In my family everything's a record, whatever it's on, but I have a tendency to associate 'record' more with vinyl. My mum's always called CDs records, but we didn't get a CD player 'til about '01/'02. If I said singles/7"s/LPs/fulllength/12" my she'd know what I meant. As alannasaurus - "On vinyl" (and also "vinyl", mass noun, but never "a vinyl" ) - but I've never heard "vinyls" from a real-live person.
I've got hundreds of not especially brilliant singles which aren't even in this house, but would be nice to get back to spend a week reliving ~2005/6. I miss living with my mum and having her punk/ska/reggae leaning collection at my disposal. I don't have as many albums, mostly singles. These I like playing best -
> Caramel by City High, as the first vinyl record I bought. I remember standing in Virgin Megastores faced with the CD single and the 12" and knowing for sure which represented greater value for money. I thought I had What Would You Do, too, as I'm sure I remember singing along to the instrumental, but I've not seen it for years so I may've invented that memory.
> Travel is Dangerous - Mogwai - mostly for Like Herod on the reverse.
> Anything I have by Clive Pig & the Hopeful Chinamen. I got my turntable for my 16th birthday from my entire family and with it my mum's copy of
Happy Birthday Sweet 16 - still my favourite song.
> Silver Jews favourites are Send in the Clouds (Oh, self ignition...), Starlite Walker, & the Arizona Record (though it's the flimsiest piece of plastic I've set hands on. Flexidiscs notwithsanding.) Though ideally I'd like the proper cassette edition of Starlite Walker, this is the next best.
> Recently I've been putting on Fangio (and pretending my room's a disco) and/or The Monte Carlo Method by Nothing Painted Blue every evening. The MCM packaging is simple, yes, but damn, damn nice. I was thinking of making a t-shirt based on the cover and then I found that the album poster was almost exactly how I'd envisioned my shirt.
> The best new 7" I got last year was probably The Chenier's "Trouble". I was also jammy enough to get given a free Art Goblins split single direct from the hands of Eddie Argos. It looks like it should glow in the dark, but doesn't.
>SpecialGoatTreasure favourites are Moon Colony Bloodbath and Devil in the Shortwave. Disappointingly I've still not quite managed to get into Black Pear Tree. I think I spoiled myself by listening to the New Orleans bootleg and having my mind pre-blown by that version of Supergenesis. Plus I forget it's a 45 every time so I sit down and have to get back up (unless...) and then quietly resent it. I'm not in a rush, but one day I'll add Jam Eater Blues to the list.
midgoat