The Vinyl Issue: Vinyl-Only Albums

Features
By ( Classic Rock ) published

Forget CDs and MP3s: these rarities are  available only for your turntable.

Some albums don’t just sound better at 33 and a third, that’s also the only speed you can listen to them at.

Buckingham Nicks

Buckingham Nicks (Anthem, 1973)

How refreshing in this age of unlimited streaming that there exists a long out-of-print, collectable album. Stevie and Lindsey have flirted with a possible re-release, but it would be better if they let it stay hard-to-get.

Neil Young

Time Fades Away (Reprise, 1973)

Alongside_ Journey Through The Past_, _Time Fades Away _has resisted all attempts to transfer it onto CD. Young’s own indifference is often cited as the reason, though it is in fact a crunching live document of a key transitional moment in his career.

Various Artists

Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea (Atlantic, 1979)

It’s inexplicable why Paul McCartney’s stardusted benefit shows never made it to CD. The Who open up with a typically smash-and-grab set, but stick a finger in the air and you sense a changing of the guard, as Costello, Dury and Hynde jostle their podium. Worth buying a turntable for.

**Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction **

High Priest Of Love (Food, 1986)

Before conquering the charts with the immortal Prime Mover, Mindwarp released this six-track mini-album, replete with the claim that he was ‘shooting babies from the end of my dick’. Dirtier and heavier than his breakthrough material, _High Priest… _is his finest hour.

Kooga

_Across The Water _(High Dragon, 1986)

Though it was later bootlegged, largely on the grounds that Nev MacDonald went on to front Skin, this immaculate slice of Welsh pomp-rock remains a vinyl-only delicacy. It’s a crying shame, though, that a highly dodgy cover could represent part of the explanation.

Classic Rock
Classic Rock

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