While I casually read the magazine in libraries in super markets here and there throughout my teenage years, I remember the first actual issue that I absolutely had to have and read cover to cover. That was the January 1998 issue, published in December of 1997.
Also, for a moment, lets reflect on this issue's list of Top 20 Albums of 1997. The #1 album of the year was Cornershop's When I was Born for the 7th Time, an album that was most definitely a product of the 1990s and an incredible album that has held up pretty well since then. Interesting that this is their choice for album of the year though when you consider that the #2 slot belongs to Radiohead's OK Computer. In hindsight, its understandable how a decision like this could've been made in the moment, but its beyond obvious now that OK Computer ranks above just about every other album from the 90s, period.
The September 1999 issue, meanwhile, was like a bible to me. Even now, almost 13 years since its original publishing, I still have the same copy of this magazine sitting on my book shelf next to some of my favorite books. If Spin helped push me into a whole new world of music, this issue represented the actual arms that grabbed hold of me and shoved. The number of albums and bands that this issue either exposed me to or finally convinced me to seek out and listen to is astounding: PJ Harvey, Slanted and Enchanted, DJ Shadow, Pulp, Aphex Twin, Built to Spill, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, Neutral Milk Hotel...on and on, the list goes.
For most of the 00s I was a subscriber to SPIN, and even though the Internet was slowly becoming my go-to place for new music, there was still something instantly satisfying and nostalgic feeling about getting a new issue in my mail box; even if the magazine had a tendency for questionable decisions for cover artists (Sugar Ray, KISS and Pink (licking an LP) all come to mind).
Somewhere in the late 00s/early 10s, though, SPIN began to become the very thing that I had always worried it would be: just like every other music magazine out there. Now, arguably, this could've happened long before I realized it, but I had spent most of the past decade continuing to read SPIN with continued Nostalgia and good faith. It might have been the Paramore cover or something around that time when I finally said: I really don't need this anymore.
Occasionally I stopped in for a peek at things. I enjoyed the feature on The Strokes last year, for example. For the most part, however, SPIN felt like a victim of the Internet Age. Almost everything featured and reviewed were things that I had read about and heard about much sooner. It was old news by the time it was in print.
I received a subscription again late last year as a gift, and my dismay only seemed to increase. The magazine was becoming smaller and the content was becoming weaker. As much as I liked Das Racist, for example, a cover and feature article about them barely hit the spot when I had been following the band's actual Tumblr regularly and had read better features about them in various blogs months before.
In the early weeks of 2012, though, something interesting happened: I caught a tidbit of news about SPIN. It was going to move to a six issues/year schedule. At first, this seemed rather ominous. As if the magazine needed yet another to reason to idly sit on a newsstand, it would be doing so for twice as long. Earlier this month, though, I saw a picture of the first issue in SPIN's "new format:" A picture of Sleigh Bells' Alexis Krauss with very minimal trade dress surrounding her. And what was this? The SPIN logo centered at the top of the cover, a la early SPIN? Without knowing much more than just that cover image, I had a good feeling about it. Perhaps this was a move in the right direction.
And so, after getting my first issue of the the new format of SPIN in the mail and reading the whole thing, I have to say: Job well done. For the first time in years, the magazine feels more relevant, more exiting and more interesting than almost every other major music magazine available.
The biggest, and most immediate, change to the magazine is its size. Its considerably larger, physically, resembling the larger dimensions the magazine had up through the late 90s. This alone makes the magazine feel more important. It's something that you could, once again, put on your bookshelf. Of course, all this means nothing if the magazine's content isn't up to snuff.
Well guess what, buddy? It is. SPIN has seen the same issues with a physical magazine in the Internet Era as the rest of us and they've managed to adapt to it. The physical magazine has done away with record reviews and music news, using their recently revamped website to keep current with things like that. The magazine, then, is left to deal with articles and features about bigger topics. The first issue deals with the idea of Retro and new artists utilizing the sounds of artists past. The format works exceptionally well, as it creates an almost timeless feel to the content. I could see myself reading this issue two years from now and finding it interesting just as I could a week ago.
If all this sounds like I'm an employee of SPIN...welll, I wish. SPIN, if you're reading this, I'd like a job.
But honestly, as something that I've held in such high regard for so long in my life, I'm just over-joyous to have it back in a form that I care so much about again.
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