You can't touch this

As I wrote yesterday, I love albums. Even writing that, I am not sure that I used the correct term. I suppose someone could think that I meant photo albums. LPs? Basically, those things that contain but are not limited to the singles.

Yesterday I focused on hearing multiple songs by a group, and noticing the structure of the album, but I like the tangible aspects too. I like looking at the artwork, and reading the credits and seeing whom the band thanks, and I rely on being able to read the lyrics as provided by the band, because yes, you can find lyrics all over the internet, but often with errors.

My early understanding that there were quality errors due to sound compression with digital music appears to have been resolved many years ago, and I have already had a few cases where there were things I could only buy digitally, so I’ve done that, but ultimately, I would rather have a physical product. Here’s the embarrassing part: I don’t like vinyl.

I know, I know. I am embarrassed. It’s like there are two separate cool kid tables and I don’t fit in at either one of them. Actually, that feels kind or familiar.

My issues with vinyl go way back. I always had a fear of the record skipping or getting scratched, and then being damaged. What I used to do was buy records then record them on to cassettes, so I would play the cassette and then save the record as a master. Of course the length never matched up quire correctly, but then you could just put your favorite songs on multiple times. (And yes, I made the occasional mix tape.)

I suppose it is still possible to find cassette tapes, but I don’t really want to bother with that. I remember us having everything at one point. The 8-track was only in the car, but inside the house there was a record player, cassette player, and two reel-to-reel players, and what I mainly remember about when the CD player joined the mix is that it was way more convenient than any of those others, and it still sounded good.

As it is, I still need players for most everything. I don’t believe there are any 8-track tapes or reels left (but we’ve been in this house for a long time, and there are places we don’t look that often), but I still have some vinyl and some cassettes, and they are irreplaceable. That’s one thing, where if I had purchased some things on cassette, I would not still need a record player.

Anyone remember X2? Probably not. They really only had one hit, “Strange But True” and if you even try searching on them now you have to wade through a lot of references to the second X-Men movie. It was never released on CD. If they had become really popular, it probably would have gotten a reissue, at least digitally, but that seems unlikely.

Some of my tapes came out before CDs were common, but one is from a band I was friends with in college, and a cassette was all they did, and it was a big deal to accomplish even that. That was one thing that was so great about CDs. CD burners made it very easy for a band to put out their product. I have a delightfully homemade CD that I bought from a guy playing his guitar in front of Lloyd Center. I keep hoping I will find him somewhere else, or that he will have loaded something onto the internet, but so far nothing.

Technically I guess doing so with digital it is even easier, but is that the way that we are moving? That only people who are collectors even need to make space? And honestly, that sounds like something I should be in favor of. I don’t really want more possessions. I used to say the only things I really wanted more of were books and music, and then we started using the library a lot, and that has been great. My shelves are already full. The difference, I think, is that I am still reading a tangible book. I feel the pages, I can heft it, and if it doesn’t require physical storage space permanently, at least it takes up some space while I am reading it.

For my desire for art and acknowledgements and lyrics, the bands should be able to do that through web sites. It does not seem to be happening at this time, but it totally could. There are probably great environmental advantages to going digital, and economic, because there go manufacturing costs. That’s a help. At the same time, then I need more storage space on my computer and I have to worry about backups. Yes, if I buy from Amazon I can keep my music in the Cloud, but I am also trying to support smaller businesses, so I am trying to buy everything from either Music Millennium or Everyday Music.

And that will lead to tomorrow’s topic. For now, clearly the real issue is that I am a dinosaur caught between generations, and I need to choose my direction.

And no, I still haven’t opened up my MP3 player.