Record Store Day 2019 releases - our top picks

Record Store Day 2019 is unofficially headlined by some of the most beloved soundtracks. 2003's Lost In Translation Soundtrack has been on the our reissue wishlist for over a decade. It set the bar for high-brow soundtracks with contributions from Kevin Shields / MBV, Sebastien Tellier, Squarepusher, Phoenix, AIR, Jesus & Mary Chain and others.

The Crow Soundtrack (not to be confused with the readily available score) is one of our most requested soundtracks of all time. This first time vinyl pressing serves as a perfect mid-nineties mall-goth snapshot, most notable for The Cure's sublime "Burn" (which was written specifically for the this).

The Office Space soundtrack also makes its first vinyl appearance. We all know what it did for the Geto Boys, but the inclusions of Slum Village's "Get Dis Money" and Ice Cube's "Down For Whatever" were masterstrokes.

Lastly, we'll always have a strange soft spot for Ghost World even if in reality, it was pretty mediocre. (Ed. Note: damn, 2x ScarJo!)

To the delight of the indie nerdus, this year's selection of alt rock releases cut below the well-lit surface. We would have never learned about Insides if not for Martin Aston’s exhaustive 4AD biography. They put out this one album on short-lived 4AD sublabel Guernica and laid low until 2000. One stream and we were hooked. Euphoria devotees are small in number but deep-pocketed, hence the OG rarely trading hands for under a c-note.

Speaking of 4AD, the label’s been pretty generous with Pixies reissues, but not much love for frontman Frank Black’s weird but potent solo catalog. They aim to change that this year with not only a reissue of his self-titled debut, but a nice 2LP edition of what is generally considered his best: Teenager Of The Year. Already received allocation notes about these 2, expect them to go fast.

Only the most dedicated, baggy pants-adorned anglophiles dare venture far enough into the Happy Mondays and Stone Roses catalogs to ask “cool, what else ya got?” - if you made it as far as The Charlatans, you prob spent all your cash on weed with no money left over for records, and while their debut isn’t the most expensive piece from the era, it doesn’t pop up very often.

Ahh, Chapterhouse, the missing link between space rock and shoegaze. Space Age (Spacemen 3’s label) finally released these coveted original versions of the band’s classic debut album (fun fact: Rachel Goswell from Slowdive and Robin Guthrie of the Cocteaushelp out on one track apiece) in 2009, and then made their poor fans wait a whopping ten years for a vinyl issue.

For those who've been following us since the beginning, you might remember we used to call our hip-hop section "Heavyweight Crate." These 4 RSD selections could have easily been command-c'd straight off those hand-coded HTML pages. Leading off, Fatlip's lone solo album (2005) used to be an easy pull, but has become a true hip-hop rarity in the last decade. A lot of that has to do with Spike Jonze's What's Up FatLip mini-documentary which helped elevate the album to cult status.

2003's Birth Of A Prince gets its first vinyl reissue. RZA's solo arc has always been abstruse: constantly jumping mid-market labels, vinyl coming out sporadically. The Sanctuary original has become a bonafide Wu-collectors item (market value approximately $120) and features the algo-standout "Grits."

You probably own these songs on vinyl already (unclear if this version features previously uncleared samples), but get this as a celebration of Bad Boy marketing. The original 1994 promo cassette (that title was just meant to be, give that intern a promotion!) helped ignite the buzz behind both Biggie and Craig Mack (can't believe both are gone, RIP), and features (2) EPs worth of material from each artist. Interesting that Mack had A-side billing emphasizing his now unthinkable headlining position at the label at the time.

Goodie Mob's 1998 sophomore album also gets its first vinyl reissue. I'm not going to convince a Dungeon Fam novice to pick this up, but heads know the deal. Can't decide if we like the pic disc pressing or not (we'll reserve judgement until we see it).