I hate holidays…I don’t know why, but i just do.  Ok, I hate the ones where I have to buy gifts…I feel so much pressure.  The holidays I do like are the ones where I actually get gifts.  The old adage “it is better to give than to receive” is crap.  That person never received vinyl records as a gift obviously.

For Father’s Day this year, my wife and daughters gave me some nice gifts.  Not only did I receive some great cards and some candy, but I got some nice shirts for work as well.  Which I needed.  They also got me some really cool, crazy socks.  One was blue with some pineapples (don’t know why, but I love them) and the other was some gray socks with guitars on them (I understand that one and love them as well).

But what I loved most of all was some vinyl.  I love to go buy vinyl, but I generally only buy used records from the 70’s & 80’s and if I am lucky…early 90’s.  The brand new copies I generally don’t buy…too expensive.  So I always ask for those as gifts.

The first album I received was from one of the family’s favorite bands and that is Train.  It is the last great Train record called ‘California 37’.  The title track is one of my favorite Train songs and it is just a great album from beginning to end. My oldest daughter will probably steal this record from time to time.  Now why is that the last great Train record…well…I will save that for another time.

The album sounds great and had a nice bonus with a CD copy of the album as well.

 

Now, the next 3 albums were from a former favorite band of mine.  I say former because the amount of disappointment in the last 10 years has knocked them from the list of favorite bands.  However, I now have 3 albums of theirs that I just love.  One I have had a hard time finding on vinyl (I won’t shop online, I prefer walking through stores and flipping through racks).  The other 2 were never released on vinyl until recently.  They were on my wish list I keep so my kids and wife know what to get me and to my surprise, they got me all 3.

I wanted to post this last week, but had to wait as one of the albums didn’t come until a couple days ago.  The band is Bon Jovi.  The albums were New Jersey, Keep the Faith and These Days.

They are all 2LP 180g editions and all sound great.  New Jersey and Keep the Faith open up and have a separate slot for each album where These Days just has the one cover.

I hadn’t listened to them in awhile and they haven’t lost anything over the years.  Still some of their best work.  Shame they don’t write ’em like these anymore.  Not a bad haul for Father’s Day.  Can’t wait for Birthday and Christmas now!!!