Depeche Mode / Violator: The 12″ Singles / Limited edition box set
Depeche Mode release Violator: The 12″ Singles, the next box set in the series which showcases the remixes and B-sides across the four UK singles pulled from their 1990 album.


Joy Division / Closer reissued on clear vinyl for its 40th anniversary

David Bowie’s Tin Machine II to be reissued on coloured vinyl and CD
Tin Machine II, David Bowie‘s second and final studio album with his late eighties band Coloured vinyl pressing now sold out but BLACK vinyl edition now available (as well as the CD).


Bob Dylan / Rough and Rowdy Ways
Bob Dylan‘s new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways is released on vinyl on Friday.


Queen / Studio Collection back in print
Queen‘s mammoth Studio Collection coloured vinyl box set is being made available once more.


Introducing… The Lickerish Quartet

JARV IS / Beyond The Pale

Level 42 / Essential 3CD set
Triple-CD package from Universal budget imprint Spectrum which focuses on 1980’s output of Level 42.


Absolute Beginners soundtrack reissued
The soundtrack to Julien Temple’s 1986 film Absolute Beginners, which featured memorable contributions from a number of artists including David Bowie, Ray Davies, The Style Council and Sade, is reissued and appears on CD in its entirety for the first time.


Fiona Apple / Fetch The Bolt Cutters

The Hotrats / Turn Ons 10th anniversary expanded deluxe edition
Supergrass side project The Hotrats (Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey) released a covers album, Turn Ons, in 2010. That album has now been expanded and is reissued as a 3CD+DVD box set.


Be Bop Deluxe / Axe Victim deluxe

Pretenders / Hate For Sale
The Pretenders release a new album, Hate For Sale. It’s produced by Stephen Street.


Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Agency 3LP coloured vinyl
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency stars Harry Enfield as the singular detective in this full-cast BBC radio dramatisation of the novel by Douglas Adams. First broadcast on Radio 4 in 2007, this comedy sci-fi drama is presented on triple coloured vinyl with an exclusive sleeve note by Dirk Maggs.
Compare prices and pre-order

Douglas Adams
Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency - 3LP coloured vinyl
![]() |
|
I may be late but wanted to share – I just saw Dave Hemmingway from Beautiful South/Housemartins fame has a new album out with his new band Sunbirds and it’s only £10 (+£4 shipping to US) on their website (sunbirds.co.uk)! Now if only he’d release his impossible to find solo debut, “Hello Cruel World.”
sucked in now to buying the DM boxes. i hold Paul Sinclair partially responsible for the unboxing videos :) Decided i wouldn’t bother at first. Now got the last four. Decided i’d stop with Violator as it’s the pinnacle for me . Although with SOAD next not sure i’ll have the discipline.
It is great to see Weller top the album charts in five separate decades. It is even more astonishing when you think that his two greatest albums, All Mod Cons and Setting Sons (both from the 70’s) never reached number one at all: otherwise he would have set a unique record of top albums across six decades. “You waste my time when my time comes…”
3 titles I have on preorder you do not have listed…the Chicks (formerly Dixie Chicks) “Gaslighter”, this David Sanborn anthology & new Ellie Goulding…yes I stuck with following her career…
Paul,
Would it be possible to add Amazon.nl to your pricing widget? It would be very helpful. Thanks!
Yes, I will do that. Bear with me…
New album by Kansas out this Friday.
Nice to see Paul Weller’s On Sunset album debuting at number 1 on the UK album charts, giving him number 1 albums in 5 consecutive decades. Australians like me trying to get the deluxe CD from JB Hifi have to wait at least until 17 July for it, not too long. Hopefully it doesn’t get pushed back, such as has happened a few times with getting the Prince One Nite Alone box set over here.
I heard The Buzz by The Pretenders in the last week and was really impressed
Dylan has, as of last week, had yop 20 albums in 7 decades.
Hi Mark,
the same question occured to me last year. I did a little google research back then and the result was that if you have a good pressing then the colour of the vinyl shouldn’t make any audible differences.
You might suffer bad sound if the raw material is of inferior quality (e.g. recycled vinyl etc.) but that has nothing to do with the colour of the vinyl in the first place.
The only pressings which are inferior in sound quality by design are picture vinyls – those are produced for optical pleasure but not for sound fetishists. Basically these are not ‘pressed’ like a regular vinyl disc but you can imagine these as transparent flexi discs glued onto printed cardboard.
Hope this helps :-)
HMV have listed a coloured vinyl edition of Absolute Beginers, but don’t say what colour.
Beginner’s question: is there any difference is sound quality between opaque and transparent vinyl pressings?
One’s a bit clearer than the other!!
Theoretically, at least, black vinyl should resist degradation from sunlight better than translucent vinyl.
Info from a manufacturing plant below
SCALE OF COLOR VINYL SOUND QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS:*
(Surface noise 1= quietest / 8 = noisiest)
1. GGR Black vinyl
4. Transparent Colors (Blue, Green, Clear, Gold [orange], Transparent Red, Coke Clear, Fluorescent Colors)
6. Non-Mixed Opaque Colors (Pink, Red, Yellow, Violet, Brown)
7. White
7. Opaque Mix (Mixing opaque and translucent color(s) in particular; and also tend to have visible “staining” after a few hundred records, which can be seen in certain light).
7-8. Random Color / Recycled Color Shades
8. Hand-made variants
8-10. Glow In The Dark / Glitter Records
Thanks Michael. Where’s the info from and how old is it?
I was under the impression that opaque (which includes black vinyl) are pretty much the same sound quality these days.
https://blog.discogs.com/en/true-colors-black-or-colored-vinyl/
Perhaps something for Paul to do an article on?
Raw plastic is not coloured, it is almost clear, beads of the desired colour have to be added to the plastic (PVC) similar to mixing paint , black vinyl is actually made by adding carbon which also strengthens it.
https://blog.discogs.com/en/true-colors-black-or-colored-vinyl/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Transparent or clear vinyl is the purest form of vinyl and therefore the best sounding vinyl. Any colour (including black) introduced into clear vinyl technically worsens the sound as it has slight magnetic qualities which interfere with the pick up on the end of your tonearm. High end systems are more likely to reveal these differences. Avoid modern picture discs like the clappers unless you just want to look at them and not play them – picture discs from the eighties and beyond tend to play much better than their modern counterparts due to different manufacturing processes back then.