V Is For Vinyl

V is for Vinyl

I love vinyl!

I think my main reason for loving it so much is the fact that playing a record is an occasion in itself. In our digital world it's too easy to pop some music on as background noise and then skip through songs without really giving it a second thought.

With vinyl one can't simply skip through the record in the same way. In fact, vinyl demands to be listened to by virtue of the effort involved in actually playing a record. From selecting a record, removing it from its sleeve, placing it on the turntable, cleaning it and then lowering the stylus on to it, listening to a record is an occasion in and of itself.

There is no other musical format that comes close to the experience of listening to vinyl. Now I'm not one of those pretentious *audiophiles* who reckons they can tell the difference between a European pressing and a local SA pressing, for the most part they're talking absolute rubbish! But I do believe the music sounds better on vinyl (I'm not alone in this and there's plenty of evidence to support me), if only because one engages with a record in a way one simply cannot engage with any other format.

I have to confess to having become a bit picky about which records I will buy theses days. Budget is always a factor so I want the best value I can get, so if I'm buying a new record, I will only buy new releases and not re-releases. I would much rather wait to have a dig around in Kandi Records or at a local Vinyl Faire to try and find an original release of a record. However, finding an original release is no guarantee it will be accepted in to my collection. Just the other day I had an original copy of Paul Simon's brilliant Rhythm Of The Saints in my hand all ready to buy, right up until I discovered it was missing the original inner sleeve with lyrics printed on it. Sadly this was a no go for me.  

My vinyl collection is quite small with a little over 200 records and several singles and 12" singles, but I'm proud to have a few original records that escaped my purging my original collection many years ago, and it's been fun acquiring some of the records I used to have and enjoy listening to.

But I think my biggest joy in collecting vinyl today is getting hold of new artists that simply weren't around when I was younger. Artists like Joe Bonamassa, Elbow, Foo Fighters & Paul Weller (solo), some of this stuff is as good as the *classics* and much of it is better, and it encourages me to know there are still some great bands out there producing some great music that just deserves the occasion of being spun on a quality turntable. 

This is a post about vinyl, but it would be rude not to pay tribute to my lovely turntable, a Rega Planar P1+, it's a lovely bit of kit!

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This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2021.