CHF PICK: IT’S A VINYL WORLD, AND I LIVE IN IT

"GOSPEL LIGHT" by Kirk Stansbury.

Up until a few years ago, I had been a devoted compact disc listener for decades and I did not even have a record player. I owned a few vinyl records, but I had them in my home for decorative purposes as collector's items (tour-only record editions that I bought from merch stands at concerts, etc.). One of my prized possessions was, and still is, an original UK seven-inch 45rpm single pressing of my all-time favorite song, “A Forest” by The Cure, that I bought on eBay back in the early 2000s, although I had no way to listen to it. I just thought that it would be cool to own my all-time favorite song on vinyl.

Shortly after the pandemic lockdown in 2020, I finally caved in and bought a turntable, an Audio Technica LP120X, because I was curious to listen to the records that I owned instead of just displaying them and because I was craving a hobby to keep me busy during the lockdown isolation. Four years later, and hundreds of vinyl record purchases later, I sometimes question the sanity of that decision. Far more often, though, I am thankful to have found an amazing hobby that has introduced me to many great friends, by way of social media groups and by way of people whom I got to know simply after seeing them over and over again at local record shops. The bulk of my collection consists of excellent-condition used records from 1980s new wave, synth-pop, punk, and alternative bands that I loved during my youth and that cost me less than $10 from used music stores, but I have also immersed myself in new albums from present-day post-punk, goth, darkwave bands, many of whom release their records in severely limited pressings.

I am not one of these vinyl audiophiles who will tell you that vinyl records sound better than compact discs. Vinyl records simply sound different. They have a warmer sound than compact discs do, particularly with regard to percussion and cymbals on songs, but most of them also have a small amount of surface noise inherent to the medium. With regard to vinyl records versus compact discs, it is six in one and a half dozen in the other.

Most of my vinyl records sound amazing, because I always clean the used records that I add to my collection. I have old 1960s and 1970s pressings of albums that sound near perfect on the turntable, with nary a pop or a crackle, after I cleaned them upon bringing them home. (Whenever someone plays a record in a movie or a television show, the record has a lot of pops and crackles. Most people today do not realize that vinyl is not actually supposed to sound that way. Ideally, vinyl should sound crystal clear.) Still, even the best-condition records will usually have a trace amount of surface noise once the needle drops on most sound systems.

What draws me to vinyl records is the fact that they require me to devote undivided attention to the music, because, after the songs on an album side are over, I have to pick up the needle on my manual turntable. When I first bought my player, I realized that, up until then, I could not remember the last time that I had listened to my favorite music attentively instead of simply having it play while I am driving my vehicle or play while I am surfing the internet at home. With vinyl records, I listen, really listen, to the music while sitting on my sofa or dancing around my living room. I also love my old original-year pressings of David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, Kraftwerk’s Autobahn, and the like, because I love the idea that I am listening to a piece of history that has probably passed through several owners over the decades. I love the album sleeves and the presentation, a throwback to the days when album cover art was a band's only “music video” that gave their fans a visual representation of them.

The annual Record Store Day events, which started in 2007, have since become a revered occasion for many of us music fans. During the past few years, I myself have actually become friends with people who happened to be standing in line next to me at Record Store Day as we waited outside for the stores to open in the morning.

Vinyl records do, of course, have their expenses and inconveniences. At least Spotify listeners do not have to worry about their cats jumping on a turntable while a record is playing, nor do they have to worry about transporting boxes of Spotify whenever they move to a new home. These negatives are outweighed, in my eyes, by the sheer joy of being a record enthusiast, the joy of owning something to have and to hold that directly supports the careers of those who made the music.

During my last trip to a local used record store, RetroSound Records in Acworth, Georgia, I found one of my vinyl “holy grails” that I have been searching for since I got into the hobby, Laughter, a 1989 album from the English alternative band, The Mighty Lemon Drops, that was a favorite of mine from my senior year of high school. (If I could hit, then the opening notes of The Mighty Lemon Drops’ “Into the Heart of Love” would be my baseball walk-up song.)  While I was browsing through that store, I also saw that someone had unloaded several choice 12-inch singles, namely Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” and “Policy of Truth,” and Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Two Tribes.” The thrill of the hunt is always a joyful adventure for record collectors. My ultimate goal is to have my townhouse explode from the inside out from the pressure of the records within bursting it at the seams.