Thick - 5 Years Behind - VINYL LP

Rex's seminal 1996 sophomore album C, now on deluxe double vinyl for the first time. Every one of C's 66 minutes is a delightful exploration at the intersection of slowcore and alt-country, weaving heartfelt Americana, stately strings, progged-out rhythms and crashingly heavy climaxes into captivating epics. Remastered from the original analog tapes, C has been given a second life beyond the CD-era, and comes housed in a tip-on jacket with restored artwork from guitarist Curtis Harvey.

Boychoir is the Cincinnati, OH post-hardcore band's second LP, and first for the experimental tag Whited Sepulchre (Midwife, Planning For Burial, Forest Management). Recorded at Cincinnati's historic Ultrasuede Studio, the album exhibits a more cohesive coupling of the desperate noise of early releases with an expanded sense of melody, dynamics, and space. Their approach to production and instrumentation is lawless synths and vibraphones ring out next to prepared guitars and broken cymbals; tambourines and choirs share space with birdsong, controlled microphone feedback, and sampled drones. A washing machine is used as a percussion instrument. No sound was considered off limits. Thematically, the band has chosen to use it's to examine and dissect male archetypes, looking at how they contribute, or are directly responsible for, a world they view as increasingly drowning in alarming, toxic rhetoric. The songs on Boychoir act as a series of ground-level vignettes, portraying family members led astray, the silently complicit, the increasingly unhinged, and the outwardly destructive. For all of the vitriol shown towards these targets, there is an equal amount of empathy and solidarity shown towards those forced to exist in such an environment, and an overriding sense of hope that humanity will eventually right the ship.

Vinyl LP pressing. Illmatic is the debut studio album by American rapper Nas, released in April 1994. Often cited as one of the best hip-hop albums of the '90s, Illmatic is the undisputed classic upon which Nas' reputation rests. It helped spearhead the artistic renaissance of New York hip-hop in the post-Chronic era, leading a return to street aesthetics. Hip-hop fans accustomed to 73-minute opuses sometimes complain about Illmatic's brevity, but even if it leaves you wanting more, it's also one of the few '90s rap albums with absolutely no wasted space. Illmatic reveals a great lyricist in top form meeting great production, and it remains a perennial favorite among serious hip-hop fans.