Numbers don't mean shit when it fails to capture the full picture, and that is exactly where we fall in 2018. I mean, I ended the year adding 174 new records to the collection, which is an all time low since I started tracking this stuff back in 2007. But this really only represents the records that I was able to get up on the blog, and because I got lazy with keeping this thing up, I still have another 40+ records sitting in piles that I haven't gotten around to properly cataloging and writing about here. Shit, some of those records in the blog backlog go back to August. I guess I've been more motivated to buy them, but just not deal with them when them once they arrive. As we move into 2019, I already have a bunch of ground to make up, so hopefully, I can knock off a ton of posts to start the year, and get back on track.
Yeah, I bought some big records in 2018, but it feels like it pales in comparison to years past. I think that this is because of where my head was at musically. My head wasn't in the game to chase hardcore heavy hitters, like I'd done previous years, so looking back at 2018 it feels like I fell short and I'm lacking some huge milestone purchases. Oh well, it was still a blast chasing early 80's metal records, and I was still able to put together a solid Top 5 from 2018.
1. AC/DC 'Let There Be Rock' Aussie pressing - From the moment that I discovered that the Australian pressing for Let There Be Rock had a different cover than what I was familiar with here in The States, it shot to the top of my Want List. First pressings of these AC/DC records on the Albert label are no joke, and I'm thankful that I was able to add another to the collection this year.
2. Dio 'Strange Highways' UK Vertigo first press - I did not expect this one to come along this year, but when one came on my Discogs radar, I couldn't resist taking a shot at it. I only have a few big holes in my Dio collection, and filling this one was a big accomplishment for me.
3. Floorpunch 'Fast Times At The Jersey Shore' on green vinyl - I don't think that I really got down with chasing big purchases for hardcore records, and the green vinyl isn't as crucial as the white pressing, but it sure felt good to finally have a copy of the Floorpunch album in the collection.
4. Dokken 'Breakin' The Chains' original German Carrere pressing - I was fucking obsessed with early 80's metal this year, and it was a blast revisiting that era when I first started to discover heavy metal. I ended up having a surprise love affair with the first Dokken album, and we had all kinds of fun getting reacquainted with each other. This record may have been the one that I had the most fun listening to this past year, and it became my mission to get my hands on the original pressing that had artwork that was different than the version that I'd grown up with.
5. My obsession with One Up - I was obsessed with One Up records early this year, and once I started buying their records, I couldn't stop until I had them all. It didn't take a lot of money to scoop up the five 7 inches that I needed, but man, it was fucking fun.
I haven't been happy with the look of my Top 10 lists for a couple years now, so I'm changing it up this year with a new layout to display it. Hopefully the text isn't too small to read on these things.
It was a good year for hardcore, and it hurt to have to cut some of those new records from my Top 10. The top half of the list was easy to lock in, but man, the other spots were tough to nail down.
On the metal side of things, the records felt like they made less of an impact. No doubt there was some great stuff here, but as we got to the last couple of spots, those albums were more of a shoulder shrug if they were included or not.
Overall, 2018 was a solid year of record collecting, and even though I have a ton of posts to catch up with my blog backlog, I'm already setting collecting goals for 2019 and making mental notes on what I want to chase after. Shit is going to be fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment