For a start, I wanted to look at why vinyl is so crucial and making sure, if you are buying records as an art purchase, doing it right. You don’t hang a painting up because it fills a crack in the wall so why would you utilise a record as art and have it look boring and galling? The reason I wanted to write this piece is two-fold. The thing is, you’re doing that because it’s an aesthetic choice, no? In fact, by all means, put an album on the wall with pride. I am being facetious as there are some current albums worth having, playing and displaying. I have browsed in music shops and seen a record like Bastille’s latest album (whatever it is called!) and they’re asking nearly twenty-quid for it! Who the heck is ever going to shill that sort of cash?! I’d be quite content to pay that sort of dosh for Graceland, Revolver or Paul’s Boutique – but are modern records worth that much? It may be going off-track here but maybe that appropriate for the modern day: if people are willing to buy vinyl as collectors’ items, then why not charge such exorbitant rates? Art buyers are, by and large, suckers who will pay top-dollar for any pretentious crap. The sheer cost of a vinyl record can be staggering. I know downloads and music-sharing sites make music-purchasing easier, quicker and, a lot of times, cheaper. That aside, I am sad music/albums are become less material and more virtual. Those satanic, destroy-them-in-the- fiery-pits-of-Hell monstrosities make a valid argument for making all music digital. Similarly, for all his merits, a near-nude Prince or some hideous self-portraits are enough to have me sat on the toilet trying to eject my internal organs out my rear-end. I still recoil when seeing a certain Kevin Rowland, well…dragged-up and ‘sexy’. You can do a search of ‘the worst album covers ever’ and, you can bet your life on it, you’d get some truly bone-chilling, nightmare-inducing visions. Sure, there have been some atrocious and abysmal attempts at an album cover. Given that amount of space and opportunity: it was only natural musicians put their all into producing the most eye-catching and vivid album art they could. Record producers and artists could have put a crappy sleeve around their record or something vague. Take a vinyl (and its cover), pop it on the wall and have a good look: doesn’t it look like a painting? Maybe that was the idea from the very start. In a sense, whether you want to deny it or not, it is a work of art. The full-sized, proper vinyl is almost canvas-sized. Being someone short-sighted and impatient you don’t want to squint when you are looking at album art. but is a tiny, reduced version of what you get on an actual record. Not just because of the hair-raising, spine-tingling music: the album cover (itself) is something that makes me stare and smile like an idiot. I am currently looking for an as-good-as-new version of Kate Bush’s seminal debut, The Kick Inside. I know vinyls, or new records anyway, are mass-produced, but just think about the idea itself. You get used to it and can never attach any personal emotion to such a small and mass-produced thing. in the stereo can seem like a rather unemotional and uneventful thing. It is not just the sturdiness – less prone to scratches then C.D.s and a lot bigger good as it seems like you’re getting value for money – but it is something you treat as a previous commodity. Cassettes are obsolete – and such a terrible idea to start with – and there is not really a physical music-storing alternative, is there?! The vinyl record, decades-old as it is, seems to be the most reliable and long-lasting format we have. A newborn baby is not as tender, but when it comes to a C.D., the things will scratch with the merest breath of wind. C.D.s are fragile and can often be reduced to scrap by dropping it on a carpeted floor. Not only is the ‘technology’ a bit outdated – why do we need have artists recording on both sides of a disc?! – but there are inherent flaws. Many people are a bit fed up with compact discs because of their limitations. Are we actually in a time where digitisation is replacing the physical product? Certainty, mediums like the humble C.D. It got me thinking about records and the album cover in general. There are some people that, God forbid, actually listen to things but it seems rather rare. People are hanging L.P.s on shelves and framing them. In the case of album art, I have to wonder what is happening? I know vinyl is coming back into fashion but that is the point: it is very much a fashion item. Aside from the fact it was my protestations and reluctances are based on hard evidence. I might come off as one of these stubborn people who thinks…
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