Songs From Music Added To My Collection In 2024

Introduction

My friend Jonas Halsall suggested a list of purchases in 2024, and I thought that would be a good idea for a playlist.

Most of my purchases have been second-hand vinyl but there have been Christmas Presents, Birthday Presents and Father's Day Presents as well.

Most I will have forgotten where they came from but here are a few sources:

So they are the main sources of music, as well as some charity shops. Often people complain about second-hand vinyl having surface noise, but as the great John Peel said:

"Life has surface noise mate"

So on to the music:

Van der Graaf Generator - "Lemmings (Including Cog)" from "Pawn Hearts"

This was a Father's Day present on vinyl, though I already had it on CD. This is unusual for a rock album because there are no guitars on it. There are only three songs and this is the shortest one. I also love the cover of this, which is why I wanted a vinyl copy.

Pink Floyd - "Not Now John" from "The Final Cut"

On one of my Preston visits I met up with my friend Nicola who is now working at the place where I started my first job as an office clerk.

In the seventies, I apparently lent her a copy of "Money" by Pink Floyd, that was purloined from her, and she felt guilty about it so bought me two Pink Floyd singles from Action Records in Preston. This is a cast-iron favourite Floyd song of mine.

King Crimson - "Epitaph (Including 'March For No Reason' and 'Tomorrow And Tomorrow')" from "In The Court Of The Crimson King: An Observation By King Crimson"

This song is gorgeous and my daughters bought me this fiftieth anniversary vinyl copy as a Christmas present. The title is a long longer that I thought when you include the extra bits. The song is majestic.

I have it on CD and DVD as well but you cannot have too much of a good thing like this.

The Cure - "Alone" from "Songs Of A Lost World"

A Christmas present from Fiona, the deluxe digital version featuring CD, Instrumental CD and Blu-ray. Their first album in about sixteen years and absolutely brilliant. I also love that they made the initial performance free on YouTube, a free global livestream marking the release of the new album Songs Of A Lost World Live At Troxy, London, November 1st 2024. Three hours of The Cure live.

Traffic - "The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys"

I bought this because I really like the effectively hexagonal cover, and the music is excellent as well. The title track is nearly twelve minutes long but it doesn't seem anything like that to me.

Peter Baumann - "Romance" from "Romance 76"

This was a birthday present from my daughters. I first heard this on John Peel in the seventies and is deceptively simple but absolutely beautiful. Peter is an ex-member of Tangerine Dream and this was in this compilation.

Horslips - Songs 1-4 from "Happy To Meet Sorry To Part"

Happy to Meet

Hall of Mirrors

The clergy's lamentation

An bratach ban

I bought this because I love the band but was unaware of the gorgeous hexagonal cover until I saw it on a record stall in Gosforth after being invited by by friend Jessie.

I do like albums to have something special about them, as well as the music. Too many think coloured vinly or a picyture disc is as far as they need to go.

ABBA - "I Still Have Faith In You" from "Voyage"

I bought the new album on CD in 2023 and played it once and thought it was OK. Then I played it again and again, and I believe it is one of their most consistently excellent albums. I love this song that opens the album.

The reason it is included here is that I got an excellent blue vinyl copy from Beyond Vinyl, which includes a poster as well, so I can listen to this on my record player as well as my CD player.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the mainly vinyl records that joined my music collection in 2024. Thank you so much for reading and listening.