https://www.roughtrade.com/product/bjrk ... 9367081291
https://www.discogs.com/release/3700429 ... B6rk-Debut
It's not perfect as there's a few niggles. But def worth getting for the collection...
PROS:
• tHE SOUND QUALITY OF THE PRESSING IS FLAWLESS. nOT SURE IF IT'S A REMASTER, BUT IT haS NOT SOUNDED THIS GOOD ON WAX FOR A LONG TIME.
• tHE SILVER COLOUR IS LOVELY, AND IS HEAVYWEIGHT VINYL WHICH IS RARE FOR COLOUR VINYL.
• tHE REVISED PACKAGING IS a huge win. The alt. cover pic is utterly charming and lovely to have it as an additional o-card with the standard cover sleeve, rather than replace it.
• It fiiiiinally has a printed innersleeve with the 'Human Behaviour' cover photo and the "thank yous", as opposed to a generic white disco-bag every other edition has had.
• The print quality is flawless. No more fuzzy and discoloured scanned represses, and this edition finally restores the original beige colour of the first ever editions... something only the 2019 gold cassette has managed over the last few decades of represses.
• The Rough trade bio sheet about the album that's included is a thick matte card insert, and has some really lovely insight into the album's creation. Not sure if any of it is from new interviews with Marius De Vries, but some of his stories included I'd never actually heard before and were quite lovely.
Cons:
• The O-card and the two sleeves are all top-loading, which is just dumb as it makes them a little tricky to unpack and slide out. But also, with them all being top-loading, Even with a total of three sleeves included, the actual vinyl is still exposed and could still just roll out of the whole packed sleeve at any time. The O-card and the innersleeve reeeeeeally needed to be side-loading, ideally. Oh well.
• The spine text on the o-card ("björk • debut • tplp31rt50") is only included on right-hand spine, and isn't factored in on the left. So, when tucked into collections, no text will be visible on shelves.
• The lack of mention of Graham Massey's contributions to the album production on the bio insert is a bit of an eye-brow raiser. He was a crucial part of the album in its very early phases of recording, and that's just not touched on at all.
• Considering the 2019 gold cassette re-issue featured the original artwork and 'Play Dead', it does feel like another missed opportunity to finally re-issue a vinyl of debut with 'Play dead', which has still never happened. But, I guess the pure O.G. version of debut makes sense for this rough trade 'classics' series.
• An insert of sorts to include the lyrics would have been lovely. But, I can forgive that as at least it finally has a proper printed innersleeve... 33 years later!
Those packaging quibbles aside, I'd still massively recommend this edition. It's Just nice to see some thought and consideration go back into a vinyl repress for once.
(Plus, scalpers are already bumping this up to absurd prices on ebay and discogs. So, grab it while it's still in stock and standard retail price at Rough Trade!)
