Mr. Lin
Lunatic Member
To clarify, by "coolest" I mean according to you, regardless of what other people generally think about a particular example. If you're able to post pictures of the records in question, that would be nice too. And no, it doesn't matter if they play at 45rpm or 33rpm, nor does it matter if there's no b-side, but instead another mix of the single (personally that's usually a turnoff for me).
I expect to see a lot of interesting things in this thread, as I'm among fellow record junkies.
In my record collection, a few of my favorite 12" singles/e.p.s are by The Cure, which is my favorite band. I'll have more for this thread later, but to start:
This is the single/e.p. for the song "Catch," off their 1987 album titled Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss me. In my experience as a record collector and hunter - and I almost always check the "C" section first in record stores - this is one of the less common Cure singles, and I believe it was a U.K.-only release. In other words, no U.S. counterpart like they did with some of their other singles throughout the years. That album yielded several singles that were very successful in the U.S., but I don't think "Catch" was really one of them.
As is typically the case with my favorite 12" singles, this one qualifies as an e.p.. The way I look at it, the "b-side" to the song "Catch" is the melancholic, bitter-sweet and highly atmospheric love song called "Breathe." Heavy on the synths, as was their style for the album I mentioned above. But this song is actually on side A, after the single.
On side B they included two live versions of slightly older songs, specifically "Kyoto Song" (from The Head on The Door, 1985) and "A Night Like This" (same), taken from the official live video release from 1986 called "In Orange" (their best live video release IMO). Both of these live ones are solid songs and good live versions of them, and it's a soundboard recording so the sound quality is not bad.
This one plays at 45rpm, and with only four songs that means something we vinyl lovers really enjoy: wider spacing for better sound quality! It's far from reference quality, but not bad, and AFAIK Kiss Me was their penultimate album to be recorded in analog. However, the songs from these sessions benefit from the better vinyl format as they tend to be too bright and at times even strident.
Also, I like the cover. Last picture is the back cover.
...
I expect to see a lot of interesting things in this thread, as I'm among fellow record junkies.
In my record collection, a few of my favorite 12" singles/e.p.s are by The Cure, which is my favorite band. I'll have more for this thread later, but to start:
This is the single/e.p. for the song "Catch," off their 1987 album titled Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss me. In my experience as a record collector and hunter - and I almost always check the "C" section first in record stores - this is one of the less common Cure singles, and I believe it was a U.K.-only release. In other words, no U.S. counterpart like they did with some of their other singles throughout the years. That album yielded several singles that were very successful in the U.S., but I don't think "Catch" was really one of them.
As is typically the case with my favorite 12" singles, this one qualifies as an e.p.. The way I look at it, the "b-side" to the song "Catch" is the melancholic, bitter-sweet and highly atmospheric love song called "Breathe." Heavy on the synths, as was their style for the album I mentioned above. But this song is actually on side A, after the single.
On side B they included two live versions of slightly older songs, specifically "Kyoto Song" (from The Head on The Door, 1985) and "A Night Like This" (same), taken from the official live video release from 1986 called "In Orange" (their best live video release IMO). Both of these live ones are solid songs and good live versions of them, and it's a soundboard recording so the sound quality is not bad.
This one plays at 45rpm, and with only four songs that means something we vinyl lovers really enjoy: wider spacing for better sound quality! It's far from reference quality, but not bad, and AFAIK Kiss Me was their penultimate album to be recorded in analog. However, the songs from these sessions benefit from the better vinyl format as they tend to be too bright and at times even strident.
Also, I like the cover. Last picture is the back cover.
...