This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply. Motion City Soundtrack’s first three albums are coming to cassette for the first time. Orders go live on Friday. more Not all embedded content is displayed here. You can view the original to see embedded videos, tweets, etc.
I'll never understand why anyone buys anything on cassette these days unless it's purely for collecting purposes. Also the CTTM cassette breaks up Make Out Kids and Time Turned Fragile on different sides and that should be illegal.
I mentioned it in the official MCS thread on here, but I think some things work really well with cassettes. My lofi pop punk band, for example, releases all our stuff on cassette because it fits the aesthetic perfectly. Same with lots of 80s and 90s music. But there's some things that I'd never want to listen to on cassette, like Sigur Ros, Bon Iver, and other things that have really strong mixing/production quality. That stuff should always be listened to in the highest quality possible. Motion City Soundtrack on cassette is probably just whatever. I'd get a tape only for collection purposes, but I don't think I'd ever say "Hmmm I feel like listening to my MCS tape right now."
My initial thought was “I definitely don’t need or want these” but then I saw the Even If It Kills Me cassette and then I saw the absolutely gorgeous Commit This To Memory cassette and now I don’t even know what to believe anymore.
This is for collectors. I have several cassettes that will never be opened or played. I don't enjoy shirts, stickers, buttons, pins, patches, wearables. Something about music on tangible physical media with artwork always does it for me. I am the Movie is nearly as old as the typical shelf life of a cassette. And cassettes were basically abandoned by major labels by the time I am the Movie was recorded. Here we are 20 years later and cassettes have made a major resurgence. I wonder how many people actually listen to their physical media regularly. I will spin an LP here and there, but only when listening is my primary focus. Digital media is my daily driver for portability and obvious reasons. Much of the modern analog is cut from digital masters anyway (no shade to ETR)