Verlaines, Juvenalia (1987)
I’m stoked to have the newly reissued Verlaines albums on vinyl – and I must tell you I wasn’t an instant convert to Juvenalia. I liked the Verlaines but I just had dubbed tapes, songs that were on compilations and a band best-of, You’re Just Too Obscure For Me. That was doing me nicely – and then I started hearing the new albums and quite liked them and I had to go back. Had to get to the early stuff – and so the thing that fully switched me onto this album was hearing Richard Langston play Death & The Maiden as part of a DJ set where he was playing all Flying Nun classics; man it was great. Richard knows this scene – you should read his poetry too by the way (if you haven’t already; if you have you should read it again). I like his poetry a great deal. Anyway, after that set I was straight out for a copy of Juvenalia. A year or so later I’m writing about Death & The Maiden in a book I’m putting together about New Zealand music. Every time I’d had it with the book, wondered why I was bothering, and/or what I thought I was trying to describe I’d listen (again) to Death & The Maiden; to Juvenalia. It kept me focussed. So thanks Richard. Thanks Graeme and thanks for this reissue. (And the earlier album too!)

Sample Track: Doomsday

The Vinyl Countdown is a document of every LP I listen to, brand new discoveries and old-old favourites; extremely pre-loved, previously abandoned or with the shrink-wrap having just been removed it’s all here at The Vinyl Countdown