Among the many pointless questions for the asking of which we will someday be called to account before God, "should reissues be included in your year-end list" ranks high. Back in the list-happy mid-nineties, dudes would sometimes make separate lists: ten best new albums of 1993, ten best reissues of 1993, ten best singles/EPs/mini-albums of 1993. For all I know people still do this and I've just blocked it out, due to the pain.

I don't include reissues in my list, not for any sound and durable reason but because that was my first response to the question back when I first considered it, i.e. when I was a kid. Nor am I generally going to have bought or heard enough reissues to give them their own list. So they tend to fall by the wayside. Which is why I'm writing this brief entry: to let you know that, no matter what happens, there will not be an album new or old released this year that is better than this. The NWN edition is one of the most beautiful vinyl packages I have ever seen, and the music itself is singular. If you are at all interested in heavy metal, you should own not only this album, but this edition of it, because it is definitive.

Stop opening your one-sheets by announcing that the state of music is pretty dour but the artist whose music you yourself are putting out has somehow risen above the intolerable state of things. OK? Can you do that one thing for me, please, if not for the sake of your artists, whose promos get tossed aside by writers like, oh, me, the second we see a line about how we live in an era where music isn't really so good, but fortunately for us, some band has come along to rescue us all?

Can you please just instead describe the artist you're promoting, either in plain terms or in fancy terms, directly or ellipitically, in whatever style you like, without resorting to nonsense past-was-better-than-the-present the-present-is-so-awful aren't-we-smart-to-have-noticed stuff?

In possibly-related-but-I'll-deny-it-in-court news, this album, which has been sitting by my fireplace for months I'm pretty sure, is excellent.