Music Arcades: Various: Marvels of Insect Life

I'd forgotten that I still had an eBay saved search for Marvels of Insect Life, following my accidental acquisition of the vinyl version — the version that doesn't include The Magnetic Fields' Crowd of Drifters with Susan Anway on vocals. Going back nine years, there were comments on the Stephinsongs email list: "Good luck finding that one… For years I looked for that CD and all the clerks in music stores gave me the weirdest looks when I'd ask for it."

With the passage of time either all the fanatical collectors had got themselves a copy, or they'd forgotten to keep looking. Because I was the sole bidder for this CD, and managed to get it last December for £0.99 plus postage.

Was the alternate version of Crowd of Drifters worth waiting for? Yes, it's more atmospheric than the version on Charm of the Highway Strip. It's worth more than £0.99 on its own, and the other songs sound even better than they did last time. Another hermetic indie-pop micro-scene that I would never have heard of but for The Magnetic Fields' inclusion.

Once I had the CD, I was ready to rip Crowd of Drifters and share it with a few of my friends. But I thought I should check my iTunes library first in case one of them had already shared it with me. Turns out they had, four years previously. But since I'd got it for free, I'd never played it.

Evidently there's no such thing as a precious rarity any more. If only my old habits would catch up with this fact.

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