I find it hard to buy physical versions of music that aren’t somehow “special” these days; there is too much shit in my already cramped living space to rationalize paying twenty dollars for something that, after the initial month of listening, goes on the shelf.
This being said, the Power Mystery cassette currently in my deck is something I am quite glad was introduced into my increasingly claustrophobic bedsit. It’s the full package; a j-card printed on picture-paper (is that what it’s called?) with the Kodak watermark visible on the backside, wrapped around a home-dubbed Maxwell C60 that’s only identified by a white sticker with “Aug 2014 *this side only” carefully written on it. As for the music, picture this: discovering a cassette in your parent’s attic of the long-thought-lost recordings made by your uncle (who never publicly performed but was often heard, through the walls, softly strumming his guitar in the early hours of the morning) shortly before his death. Okay, that’s a bit much, but the music here is soft, warm and has the strange quality of being familiar without being dull or ordinary; like something you find rather than something you buy. Which, happens to be exactly what I mean by “special”.
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