Vinyl Me, Please Subscription Box Review – November 2015

Vinyl Me, Please is the modern equivalent of the old “Record of the Month” clubs. As a long-time audiophile and vinyl collector, I had to sign up as soon as I heard about it!

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).

The Subscription: Vinyl Me, Please

The Cost: US – $27 per month / $75 per 3 months / $284 per year
International – $44 per month / $120 per 3 months / $450 per year

The Products: A specially selected limited edition vinyl LP, a cocktail recipe to be paired with the music, an original piece of art, access to “The Standard” (VMP’s online magazine), access to forums, special deals on other albums

Ships to: everywhere, cost included in membership

Ships via: USPS

This month’s selection is Paranoid by Black Sabbath! This is really odd, because I just received the same selection in my package from VNYL last month. I wonder if VNYL knew about VMP’s November selection and tried to pre-empt them? Maybe I’m just being Paranoid.

Once again, here is the inside cover, with the track listing and a young Ozzy looking fine.

This is the reverse side of the album cover. I think the front and reverse covers both are trippy and fit the name and vibe of the whole album really well.

Oh my! Look at that gorgeous spattered purple vinyl! It’s nice and heavy, too. Wow, now I have my beat-up copy from 1970, a 180-gram reissue from 2004, and this VMP exclusive pressing from 2015. I love Black Sabbath, but enough to keep all three copies? Decisions, decisions…

This art work is beautiful! It’s dark and trippy while still colorful, and thus matches the album selection perfectly. I love it! The artist is Tim Manthey.

I am apparently having an on-again-off-again love affair with the poetry of Tyler Barstow, co-founder of Vinyl Me, Please. I kind of hate this one. I’m glad there’s not a bunch of gratuitous profanity, but there is such a thing as imagery overload. Metaphors are best used in moderation for optimal effect. Then again, I don’t always get poetry.

Yum! This cocktail looks amazing! I love a strong coffee cocktail.

This little card was also included this month. If you’re considering gifting someone a subscription to Vinyl Me, Please, their subscription will come with a previously featured VMP album!

The verdict: Pretending I didn’t get the same album from VNYL last month, which was probably just a fluke, this would have been my favorite package from Vinyl Me, Please yet! This is a classic album and it sounds amazing on vinyl – especially beautiful, dark purple spattered vinyl. The artwork is also awesome and the cocktail looks great. The difference between VNYL and VMP is that VMP sends the same album to everyone, whereas VNYL sends albums specific to your tastes. This package just makes me wish VNYL had done what they are amazing at doing, which is finding obscure records I haven’t heard before that they know I will love. I will still probably end up keeping all three copies though! That’s the kind of bizarre things audiophiles do.

What do you think of Vinyl Me, Please?