, but I'd say that if this comparison is there then it's vague. But still, it's in that kind of ballpark. Whatever it is, I genuinely feel that this is a really good record, and I'm glad that I finally got around to checking it out all these years later.