Words by Elliot Joseph Burr & Kayla Sandiford
Photography by Kayla Sandiford
Reports of physical media's death have been greatly exaggerated. Dedicated to the sale of vinyl records, Rough Trade’s brick-and-mortar locations have had an explosive 2024; new shops have opened in Liverpool, Berlin, and, now, Central London. Already with outposts in Ladbroke Grove and on Brick Lane, this third location centralises their dominance of the Big Smoke. It's right near Tottenham Court Road Station, on nowhere other than London's Tin Pan Alley, Denmark Street. On Thursday the 19th of December, Hideous Magazine sent two intrepid agents to scope out the new location's opening night: Rough Trade's Album of the Year Party.
The new shop is narrow and two-storeyed. On the night, plastered across one wall were copies of Rough Trade's Albums of the Year, a list of releases from all your favourite famous-but-not-THAT-famous alternative acts: SOPHIE... English Teacher... Laura Marling... Yard Act... The Last Dinner Party... SOPHIE again...
My co-reporter Kayla Sandiford talked to a few attendees about their personal 2024 favourites.
With the shimmering silver Rough Trade Edition of The Last Dinner Party’s Prelude To Ecstasy in hand, Josh named the beloved baroque pop quintet’s acclaimed debut as his album of the year, with Prelude To Ecstasy: Acoustics and Covers being a welcomed addition to his record collection.
Leading on the refreshments for the first half of the night were Matt and Indi, who took a moment to share their favourites from this year. Matt went for Manning Fireworks, the latest offering from indie rock hero MJ Lenderman. For Indi, breakout singer-songwriter RAYE’s 2023 debut My 21st Century Blues has yet to be topped.
Other honourable mentions included Mk.Gee’s momentous Two Stars & The Dream Police, a little throwback to Men I Trust’s Oncle Jazz and the newest record from one of the anticipated acts of the evening - Katy J. Pearson’s Someday, Now, praised for being a “confident, positive step”. While the selections span a range of genres, it’s safe to say that we’ve seen some incredibly strong debuts over the past year.
Soon enough it was time to race round the corner and queue up for access to the real party at The Lower Third, a music and cocktail bar named for Bowie's first band, who he met in a Denmark Street cafe.
(Though this is its first record shop, the area's brimming with pop music history; the Wikipedia page is a great ride. One Rough Trade employee told me that when the premises became available there'd been no choice but to move in.) Inside, we were treated to about 45 minutes of free booze, a table piled with pizza boxes, and intimate live sets from AOTY listers English Teacher and Katy J Pearson. Fresh from touring, English Teacher seemed particularly relaxed. "This is our Christmas do", said guitarist Lewis Whiting. It seems to have been that for Rough Trade, too: attendees included staff from management as well as shop staff from locations in other cities.
Between the sets I stumbled around, getting drunk, looking for a story. I eavesdropped; I accosted; I interrogated Bristolian floor staff. I overheard an owner of The Collab in Walthamstow complaining about slow bar service. But no one seemed to have an answer for my burning question: how did Rough Trade decide on its AOTY list? Was there any artistic integrity here?
English Teacher seemed to have been a close number 2 behind SOPHIE. The exclusive 'Milky White Transparent' LPs of their debut album, This Could Be Texas, are available only from Rough Trade, and someone intimated to me that the near-top spot was more-or-less a reward for a lucrative collaboration.
I'd done it: I'd rumbled them. The record retail chain was, in fact, commercial in outlook. Just as I was preparing to leap onstage, rip the mic from the hands of one of the DJ-ing shop managers and denounce the whole enterprise, I was caught up in conversation with a very nice Gen X frequent customer who told me all about how much better music, drugs, and going out were in the 90s. This is my favourite thing to talk to Gen Xers about. As if to illustrate his points, a bouncer regularly interrupted to police the boundaries of the tiny, cordoned-off smoking area beside us. But how bad can things really be? There’s a new record shop on Denmark Street.
Check out Rough Trade's Top 100 Albums list here.
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