Just back from Edinburgh where I went for my 31st birthday.

As I know for an (indisputable) fact that everyone finds my CD collection as fascinating as I do here is a list of all the CDs I have bought recently. It’s been quite a while since I had a spate of CD-buying, but spending time adding things to my amazon wishlist in time for Christmas has inspired me. Plus, Edinburgh is full of funky little record shops that sell second hand CDs at ridiculous prices.

Tigertailz – Bezerk 2.0 It’s their new album. Tigertailz never die, they just vanish for years, then spurt out albums in sudden flurries of activity. Banzai has also been released in the UK for the first time. Which is annoying, because I paid £17 for a Japanese import at a record fair in Otley I went to with Lou and Kallie. Though not as annoying as buying Strawberry Switchblade’s Greatest Hits for £27 and actually having it imported from Japan, only to discover that a) it’s rubbish and b) if I’d waited a few years I’d have found a better version with a better tracklist and a booklet in English for £3.99 in a funky little record shop in Edinburgh.

Crimson Glory – Transcendence. An album that my childhood friend’s big brother had on vinyl. Said friend played it to me as a laugh; I loved it. Just sixteen years later I’ve managed to find an affordable copy on CD. Thanks blah.com. Thom.

Natalie Imbruglia – White Lillies Island Not bad for £1.99!

A-ha – Hunting High and Low. Not bad for £1.99!

Transglobal Underground – Psychic Karaoke. Straight on eBay.

Vain – No Respect. People with long memories might remember that there were a few albums I was trying to get and never managed to find. Like Spread Eagle by the band of the same name, Venice in Peril by Rondo Veneziano, Wazbones by Tigertailz and lately I Megaphone by Imogen Heap. I’ve now got most of them, bar the first two, and this is one of them.  It’s surprisingly good, but unsurprisingly, the song that made me want it in the first place, Who’s Watching You is the best song on it.

Imogen Heap – I Megaphone. Re-released in America, shockingly available on Amazon UK, and instantly snapped up by me, paying full price for a CD with gritted teeth. Brilliant, of course. Not quite as good as Speak for Yourself but still bloody marvellous. Poe fans should investigate Ms. Heap further, Fraggles fans have obviously just got mixed up.

Queen – The Works. My first actual Queen album rather than a hits compilation. Although I did have a taped copy of The Miracle as a teenager. No doubt this will be interesting. Not bad for £1.99.

Hole – Celebrity Skin. As recommended by Lee, a recommendation backed up by the presence of the excellent song of the same name on his compilation CD Bare Knuckle Monkey Boxing. Not bad for £3.99!

Various – Absolution. This is a compilation of goth-associated songs that I borrowed from Bexleyheath library when I was about thirteen including a better-than-the-original mix of No Rest by New Model Army.

New Model Army – Carnival. My first actual NMA album rather than a hits compliation. Never heard of it, never heard of any of the songs on it, seems to have been released last year. Not bad for £3.99.

Led Zeppelin – Symbols. My first Led Zeppelin album. I’ve always thought I didn’t like them, but this was so cheap I thought I’d give it a shot. Plus Rosetta Stone’s version of When the Levee Breaks makes me think the original might be just as good.

Gemma Hayes – The Roads Don’t Love You. I’d like to think that Gemma is related to Geoffrey Hayes from Rainbow. But she probably isn’t.

And lastly, regular readers (if there are any) will no doubt have guessed that I’d bought those Sisters remasters I mentioned before blogging about them, and they arrived from Amazon this morning. I’ve had a flick through the first two. They’re very interesting.

The version of First and Last and Always on the album of the same name, isn’t a remaster of the orginal. It’s a different recording. I’m sure it is. Some of the guitar is completely different. And there are loads of cheesy backwards-reverb effects on the drum machine and strange and unnecessary noises going off in the background. Hmm. But the rest of the album tracks are the originals remastered, and they sound great.

The bonus tracks are Poision Door, On the Wire, Blood Money, Bury Me Deep, Long Train and Some Kind of Stranger (Early). Poison Door and On the Wire sound wonderful after years of only hearing them as scratchy bootlegs or dodgily produced B-sides. Quite why Long Train is on there instead of Train is beyond me, as the shorter train makes the better song. In fact Long Train hardly qualifies as a song being as it is, a load of 12″ mix nonsense. Some Kind of Stranger (Early), on the other hand, is absolutely dire. I’ve heard some embarassing Sisters material over the years, but Jesus Christ. This is a demo that should never have seen the light of day. I hope he doesn’t read this, or I’ve got a crushing put-down coming my way.

Floodland sounds great too – especially Dominion – and comes with the full length Never Land and Emma. Emma sounds awesome. Shame there aren’t more rare songs on it, though. Good Things would’ve been nice.

Vision Thing‘s got the wonderful You Could Be the One added to it, along with the remix (presumably the German one) of When You Don’t See Me and (good god, why?) the extended version of Doctor Jeep which is basically 11 minutes of the same four-bar riff. And there are some live tracks.

So, great, but could have been better with more of the hard-to-find songs. Why not a B-sides collection? With Good Things, the right version of Train, Wide Receiver and Alice (1993) on it?