My record collection
[278] This Music Is Ours (CDr & booklet)

This Music Is Ours was the second (and so far last) tribute album put out by A Head Full of Wishes - this was to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Galaxie 500’s third album This Is Our Music five years ago.

This Music Is Ours - CD/booklet/etc.

The tribute album for On Fire, On Fire | 30 in 2019 had turned out better than I thought possible, and that was almost entirely down to other people who I leaned on rather heavily to get it done, in particular Hannah, who basically project-managed the physical product, and John who took everything I threw at him and handed back the lovely book and sleeve that the release came in.

I was reluctant to throw more work their way so I wasn’t going to bother with a This Is Our Music tribute… but then COVID and the shit-show of 2020 wore me down and so in August I decided to go for it. Both Hannah and John got back in touch as soon as I put out the call and offered their services again - and one of the key reasons that This Music Is Ours exists is down to them.

With the planned release date to be early October, to match This Is Our Music, it gave all the contributors some pretty tight deadlines to work with but they all, without exception, pulled through.

Here are a few random notes about the release:

• The album was originally going to be called Swells like the ocean - a lyric from Hearing Voices.

Early artwork

The album got its final name from the last sentence of the introduction to the book. I must admit to being quite proud of that introduction:

Galaxie 500 called their third album This Is Our Music. Which I suppose it was.

Within six months of its release the band had split up.

Maybe you can hear the end of the band on the album, but I never could. Maybe “way up high and going too fast” or “seems like everything is business” should have clued me in but I was never so astute.

All I heard was the band I loved still progressing, not necessarily getting better, or worse, but getting on.

When you have three near-perfect albums the very idea of ranking or rating them is ridiculous. But the internet loves a list, and music publications love a score, and when that happens with Galaxie 500 it’s This Is Our Music that invariably props up the list, and has the fewest stars.

But then you look at the track listing and you have to wonder how that can be. This is the album with Fourth of July, and Hearing Voices, and Summertime, and Listen, the Snow is Falling. It’s inconceivable that an album this strong could be anything but top of any list.

When Dean says that “half of it is good” or Kramer suggests that “it could have been twice as good” I think that they’re hearing more than the album. I think they’re hearing the making of the album, the friction, the frustration, the anger and impatience. Maybe they can hear the end of the band. I don’t hear that.

Perhaps the album’s title isn’t being said by the band - maybe it’s being said by us.

This music is ours.

This Music Is Ours introduction

• While only two of the pieces of art were credited to me I was actually responsible for more of them. Getting folk to make music wasn’t as hard as getting folk to contribute art - even if my definition of “art” was as loose as possible, So I filled all the gaps.

• Sean Eden of Luna appeared on two separate tracks on the album.

• The booklet has a reproduction of a polaroid that had been taken at (and pinned to the wall in) the Covent Garden Rough Trade shop.

Galaxie 500 at The Rough Trade Shop, Covent Garden (unknown photographer)

• Dean showed off the copy I sent to him during one of their COVID live streams.

Dean with This Music Is Ours

• It’s a fantastic album - and you can get it for pay what you like on Bandcamp. Unlike On Fire | 30 I didn’t make the mistake of producing too many physical copies of the CD, so they all sold out. If anyone however does want a CD copy of the also brilliant On Fire | 30 give me a shout because I still have quite a few of them!

• Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/159
• Artist: Various artists
• Title: This Music Is Ours
• Notes: Tribute album
• Packaging: CDr / booklet / postcards / badges / stickers
• Format: CD
• Buy ‘This Music Is Ours’ on Bandcamp

Previously in my record collection:

• [162] On Fire | 30