The Joy Formidable
A Balloon Called Moaning
Pure Groove PUREGROOVECD001 CD and Box Set, released 2009 (UK)
Ralleye RYECD 055 (Japan)
Black Bell BB001-1 LP / BB001-2 CD (U.S./UK)
Hassle HOFF325LP LP / HOFF235CDA CD, released 2019 (U.S./Europe)
Somehow, no one considers A Balloon Called Moaning a full album. Fine. Semantics. Whatever you call it, it's excellent. Really, really good stuff. It gave me hope for music at a time when I had little.
This one came out in several different formats. First and foremost, we have the box set. The band initially put this out under the Pure Groove moniker. The limited box set contained the CD, a booklet, several postcard-size pieces of Rhydian's artwork, and an actual balloon with "Moaning" printed on it. It all came in a carefully assembled box, hand numbered out of 500. This became a beast to procure. For a good while, it regularly sold in the $150 range. It has dropped way down since. It is still scarce, but generally sells in the $40-60 range now.
There was another Pure Groove edition of the CD. The CD itself looked exactly the same as the previous box set version, but this one came attached to a folded up poster sleeve (the green image above). Logically, this one should be valuable as well, but it isn't.
Then, we have the big time re-release of the album - the Black Bell and Ralleye versions. Black Bell gave us the only original vinyl version of the album - it was on black vinyl and is easy to find. The Japanese CD (Ralleye) contained modified artwork with a black base color, and had a slightly different track listing. The first five tracks were the same, but it then went with the remix b-sides from the Cradle single.
2019 brought about the 10th anniversary of A Balloon Called Moaning. With it came an anniversary version, a double LP set with different artwork. The first record was the original album, on an opaque turquoise vinyl. The second was Welsh versions of the whole album (that one was on yellow vinyl). I didn't think this would be overly interesting, but it's really good. Solid, unique takes on all of the tracks. In theory, this one was limited to 1,000 copies worldwide. It is easy to find for now.
| Version | Value ($) | Scarcity | Price Trending |
|---|---|---|---|
| PUREGROOVECD001 CD Box Set | 40-60 | 6 | Down |
| PUREGROOVECD001 CD | 6-10 | 2 | Down |
| RYECD 055 CD | 8-12 | 2 | Down |
| BB001-1 LP Black | 10-15 | 1 | Stable |
| HOFF325LP LP 1xTurquoise/1xYellow | 25-30 | 2 | Stable |
 Original |
 Reissue Side A |
 Reissue Side C |
This page was last updated on November 26, 2019.
