Okayplayer’s 15 Essential Vinyl Releases For Record Store Day 2015

Tomorrow, Saturday, April 18th is Record Store Day 2015. Or, for our purposes, the day when the time-honored act of crate-digging steps out of the shadows, no longer treated as a dirty, furtive, compulsive habit to be performed on the sly and glossed over during party conversations–like looking at porn or sneaking puffs of weed on your coffee break–and becomes a public act of affirmation of all that is good and beautiful in life. The day when we recognize the propriety, nay, the necessity even, of all right-thinking people, anyone who doesn’t want good music to disappear from the planet, replaced by digital, invasion-of-the-body-snatcher simulacra, to walk into a shop and buy some damn records. The vinyl kind. Kind of like what Monday (4/20) is for those of you furtively sneaking puffs of weed on your coffee break, in fact.

And while the establishment of a commemorative day hasn’t slowed down (y)our pursuit (vinyl purchases are up over 50% in the first quarter of this year alone) we figured we’d provide you with a little guiding light for your tote-bag excursions this weekend, directing some shine toward the most essential pressings timed to this year’s RSD, worthy additions to any collector’s end-of-day stack. From an insanely rare Black Star offering to D’Angelo‘s deceptively powerful Black Messiah cut to J Dilla‘s own cop-smashing anthem to Jimi, Sly, Marvin and far beyond, we’ve got you covered on all accounts. So keep this list in your pocket as you weed through the wood shit and get to the good shit. We’ll be cheering for your all the way through.