Day 20 of the #mayvinylchallenge focuses on another facet of the vinyl addict: variants and pressings. And though that’s never been my primary focus when collecting (I’m not one for multiple editions of anything), there is something sweet when you can pre-order a beautiful limited edition of an album you love. We Lost the Sea specialize in crafting intricate, cinematic explorations in post-rock, and their latest release Triumph & Disaster is a gorgeous representation of what they do best, and the fact I got in early enough to order their limited (150, sold out) variant featuring a sumptuous half purple/half blue splatter that mirrors the depths the album reaches.

if there’s a parallel, it’s to band like Explosions in the Sky, which is an easy generalization, but there you go. I’m writing this the next day – I fell asleep and completely forgot to write about the album. It’s now serving as my morning email music as I get ready for work, so let’s simply say that on tracks like “Towers” you get the sense of grandeur the band can pull off in their musical passages, the way they can evoke larger than life moments, then dial it back down to something more delicate on a track like the forlorn “Parting Ways.”

Keeping this one short, but I’ll say that diving back into this I can see it becoming a regular listen when I need to center and focus. I may need to come back and write some more later.