Bowie, Nirvana, Tame Impala, Damon Albarn: The Pick of Record Store Day 2014 Releases

So what do you make of this year’s Record Store Day List of Releases? There are already a few lists doing the rounds, and the official announcement is at 4pm today. (the official announcement will be found here at RSD HQ) The annual announcement is as widely and eagerly anticipated amongst the vinyl loving fraternity as the World Cup draw is amongst normal people. To stretch the analogy a little, will there be a “good draw” (favourable & likely to be a success – ie will get the records you want) or a “bad draw” (little of interest), or even a “group of death” (likely to be unsuccessful on the day)? That analogy didn’t really work did it? Oh well.

My predictions of releases this year may be verging on the cynical, but are as follows: see if you think I will get it right:

1. Vastly over-priced (£50 plus) box set by legacy “classic” band.

2. Re-release (at £30) of a limited edition 180g album by classic rock band that is available at all good used vinyl stores for £5 or less.

3. Coloured vinyl picture disc single by “hot” indie band who everyone will have forgotten about in two years time.

4. A quirky Flaming Lips 12″ of a not-terribly-good song released in an unfeasibly odd format involving blood, sweets or other strange fluids.

5. Quite expensive record by an indeterminate band “limited” to 3,000 copies that has little chance of ever selling half that many.

6. Yet another coloured vinyl White Stripes 7″ single re-release. Choice of colours: either red or white.

7. An unnecessary remix album consisting of ten unlistenable versions of a great indie album.

8. Split vinyl with A side of Mastodon and B side of One Direction both covering a Miley Cyrus song.

9. A David Bowie picture disc.

10. Quite a lot of records you’ve never heard of, which everyone else appears to love. How does that happen?

But leaving aside such generic sniping, there are some very nice items with which to fill one’s pockets this year, according to the unofficial lists released so far. Some particular highlights for Record Store Day 2014 include:

• Nirvana: Pennyroyal Tea 7″ (“limited” to 6,000 copies)
• David Bowie 40th anniversary 7″ picture discs of Rock n Roll Suicide” in the UK and “1984” in the USA.
• LCD Soundsystem’s five LP collection “The Long Goodbye” – James Murphy’s last LCD gig at Madison Square Garden.
• Tame Impala – live LP (limited to 5,000 copies – i.e. approx 1.7 copies for every man, woman and child who wants one – and I include myself in that calculation)
• 7″ singles by Damon Albarn, Bat For Lashes, Elbow, Tenpole Tudor (Swords of a Thousand Men picture disc!), and Paul Weller (A Brand New Toy: 750 copies).
• There’s a re-release of the picture disc of Ray Parker Jr’s “Ghostbusters” which glows in the dark (my sister had this the first time around: we’d dim the lights to see the ghost spin round on the turntable).
• Bruce Springsteen has a 12″ with four unheard tracks, Jake Bugg has a live EP, Foals have a double live album, Oasis are re-releasing the 12″ of Supersonic whilst The Black Crowes and Jimmy Page: Live at The Greek gets a triple coloured-vinyl release.
• XFM has announced an album with charity War Child featuring X-posure sessions by bands including Drenge and Savages limited to 1,000 copies with no price tag, albeit organisers hope people will make a donation of £5-£10 when picking it up.
• Green Day has a double LP called Demolicious in red / clear vinyl (and cassette) featuring 18 demos and two unreleased tracks.
• Oh, and if you like that sort of thing, Henry Mancini’s Pink Panther OST gets a pink vinyl release and The Wizard of Oz is released in an essential Yellow.

So what grabs your attention? Anything I should know about? Any surprise announcements? And what is the best strategy on the day for securing those hard-to-find records? Why not share your thoughts below…