Trip #9: Time's Gone Inside Out

Art by The National, Beach House, Indigo De Souza, Future Islands, D'Angelo, Phantogram, Freddie Gibbs, The War on Drugs, Joe Cappa, much more!

May 04, 2023

Welcome to The Wax Museum, where we showcase vinyl from the past, present, and future worth having in your record collection.

Your Museum Guide for Wednesday May 3, 2023

The FUTURE Exhibit (Upcoming Vinyl Releases)
The PRESENT Exhibit (Tracking 2023 Album of the Year)
The PAST Exhibit (2014 Hall of Fame Induction)
The RABBIT HOLE Exhibit (Joe Cappa, Toro y Moi)
Exit Through The Gift Shop

🎧 Listen to this Trip on Spotify and Apple.

The FUTURE Exhibit

Here are the notable new albums and vinyl coming out this Friday, Cinco de Mayo.

New Albums

NYC rapper billy woods and LA producer Kenny Segal’s new album Maps hits streaming Friday and drops on vinyl later this month.
Brian Eno and Fred Again.. made a secret album, aptly tilted Secret Life, on Four Tet’s label and it hits streaming Friday and ships out in June.
- ("Subtract") is the upcoming fifth album by Ed Sheeran, produced and co-written by Aaron Dessner of The National. Available in UO exclusive gold, Target yellow, and Amazon clear vinyl.
New York duo The Lemon Twigs return with Everything Harmony, their first release since 2020's Songs For The General Public, available on grape and black vinyl.
The Smashing Pumpkins’ twelfth album ATUM (pronounced Autumn) is billed as a three-act rock opera. The 33 track 4 LP vinyl is the sequel to 1995’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and 2000’s Machina/Machine of God.
English musician SBTRKT will release The Rat Road, an album seven years in the making. Excited for this one, the singles have been money. Get the vinyl in glow-in-the dark and silver.
Switchfoot is pulling a T Swift and re-recording their biggest album The Beautiful Letdown because of licensing issues. Celebrating 20 years, the band is selling a blue/silver swirl variant.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3: Awesome Mix Vol. 3 is available in Galaxy Stardust variant from Disney Emporium, a Target exclusive purple and blue vinyl from Target, and standard black.
Westerman’s sophomore album An Inbuilt Fault features an intriguing collaboration with Big Thief’s drummer James Krivchenia. Available in sun yellow vinyl.

Vinyl Reissues

Conway the Machine teamed up with DJ Green Lantern in 2017 for the Reject on Steroids mixtape, and it’s become a sought after vinyl, so this limited repress will make plenty happy. Conway is also dropping a new album Won't He Do It on streaming Friday.
Black Jazz label bassist Henry Franklin’s 1977 Tribal Dance is getting reissued for the first time on vinyl, available at Real Gone Music in orange black swirl, Vinyl Me, Please in red, and standard black.

The 1975 vinyl release of Funkadelic’s Greatest Hits suffered from a thin and tinny sound, so this remaster is expected to be nice improvement.
Two of Mastodon’s heavy metal hitters will be repressed: Call of the Mastodon in gold, Leviathan in blue.
An Introduction to Syd Barrett, the best of compilation featuring the work of Syd Barrett during the end of his time with Pink Floyd, receives a reissue of the 2010 remaster.
Tokyo Police Club’s banger of an album Elephant Shell celebrates 15 years with a black, red, and white tri-color repress.

Train’s Drops of Jupiter in her hair hey hey hey gets a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on red & black marbled 180-gram audiophile vinyl.

📋 Full list of vinyl releases, reissues, compilations.

The PRESENT Exhibit

Behold the 2023 Album of the Year leaderboard. Three new albums get added each week. Standings change throughout the year.

🎧 Full AOTY 2023 Playlist: Spotify | Apple (27 Albums and Counting…)

This week features The National, Beach House, and Indigo De Souza.

The National - First Two Pages of Frankenstein

Get Vinyl: Turquoise | Red | Black | Discogs

Seeing the online reaction to First Two Pages of Frankenstein, I think some have taken The National for granted. While this may not reach the highs of Boxer and High Violet, there’s still plenty to love. The cameos by Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, and Sufjan Stevens get the headlines, but the album highlights are feature-less tracks like “Tropic Morning News”, “Alien”, and “Grease in Your Hair”.

Beach House - Become

Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs

Beach House don’t miss. Think of their dreamy 5 song EP Become as a lost chapter to last year’s Once Twice Melody. Kicking myself now for not grabbing the Record Store day exclusive clear vinyl.

Indigo De Souza - All of This Will End

Get Vinyl: Crimson Sundown, Blood Orange, and UO Exclusive Purple | Discogs

Asheville’s talented Indigo De Souza drops a gorgeous third album filled with indie pop jams. The album gets better throughout, with a superior B-side featuring the dancey “Smog”, the screamy “Always”, and lead single and closer “Younger & Dumber”. The sky’s the limit for the 25 year old De Souza, who has taken the album title “All of This Will End” as a personal motto:

“Every day I wake up with the thought that this could be the end. You could look at it as a sad thing, or you could look at it as a really precious thing: Today I'm alive and at some point, I will not be in this body anymore. But for now, I can do so much with being alive.”

The PAST Exhibit

Each week we look at a year gone by to find 10 timeless albums that are must-haves in your vinyl collection. We started at 2022, we’re at 2014, and we’re going all the way back to the ‘60s! Yeah baby!

2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | This week is 2014

🎧 Full Essential Vinyl Playlist: Spotify | Apple (90 Records and Counting…)

Spoon - “Inside Out“ | They Want My Soul

Get Vinyl: Currently out of print | Discogs

Let’s start the 2014 Hall of Fame playlist off right with the catchy earworm “Inside Out” by Austin band Spoon. I’d argue Spoon has been the most consistently solid American band of the last 25 years, with eight killer records this century, all filled with greatest hits contenders, and they show no signs in stopping. Their recent Lucifer on the Sofa and dub remix album were 2022 highlights.

Future Islands - “Seasons (Waiting on You)” | Singles

Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs

"Seasons (Waiting on You)" is the opening track off Future Islands’ fourth album Singles and it topped a lot of year’s best lists. A few weeks before release, the band made their TV debut on Late Show with David Letterman and it went viral thanks to frontman Samuel T. Herring's Elaine Benes-esque dance moves and death metal growls. The performance was even featured in the best musical acts montage on Letterman’s final show.

Phantogram - “Fall in Love” | Voices

Get Vinyl: Currently out of print | Discogs

“Fall in Love” off Phantogram’s second album Voices was originally meant for Jay Z or someone similar to rap over. The violin siren and huge bassline is an instrumental worth drooling over. Sarah Barthel’s vocals match the intensity of the beat and before you know it, the song is stuck in your head for days.

Speaking of Future Islands, put on your headphone and escape to their remix of “Black Out Days”, another Voices standout.

D’Angelo - “Ain’t That Easy” | Black Messiah

Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs

After releasing the critically acclaimed Voodoo, D’Angelo disappeared from the public eye and waited 14 long years before dropping Black Messiah, a neo-soul masterpiece that’s often compared to Sly and the Family Stone's 1971 funk record There's a Riot Goin' On.

D'Angelo created a dream team with this one, featuring percussionist Questlove, bassist Pino Palladino, guitarist Isaiah Sharkey, and horn player Roy Hargrove. Upon release, Questlove said:

“It’s going to take you about 10 years to digest this record… And the fact that we started this record in 2004, and it still sounds like it came out five years from now, it is a testament to the timelessness of it.”

Quest was right per usual; as we approach the 10 year anniversary of Black Messiah, it’s safe to hang this up alongside other great art of the 21st century.

Freddie Gibbs, Madlib, Danny Brown - “High” | Piñata

Get Vinyl: ‘64, ‘74, ‘84 variants | Discogs

Piñata is the first collaborative studio album by Indiana rapper Freddie Gibbs and producer Madlib, followed by 2019’s Bandana. Freddie Gibbs described Piñata as "a gangster Blaxploitation film on wax.” The vinyl release was recently re-imagined as a 1964 Blue Note album, a 1974 Blaxploitation movie poster, and a 1984 Miami Vice video cover; all are still available for $30.

The War on Drugs - “Under the Pressure” | Lost in the Dream

Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs

Lost in the Dream is the third album by American rock band The War on Drugs and it sounded like a real pain to make. The recording sessions took place over two years, with frontman Adam Granduciel getting deep in the weeds with countless revisions and rewrites. Luckily he came out the other side with a beautiful hour of music that shines on repeat listens. Incredible one-two punch with 2017’s A Deeper Understanding; highlights from these records and more can be found on 2020’s LIVE DRUGS, one of the best sounding live albums in my collection. This live 12 minute version of “Under the Pressure” is a hell of a ride.

Sylvan Esso - “Coffee” | Sylvan Esso

Get Vinyl: Clear | Discogs

“Coffee” is the first single off Sylvan Esso’s self-titled album, and their runaway breakout hit. I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about Sylvan Esso’s record company Psychic Hotline, who’s mission statment includes avoiding the culture of scarcity. An example of this would be rolling variants of their vinyl; say each pressing/color will be limited to 1,000 copies, then when that sells out, a new color will be pressed. It’s an interesting model that I hope gets adopted more to combat third party resale prices.

Caribou - “Can’t Do Without You” | Our Love

Get Vinyl: Pink | Black ($12!) | Discogs

Deep house vibes from Canadian musician Dan Snaith aka Caribou. Just a happy song about love. I’ll include the extended mix for those who’d like to live in this world longer. Just this month, Our Love got a half speed remaster on colored vinyl for the first time'; get the pink variant from Caribou’s Bandcamp under $20.

Alvvays - “Party Police” | Alvvays

Get Vinyl: Clear with Orange Splatter | Orange | Discogs

If you’ve been following along to our Hall of Fame, you know my undying love for Alvvays. Here in their self-titled debut, they announce themselves to the world with impossibly catchy indie pop distorted and reverbed through a gauzy lens. Now nine years and three albums later, Alvvays is on the cusp of headlining festivals.

Porter Robinson, Amy Millan - “Divinity” | Worlds

Get Vinyl: Black | Discogs

Closing out the playlist on a happy note is “Divinity”, the opener off Porter Robinson’s debut album Worlds, featuring the beautiful vocals of Amy Millan of Stars and Broken Social Scene fame. The then 19 year old DJ was known for dubstep, while this album was a shift into more dreamy chillwave. Porter is currently touring a live version of Worlds where for the first time, he’s singing, triggering samples, playing keys live, and only playing originals.

The RABBIT HOLE Exhibit

Get sucked down the pop culture rabbit hole with new recommendations each week.

📺 Videos from all trips can be found here. Shuffle for optimal enjoyment. 🔀

Joe Cappa’s HAHA YOU CLOWNS | Thank you YouTube algorithm for recommending me Portland director Joe Cappa. It’s tough to create something wholesome AND funny, but Cappa delivers with his short series HAHA YOU CLOWNS.

The premise is simple: a widowed dad raises three boys who are proud of him. That’s it. Oh yeah, and the mom may be a poltergeist, but that’s not a big deal. The voices are South Park level funny and imitable.

Three two minute episodes are available via the Adult Swim smalls series; you can watch them all here. Six more episodes are slated soon.

Joe Cappa and Toro y Moi | Let’s end this trip with a listening/watch party of Toro y Moi’s 2022 psych-funk album Mahal. Again I bow down to the genius of Joe Cappa for creating the most wholesome and laugh out loud funniest chill session on the Internet.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

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