VNYL is a monthly subscription for discovery and curation of your vinyl record collection. When you sign up for this service, you'll fill out a lengthy profile that includes your likes and dislikes. From there, you can also link your profiles on digital audio services like Spotify and Sound Cloud - this will help with curating your record selection each month.
My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).
The Subscription Box: VNYL
The Cost: $39 a month
The Products: Three BRAND NEW records chosen by a curator specifically for you, based on your profile, other digital audio service profiles, and selected vibe for that month
Ships to: U.S. (free), and UK, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Australia, France, Canada at an additional cost
Check out all our VNYL reviews and the Subscription Box Directory!
Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!
Each month, you'll have to select a vibe. There are two types of vibes, curated vibes and non-curated vibes. With a non-curated vibe, you'll see the 3 records you'll receive in your shipment, with the curated vibe, it's a total mystery - the VNYL crew will choose the 3 records based on the vibe in conjunction with your musical taste.
There are Spotify playlists attached to each vibe - so you can get a good idea of what bands a specific hashtag might correlate to - I love this aspect of it!
The other thing to mention about vinyl albums these days - you typically get a digital download card with each album - so you're getting the best of both worlds, and I love that about modern vinyl.
This month, I've gone with the curated vibe - #windowsdown!
You'll get a letter from your personal curator each month. It'll breeze through the LPs in your box with a bit more info about each one.
It even comes with a VNYL sticker!
Bon Iver - Blood Bank
My first-ever duplicate from VNYL - must mean that my collection is growing!
I'm a big fan of all things Bon Iver. I have their Austin City Limits episode recorded and have rewatched it a bunch of times - check it out if you're a fan, the version of Skinny Love is just killer.
It's only a 4-song EP, but in terms of an EP, it's a great record! I pretty much adore the song Blood Bank - it's always on my Bon Iver playlist - but all the way through to the autotune goodness of Woods, it's just an A+.
Southerly - Storyteller and the Gossip Columnist
My second selection comes from Portland, Oregon band, Southerly.
Storyteller and the Gossip Columnist is their album from 2007. They've had a few more releases since, with the latest coming in 2016.
First - I'm loving the marbled vinyl! In terms of the album, I don't love and I don't hate it - I hear a lot of different bands in here - from vocals the remind me of Pinback at times, to an overall tone that feels like a folksier/poppier Murder By Death. Those are great comparisons, but it wasn't one that I'm dying to listen to the second time.
Brave Black Sea - Fragments
Kyuss. Queens of the Stoneage. Now you're speaking my language. Brave Black Sea features past member of both bands - that easily made me very interested to listen to this one!
This one includes a CD copy as well - I don't really see that too often.
You can certainly hear both bands on this album - which is a very, very good thing in my mind. I'm very into the sludgy rock vibe and this hits that tone pretty well from time to time. The biggest letdown is the singer, for me, it just doesn't do it for me and it left me disappointed. Still, Ghosts really kicked the album up a notch - there a definitely a few keeps from the album! I just wanted it sludgier!
Verdict: This is a weird one for me - I'd say they nailed the influences around the album choices for sure, but the two albums that I don't already own weren't favorites for me. Overall, this subscription has been hitting all the right notes, though, so I'm not worried about getting back on track next delivery.
What did you think of the #windowsdown VNYL delivery? What vibes have you selected?
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