These are our Top 10 picks for #RecordStoreDay 2024

Wait ... Is it Record Store Day already?

Okay, I admit it, when it comes to record collecting, I’m a total geek. If I turn around in my home office, I can see the shelves of vintage vinyl. From Coltrane to Minor Threat, King Tubby to Gram Parsons, and Simple Minds to Pablo Casals, it’s all there.

Well, it’s almost all there.

Because, well, Boston — and an apartment that’s just capacious enough — much more of my sprawling collection is in storage.

Sometimes I visit it like most New Yorkers visit the Statue of Liberty. You know it’s there. You just don’t get there often enough.

For my money, anyway, there’s nothing cooler — or more rewarding — than combing racks upon racks of new and used 33-1/3 LPs or 7-inch, 45 RPM singles and coming across some kind, rare gem or that one record you’ve wanted for just forever and were just never able to find.

And this Saturday is Record Store Day, an annual celebration of that culture and the independent retailers who are keeping that joy of discovery alive in the age of Spotify, Soundcloud and Apple Music (not that there’s anything wrong with those — they’re an integral part of my listening experience, too).

So, like my fellow vinyl fans, I’ll be getting out there at some point on Saturday to hit some of Greater Boston’s finer record emporiums to track down the exclusive releases that a bunch of great artists have made available this year.

With that in mind, here are the Top 10 releases I’ll be gunning for on my shopping trip this year.

(Oh, and a word about the methodology, you may notice that there are more than 10 records listed below. That’s not only because there was an embarrassment of riches in this year’s list, but also because some releases intersected with others. Complaints can be sent to nomalley@masslive.com.)

Blur “Parklife (30th Anniversary Zoetrope Picture Disc)”: So, if you’re a rock fan of ... ahhh .... a certain age, you are no doubt shaking your head and wondering how it is 30 years have elapsed since the release of this essential document of the BritPop movement of the middle 1990s.

Well, it has. And while time marches inexorably forward, this collection from vocalist Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree has lost none of its charm.

Critical tracks here include “Girls and Boys” and “End of a Century,” along with the title track.

The other day, as MassLive was getting ready to post a story about Blur’s headline-making (for all the wrong reasons) set at this year’s Coachella festival, a colleague suggested that Albarn may be better known among some listeners for his work with the art-pop outfit Gorillaz (which momentarily made me feel absolutely ancient).

But it’s also a nice way to segué into pointing out that Gorillaz’ 2023 long-player “Cracker Island” also is on offer this year.

Buena Vista Social Club, "Buena Vista Social Club“: A quarter-century ago, filmmaker Wim Wenders introduced the world to the legendary Cuban musical ensemble. The record, of the same name, because a surprise hit that year, with its sales rising steadily by the week.

The record on offer this weekend is ”made available on limited edition gold vinyl, and features the remastered audio and bonus tracks released as part of the album’s 25th Anniversary in 2021,” according to the official Record Store Day website.

And with the warmer weather just around the corner, you should have this one to soundtrack your summer cocktail parties.

The Dream Syndicate, “Sketches for the Days of Wine and Roses:” The 1981 debut LP by Los Angeles psychedelic rockers was a cornerstone of the short-lived, 1960s-indebted Paisley Underground movement that also gave the world The Bangles, The Rain Parade, Green on Red, and The Long Ryders.

The band, led by vocalist/songwriter Steve Wynn, combined stabbing echoes of the Velvet Underground with a post-punk energy to create one of the truly original albums of what would eventually become known as “1980s college radio.”

Wynn and his bandmates went on to long-lived solo and band careers. They reconvened a few years back for a new record, and have been going strong ever since.

This record compiles “demos and rehearsals taped between formation and the recording of their seminal Days Of Wine And Roses album, recorded by drummer Dennis Duck, mostly in 1981-82,” according to the official Record Store Day website.

Speaking of The Rain Parade, their equally epochal debut “Emergency Third Rail Power Trip,” also is being offered, with a bonus disc of rarities.

Noah Kahan, “I Was/I Am”: Are you even from New England without some Noah Kahan in heavy rotation? The Vermonter’s sophomore LP gets the limited-edition blue vinyl treatment here.

And ...

Noah Kahan/Olivia Rodrigo, “Stick Season/Lacy (From the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge)”: A two-fer from Kahan and Rodrigo, who’s one of the most interesting and original pop voices of the last couple of years. This 7-incher on colored vinyl sees the two songwriters each covering the other’s song.

Motorhead, “Remorse? No!”: Why? Because it’s Motorhead, that’s why.

Tom-Tom Club, “Genius of Love (2001 Remixes)“: Yes, this dance-pop classic by The Talking Heads rhythm section of drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth has been sampled to within an inch of its life by the likes of Mariah Carey, Mark Morrison, and, most recently, Latto for “Big Energy.”

But, also, yes, it is undeniably catchy, and an immediate floor-filler. So you might as well just give in, and listen to it one more time in its uncut form.

Horace Andy & Sly and Robbie, “Livin’ It Up”: How do you say no to an LP that partners one of the original great reggae vocalist with the legendary rhythm section of the late Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar?

You don’t.

This late-career collection, recorded at the equally iconic Harry J. Studios saw the musicians “[working] the ‘old school’ way,” with all them “[playing] live, together and in one take, as opposed to recording their parts separately as is now done in modern music,” according to the Record Store Day website.

Add in some guest shots from Ansel Collins and Robbie Lyn and you absolutely can’t say no to this one.

Bonus Pick: “Assasinator” by Eek-a-Mouse. The famed dancehall DJ? With the Roots Radics backing him up? Yes, please.

Fleetwood Mac, Rumours (Picture Disc): At this point, there’s probably no one left on Earth who doesn’t own, or knows someone who owns, a copy of this 21-times platinum LP.

But after the popularity of author Taylor Jenkins-Reid’s “Daisy Jones & the Six,” and the ensuing Amazon Prime miniseries that liberally borrowed from the Mac’s mythos, it’s still worth going back to the source material one more time.

Everything But The Girl, “At Maida Vale”: One of the best things about 2023 was the return of the veteran British dance-pop outfit of vocalist Tracey Thorn and instrumentalist Ben Watt.

Their first LP in 24 years, “Fuse” released a year ago this month, was a “moving, handsome album that tells a sophisticated story about recapturing innocence‚” according to Pitchfork. And it’s one that soundtracked my early spring afternoons.

This 12-inch EP Record Store Day release captures four tracks recorded at the BBC’s Maida Vale studios. Three of them, “Run A Red Light,” “Single,” and “When You Mess Up,” were first broadcast on Gideon Coe’s BBC 6 Music show, according to the Record Store Day website. The fourth track, “Nothing Left To Lose,” was first heard on Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio 2 show.

Kristin Hersh, “Hips and Makers”: We’ll go out with one more New England entry. Hersh, the onetime Throwing Muses co-front-woman, with Tanya Donnelly (of Belly fame), is a Rhode Island native. And her band found its first fame in a fertile Boston scene.

This Record Store Day special is a double-LP reissue of Hersh’s debut solo record, released to coincide with its 30th anniversary. This one comes on green vinyl, making it even more collectible.

Good hunting.