Quote Originally Posted by DariusNYC
I thought about this concept that you're talking about and I was having a hard time thinking of an album that fits for me currently. There were definitely albums that were like that during periods of my life.....
Yeah, I know what you mean. When I was your age my favorites were linked to times in my life as well. But as we get older, we're afforded the opportunity to appreciate music without so many boundaries, either self-imposed or societal. Dean Wareham was just one of those people that I connected with in the late 80s and followed ever since. That first Luna album with the silly superscript added to the name very quickly grew into the soundtrack of my life in the early 90s, and I even remember giving it as a gift to a couple friends (something I still very rarely do) because it sounded so unique. It's still probably my favorite since it is the one most like Galaxie 500, but I do like the fuller sound on Bewitched and Penthouse. In my ongoing relocation which began at the end of July with my escape from Arizona, I only brought about 40 of my favorite CDs - and the only Luna representation in those is Bewitched.

And to answer Swish, I don't have the new Luna CD or the Dean/Britta project (I think Dean said there is another one on the horizon). Romantica really grew on me though. Took about a year of irregular listening but it finally won me over. So fluffy, though

And about After The Gold Rush. You may remember Darius that I've mentioned before that was one of my first album purchases as a kid, outside of my parent's record club. Always will love that one. I once described what I had to go through in the mid 90s to find anoher copy that matched the sonics on my totally mangled original which had been played with some decidedly non-audiophile vinyl gougers. But my expensive moving coil cartridge rode in a different enough part of the groove that I was still able to hear the magic amidst the noise and distortion, and I wasn't hearing that magic on the other used copy I picked up, even though it appeared to be a very early pressing and was in excellent condition. My thrashed original still had a lot of magic that the newer one was missing. It came through in those chiming Crazy Horse guitars, and Neil's whiny vocals, and without it the album just wasn't quite the same because it didn't quite conjur the same childhood memories.

So I bought another copy and the same thing and another and slowly realized that, while some were better than others, I needed one from the same pressing and stamper run. So I wrote down the details and whenever I was in a used record store checked the copies they had until finally I found a copy with one side identical and the other side a different stamper. And it was great on the side with the same stamper but not as good on the side with the different stamper. Damn! But soon after I found one that was not identical on both sides but sounded as good as my original and was in perfect shape. The magic was there without all the ticks and pops and groove distortion and I was a happy boy again. So....does anybody need about 6 extra (very good) copies of After The Gold Rush?

Still don't have it on CD, though. Those 24/96 tracks on the new DVD probably sound pretty nice but I bet they don't have the magic either.