Congregation

This year I have been buying a lot of early Sub Pop 7"s and discovering some great 'new' music (which is generally 30+ years old),a nd I was really excited to spend a little time with Afghan Whigs for the first time in a while. I used to listen to the band back in about 1992, and then in time I came to the decision that I only really liked the first album, so I sold the rest. But of course, here I am years later realising that I was too harsh, and realising that the second album, 'Congregation', is actually brilliant. So I set out to buy a copy.

This is one of those weird Sub Pop releases that originally came out with no colour vinyl option. In fact, the only vinyl option at all was pressed in Europe. If you lived in the States and happened to want a vinyl copy of this one back when it was released, you'd have had to had bought a European import. How very back to front eh?

So when I was looking for a copy of this one, it was either an original European black vinyl copy, or this 2017 US reissue on an interesting red marble colour for half the price. So this is one of those times when a reissue is absolutely fine.

If you've never heard this band, then they are not easy to describe. Their wikipedia page describes them as a garage band that incorporates R&B and soul influences. I think that's a pretty fair description. And even though I gave up on them years ago (except their earlier stuff) I am now thinking that I would probably appreciate their later stuff more, so I am sure that I will check some of those out at some point.