Behold! The ever-growing list of my documented discs! And cassettes and other media, but that doesn't alliterate as well. Tumblr doesn't want me having more than 100 links on one post, so happy hyperlink hunting!
Sorted alphabetically (not including "The"s) by artists first name... eh, I'm sure you'll figure it out or use the Ctrl+F. It's a beefy list and only getting bigger, so clicky to expand 👇🏻
#1-9: The 411
A is for... Alicia Keys / Amy Winehouse / Annie Lennox / Anohni and the Johnsons
B is for... The Beautiful South / Black Grape
C is for... Caro Emerald / Cher / Christina Aguilera / Culture Club
D is for... D12 / David Bowie / Deacon Blue
E is for... Enya / Eve
F is for... Florence + The Machine
G is for... Go Home Productions / Gwen Stefani
H is for... Hawkwind / Helen Reddy
I is for... nothing (yet!)
J is for... Jick the Rapper
K is for... Kelly Osbourne
L is for... Leigh Mary Stokes / Level 42 / Luciano Pavarotti / Lutricia McNeal
M is for... Marc Almond / The Melinda Lightfoot Quartet / Melody Gardot / Mis-Teeq / mix CDs / Muse
N is for... Nicki French / Nicki Minaj / Nina Simone
O is for... Orson
P is for... The Panpipers / Peggy Lee / P!nk
Q is for... nothing (yet!)
R is for... Republica
S is for... Scissor Sisters / Soft Cell / Spice Girls / Spiritualized / Sugababes / Sweet Female Attitude
T is for... Teletubbies / Tori Amos
U is for... nothing (yet!)
V is for... The Vaccines, various artists
W is for... Woman Wants Tall Man
X is for... nothing (yet!)
Y is for... nothing (yet!)
Z is for... The Zutons
Bonus Other Stuff
Hardware: Blank cassettes / Boombox / HMV CD lens cleaner / MP3 player
Non-Music Stuff I Found: Blank minidisc DVDs / Camera / Ministry of Sound: Pump It Up Dance Workout DVD
If you made it all the way down here hoping for an "everyone else seems to be doing one of these introduction to me posts so I guess I'll do it ^.^" essay, I am sorry for your crushing disappointment.
Argus C720
Found In: Debra (Above Bar, Southampton)
Price: £10
I was really looking forward to being an analogue camera girly but ALAS, according to the very nice man at the London Camera Exchange it doesn't function as anything other than a hipster paperweight. But the silver lining is that now I have some knowledge of what to check before buying a used analogue camera in future (because I do want to give this a go for real) as well as a hipster paperweight.
Tori Amos - In Times of Dragons (Universal Music Operations, 2026)
Found In: HMV (Above Bar, Southampton)
Price: £13.99
I knowwwww, I've bought a CD from this year! Brand new, no less! Is this me betraying everything I've ever stood for?
I listened to this twice in a row, and Stronger Together is two for two on making me cry. Natashya Hawley sounds eerily like a younger Tori on the tracks where they duet, especially Veins, which adds another dimension to the mother/daughter dynamic. Other than that, I'm a bit too hot and hayfeverish to offer any more analysis.
I will complain about cardboard CD cases again. I can't take the discs out of the case without pinching them, risking sweaty fingerprints on the discs' edges. I think I need to find an intact double-disc case and carefully trim open the card to line the back. I'm sure there's something sacrilegious about that but if my thrfiting has taught me anything it's that the card cases do not hold up.
HII! I wanted to share one last super cool and rare picture I founded today for all Anohni fans!! ❤️ Look: A young ANOHNI at her 10th Street Apartment, in NYC, 1992. Courtesy: ANOHNI; 📸 photographer: Johanna Constantine, I big thank reserved to Frieze site, for the great interview with her and for the photo shared! Credit to the photographer and to the original owner
Teletubbies - Teletubbies Say "Eh-Oh!" (BBC Worldwide Music, 1997)
Found In: Debra (Above Bar, Southampton)
Price: 50p
Despite what my husband and all the concerned loved ones who turned up to my intervention may think, I don't in fact buy every single CD that catches my eye. Sometimes I'll see a blast from the past like this, get slapped in the face with childhood nostalgia (my little sister Gabi got it for Christmas that year) and still leave that cursed object right there on the damn shelf.
The Vaccines - What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? (Sony Music Entertainment, 2011)
Found In: Cancer Research UK (Shirley, Southampton)
Price: £1
If memory serves this was a slim picking kind of thrifting trip and this CD was cheap enough and looked interesting enough that I figured I may as well.
What did I expect? Truthfully I figured it'd be some edgy noise punk, a bit too wall-of-sound for my tastes but maybe I'd like it. I wasn't expecting a 1950s surf rock band that had been temporally displaced to the 2010s. One song I'd heard before but didn't realise (If You Wanna), and although it's not hits across the board, I was pleasantly surprised for the most part.
Also frontman Justin Young is from Southampton? Fuck yeah, Iconic. No notes.
Republica - Republica (BMG Entertainment, 1996)
Found In: Age UK (Fareham)
Price: 49p
What I knew about Republica before this album:
nuh nuh nuh, nuh nuh, nuh nuh nu-nuh
on the rooftops shout it out
baBY I'M READY TO GOOOOOOO!
What I know about Republica now:
The voice is a lady called Saffron
They're still touring!
They have a new album due to release this year!
......and Saffron also works as a mental health nurse?
At the same time?
Are you KIDDING me???
Callout statement described as a Fun Fact: this was one of the first albums my friend Serena bought off Amazon in 2001, and she "wasn't that impressed". Serena is a wise and kind spirit with impeccable taste but she is WRONG because this SLAPS.
Various Artists - Daily Star: Brit Hits of the 80s (Express Newspapers, 2005)
Found In: Farplace Animal Rescue (Woolston, Southampton)
Price: Free
Another free CD from the mid-00s with the Copyright Control tracks at the end. Listen, 2005 was a big year: YouTube and Reddit were born, the dwarf planet Eris was discovered, and everyone was mad about how bad Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith was. I truly don't think Daily Star readers would have been angry that they only got 7 free tracks - especially since the 8 padding out the disc aren't from the 80s.
As far as the main tracks go, decent selection - the first three tracks have been played to death over the course of my life, but Kirsty MacColl (RIP queen) delivers as she always has, and Swords of a Thousand Men is going on the soundtrack for the Captain Britain movie that only exists in my head.
Tracklist:-
Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) - A Flock of Seagulls
Living in a Box - Living in a Box
Spirit in the Sky - Doctor & The Medics
Swords of a Thousand Men - Tenpole Tudor
A New England - Kirsty MacColl
Body Talk - Imagination
China in Your Hand - T'Pau
Found - Celine Kay*
Hold Onto Your Heart - Jessika*
Look Who's Talking - Frisk*
I've Been Waiting - Charlotte Knight*
Electric Love - Summer Adams*
Yeah Yeah - Bee Music*
Found You - Charlotte Knight*
Boy Meets Girl - Maddy*
*Copyright Control tracks whyyyyyyyyy are they therrrrrrrrrre
Various Artists - Tidy Addict: At First It Was Just a Bit of Fun (Tidy, 2005)
Found In: Farplace Animal Rescue (Woolston, Southampton)
Price: 33⅓p (3 for £1)
"two audio compact discs for your ears"
Quoth @queencordite: "I'm glad they had serving suggestions"
I don't know if it's the heat, the beer, my brain, or if it really is that samey all the way through. It's a good house / trance compilation though, and there are some tracks (Playin' with Knives, Your Ass Is Mine) that did make me sit up and listen properly. So I am prepared to accept I might have not been paying correct attention.
My favourite thing about this label and the fact that they've taken the Tidy Addict site down and replaced it with Tidy Trax? Googling "tidy addict" and getting a load of NHS links of where I can get help for drug addiction. Daaaaamn youuuuu, Tidy Boys!
Tracklist:-
Disc 1:
Nightmare Man - DJ Kutski
Sound & Beats - Rumble & Little Gem
I'll Take You There - Ali Wilson & Matt Smallwood
Be Alive - Nick Rowland
Sanctuary - K8
Dynamite - Ali Wilson & Matt Smallwood
Controllin' Me - Chris Hoff, MDA & Spherical feat. Jennie Rix
Go Home Productions - Mashed (Virgin Records, 2007)
Found In: Cry Shop (Woolston, Southampton)
Price: 33⅓p (3 for £1)
Like most people, I don't have a solid answer for the question "What kind of music are you into?", usually equivocating between 90s chart pop, garage, dad rock, and jazz/swing and the revivals thereof. That said, all of that can get in the river in the face of the mashup, which is king of all music.
Enter Go Home Productions aka Mark Vidler. Now, I think that I should have more properly classified this as a Various Artists compilation, but since the mashups were all the brainchild of GHP I feel it's only right and proper to credit him.
We're in the midst of the traditional May heatwave in the UK (thanks, climate change!) and I'm here to say that dancing around the lounge in my underwear to Mashed, PLUS a cold beer? May be in my top 5 answers to "What is best in life?"
Tracklist:-
Franz Buffalo - Malcolm McLaren vs. Franz Ferdinand (Buffalo Gals / Take Me Out)
Boogie Oogie Music - Madonna vs. A Taste of Honey [Music / Boogie Oogie Oogie]
Missing Groovejet - Everything but the Girl vs. Spiller [Missing / Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)]
Horny as a Dandy [Mousse T's Radio Mix] - Mousse T vs. The Dandy Warhols [Horny / Bohemian Like You]
David X - David Bowie vs. Liberty X [Let's Dance / Got to Have Your Love]
Passenger Fever - Peggy Lee vs. Iggy Pop [Fever / The Passenger]
Flashing for Money [Sultan Radio Edit] - Deep Dish vs. Dire Straits [Flashdance / Money for Nothing]
Can't Get Blue Monday Out of My Head - Kylie Minogue vs. New Order [Can't Get You Out of My Head / Blue Monday]
Hella Lola - No Doubt vs. Shapeshifters [Hella Good / Lola's Theme]
Doctor Pressure - Mylo vs. Miami Sound Machine [Drop the Pressure / Dr. Beat]
Proper Education - Eric Prydz vs. Pink Floyd [remix of Another Brick in the Wall Part 2]
Rapture Riders [Single Edit] - Blondie vs. The Doors [Rapture / Riders on the Storm]
Notorious Trick - Duran Duran vs. Kelis [Notorious / Trick Me]
Sing Back Connections - Elastica vs. Moloko [Connection / Sing It Back]