We just passed the April 2023 Record Store Day, and while I compile my thoughts on some of the items I picked up, I figured I’d take a look back at an item from last year’s haul: Spaceman Demo Mixes by Spiritualized, which is somewhere between an EP and a Maxi-Single. This one was the Black Friday RSD, which took place November 25, 2022.
For music nerds like myself, we tend to have love-hate relationships with RSD. I definitely fall into that camp. I picked up a few releases this year, and I paid 2x what I should have for the Kae Tempest single. I’ll dig into the pricing on this piece of wax here in a few…
Variants of Spaceman Demo Mixes
Spaceman Demo Mixes has two different variations in pressing. First is the limited edition yellow vinyl version, randomly distributed with only 300 copies in existence. Sadly, I did not pull one of those.
According to YouTube commenter credited as Brian Tennis on my video coverage of this release, there are apparently 1,600 total copies, meaning 1,300 are the black vinyl version.
Here’s my video of that coverage:
Spaceman Demo Mixes Tracklist
Both versions of Spaceman Demo Mixes come with three different tracks, so really it’s more like an extended single than an EP. Here’s the track list:
- A1: I’m Coming Home Again
- A2: Crazy
- B1: Sad Days, Lonely Nights
Both of the A side tracks are off of the 2022 Spiritualized album Everything Was Beautiful.
“Sad Days, Lonely Nights” is actually a cover originally by blues musician Junior Kimbrough. Spiritualized released a cover of the song way back in 2005 on a Fat Possum LP tribute album to Kimbrough titled Sunday Nights: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough.
This compilation featured a variety of artists including Iggy and the Stooges, Heartless Bastards, the Black Keys, Cat Power, the Fiery Furnaces, and Mark Lanegan, among several others. You can actually still pick that record up at a relatively reasonable price.
Spaceman Demo Mixes Review
Being a demos EP — or extended single — well, demos are usually lo-fi and often stripped down. Occasionally they include alternate lyrics. Demos also tend to lack some of the embellishments and features that they include in the studio.
Now unless you really listen to the two tracks back to back, you may actually have a hard time deciphering what’s really the difference through demos. They seem lack some of the refinement of the studio cuts, but they don’t seem as far off as I was anticipating for a demo release.
In fact, I really struggle to pinpoint the differences. And, on top of that, the track timings are almost exactly like that which you’ll find on the studio releases. So they seem more like unmastered versions of the studio recording, and barely at that.
In itself, that’s a little disappointing.
The inclusion of “Sad Days, Lonely Nights” is really what makes this worth having in your collection. Given the Record Store Day price of approximately $20 US (give or take a few dollars), you’ll have to make that call yourself.
Online, the price has come down to about $20 after shipping, and it’s likely to continue to fall if and when opened, non-new copies hit the marketplace. They likely will in the coming months or years.
But, if are were lucky enough to have the limited yellow vinyl version, you are likely see the price of that one go up quite a bit.
Overall, it’s decent. I’m glad I have it in my collection. And yeah, maybe I overpaid a little bit but it’s still cool nonetheless.
