Craft Recordings Record Store Day 2024 is fast upcoming and EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE wants to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who are intending to burst into your local independent record store retailers to spread the support, love and money, whilst celebrating everything great about RSD!

We hope you find something you love enough to take home with you, whether that item is something released exclusively for RSD, or something fantastic from what they regularly stock.

Yes, we wholeheartedly agree, every day should be Record Store Day, so we encourage you to make stopping by your favorite record store AND stopping by this website a regular thing - because we’ll be telling you about awesome things going on at record stores all year long!

Craft Recordings is thrilled to announce its titles for Record Store Day 2024. This year’s lineup—available at participating independent music retailers on April 20 — includes eight exclusive releases that span a variety of genres — from chilling cult-classic soundtracks and long-sought-after alt-rock reissues to jazz, new age, and beyond.

Among the offerings is a 25th anniversary pressing of Collective Soul’s Platinum-selling fourth album, Dosage (featuring the mega-hit “Heavy”), At The Drive-In’s electrifying sophomore album, in/CASINO/OUT, and the first-ever vinyl pressing of Filter’s The Very Best Things collection.

Also making its debut on wax is the chart-topping Inner World album from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama — a first-of-its-kind release from the Tibetan spiritual leader, which blends his spoken-word meditations with music from a renowned collective of artists, including Anoushka Shankar.

Other highlights include a sought-after mono edition of Everybody Digs Bill Evans on 180-gram vinyl, while film buffs will delight over the return of two cult-classic soundtracks, 1972’s Black Girl and 1977’s Orca.

Finally, the acclaimed Jazz Dispensary Series returns with The Freedom Sound! The People Arise—an empowering setlist of deep cuts by Joe Henderson, Gary Bartz, and Azar Lawrence, among others.

Details on individual titles are below. For a full list of participating Record Store Day retailers, visit www.recordstoreday.com.

As our dear friends at Craft Recordings have kindly sent us a couple of their RSD 2024 releases for review, we shall happily review them now; showcasing the others at the foot of the article.

Up first is Collective Soul – Dosage (1-LP, Translucent Lemonade Vinyl).

Georgia five-piece Collective Soul skyrocketed to fame in the early ’90s, thanks to a string of hits—including “Shine,” “December,” and “The World I Know”—and released such bestselling albums as Hints, Allegations & Things Left Unsaid (1993), Collective Soul (1995), and Disciplined Breakdown (1997).

By the turn of the millennium, however, the group was eager to push the boundaries of their sound and explore a variety of electronic elements, including digital effects, loops, and synths—all of which can be heard on 1999’s Dosage.

The band’s experimentation paid off, as their fourth studio album was embraced warmly by fans—breaking the US Top 20 and garnering a Platinum certification. The album also featured one of the quintet’s most successful Mainstream Rock hits, “Heavy,” which spent an astonishing 15 weeks at the top of the chart.

The lushly arranged “Run,” meanwhile, topped Billboard’s AAA chart—thanks in part to its appearance in the popular 1999 film Varsity Blues. Speaking to the record, Ink 19 hailed it as, “A conversant, beautiful, work of rock and roll art that displays the many sides of Collective Soul.”

Celebrating Dosage’s 25th anniversary, this limited edition pressing is presented on Translucent Lemonade vinyl exclusively for Record Store Day.

Side A:
1. Tremble For My Beloved 2. Heavy 3. No More, No Less 4. Needs 5. Slow 6. Dandy Life

Side B:
1. Run 2. Generate 3. Compliment 4. Not The One 5. Crown

The Collective Soul was originally an epithet that poor Ayn Rand created to sum up our unfortunate human tendency to behave, collectively, like sheep. Then, and thanks to a soul named Ed Roland, who apparently likes phrases that sound cool, most now know the Collective Soul as a powerfully positive name for a small collection of souls who, when they come together, make some of the best and most heartening ~ sometimes even quirky ~ music, ever.

Collective Soul also does several cool things to make their music available in unexpected ways. For instance, here on the amazing Doseage, they included (at the time) what was a brand new song entitled Burn. A cracking song, but not the only one, the band moves into even more commercial pop and new, to them, dance music; and its not pretty, but my goodness it works!

Chock full of positives, Heavy is a great song and one of the bands best, along with Run, which is one of those songs you hear in a lot of movies and malls, yet, and for all the unnecessary frills (of which there are), Dosage consistently delivers the kind of soft power pop which draws comparisons with bands like The Goo Goo Dolls, Everclear and Dishwalla with, for better or worse, a little Backstreet Boys thrown in for good measure.

Whereas other Collective Soul albums evenly balance the rockier tracks with the ballads, Dosage definitely favors the latter. Only Heavy, Slow, Generate and once-hidden track She Said get the blood pumping, with the aforementioned Run being far and away the best of the slower numbers.

Indeed, what sets Dosage apart for me is that the deeper cuts on the album continued to grow on me with each repeated listen to the point where I now personally hold them in the same esteem as the singles that initially grabbed my attention.

Up next is Filter – The Very Best Things: 1995-2008 (2-LP, Mercury Swirl Vinyl).

The brainchild of singer/songwriter/guitarist Richard Patrick (a former touring musician for Nine Inch Nails), Filter shot to dizzying heights in the ’90s with their unique blend of industrial rock and post-grunge metal.

Filter continues to put out distinctive new music year after year, including The Algorithm in 2023. The Very Best Things: 1995-2008 celebrates the first chapter of the band’s distinctive career — from their Platinum-selling 1995 debut, Short Bus, through 2008’s Anthems for the Damned.

The Very Best Things blends sought-after rarities with the group’s biggest hits, including their breakthrough single “Hey Man Nice Shot” (1995) as well as “Take a Picture” and “Welcome to the Fold” (both from 1998’s Title of Record), plus “Where Do We Go From Here,” from 2002’s The Amalgamut.

The collection also touches upon the group’s many soundtrack contributions, including “(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do” with The Crystal Method (from Spawn), “Jurassitol” (The Crow: City of Angels), and a cover of Harry Nilsson’s “One” (The X-Files film).

Now, The Very Best Things makes its vinyl debut. The 2-LP set will be pressed on limited edition Mercury Swirl vinyl exclusively for Record Store Day.

SIDE A:
1. Hey Man Nice Shot 2. Welcome To the Fold (Single Edit) 3. Jurassitol 4. (Can’t You) Trip Like I Do (with The Crystal Method)

SIDE B:
5. Take A Picture (Radio Edit) 6. Soldiers Of Misfortune 7. Where Do We Go From Here (Single Edit) 8. Dose

SIDE C:
9. I’m Not The Only One 10. Skinny 11. One

SIDE D:
12. The Best Things 13. The Only Way (Is the Wrong Way) 14. Thanks Bro

In all honesty, back in the day I remember being rather surprised to hear that melodic industrial rockers Filter, were releasing a greatest hits compilation. Not just because I’d forgotten that they’d ever existed, but also because I didn’t think they had enough hits to warrant such a release.

After all, if I tried really, really hard I might have remembered Hey Man, Nice Shot and Take A Picture and if my life had depended on it, I might even have squeezed The Crystal Method collaboration, (Can’t You) Trip Like I Do out from the depths of my memory, but that would have been it.

However, like the original CD, there’s fourteen tracks on offer here, so back then I was obviously mistaken, but sure, there are some filler in respect to the addition of some album tracks and soundtrack contributions.

So what you get here are two tracks from their debut, five from Title of Record, two from The Amalgamut, one from Anthems for the Damned and four soundtrack offerings from The Crow: City of Angels, Spawn: The Album, X-Files: Fight the Future and Songs in the Key of X.

For me, the best tunes are the ones you will likely already know, in the shape of Hey Man, Nice Shot, (Can’t You) Trip Like I Do and Take A Picture, alongside the solitary entrant from the aforementioned Anthems for the Damned, Soldiers Of Misfortune.

And as much as there are a few songs omitted - like The Missing, I Will Lead You, Miss Blue and Kill the Day - what remains are 14 reminders (which is more than enough) to showcase a highly effective summary and introduction of Patrick’s work to a whole new generation.

And finally, as promised, here are the other six (6) RSD 2024 releases from Craft Recordings:

At The Drive-In – in/CASINO/OUT (1-LP, Purple & Green Smoke Vinyl)

Bill Evans Trio – Everybody Digs Bill Evans (1-LP, Mono, 180-gram Vinyl)

Dalai Lama – Inner World (1-LP, Gold Vinyl)

Various Artists – Jazz Dispensary: The Freedom Sound! The People Arise (1-LP, Freedom Blue Swirl Vinyl)

Ennio Morricone – Orca – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1-LP, Blood In The Water Vinyl) (North America Exclusive)

Various Artists – Black Girl – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Reel Cut Series] (1-LP, 180-Gram Clear Black Swirl Vinyl)

www.RecordStoreDay.com