A few months ago, I bought a record player. I like the warmth of the sound of a record and it is also a way to show off great album cover art. I have the system set up in the basement, so often I’ll have a record playing when I’m in the office or when friends are over and we are playing Ping Pong or hanging out at the bar.
Another reasoning behind the purchase of a record player is it would be a way for me to show off my favorite albums. With that in mind, I’ve treated my record collection as the elite tier for my music. While my CD collection still contains embarrassing purchases from High School and my iPod contains anything I’ve been able to acquire from the library or friends, my vinyl collection just contains my favorite music.
I think I’ve pulled this off, with a few exceptions. I’ve found that it’s often a better deal to buy new music on vinyl. It is normally the same price as a CD (and only a few dollars more than a digital version) and newer releases often contain free mp3 downloads for the entire album. Even though this can result in some great finds (ie. Fleet Foxes), it kind of ruins the idea of my collection only being my favorites.
The final aspect of the record player purchase is the fun of shopping for records. I enjoy going to 1/2 Price Books and record stores and finding something I’ve been searching for. As great as iTunes is, I think that has taken that excitement of CD shopping away.
Anyways, today I went to Strictly Discs and picked up 5 records.
- A Tribe Called Quest – Midnight Marauders
- A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory
- The Band – Music from the Big Pink
- Queen – Night at the Opera (180 Gram)
- Van Morrision – Astral Weeks (180 Gram)
Everything is new, with the exception of the used copy of Music from the Big Pink. I’m listening to that now and I’m a little disappointed. I should have spent the extra money on the brand new 180 Gram version.
Nearly every Queen song I’ve ever heard has filled me with joy, so I decided to pick up one of their albums. From the songs that I knew, this seemed to be the best fit. A Tribe Called Quest is my favorite hip hop group, so I was happy to find their 2 best albums. Finally, Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks is probably one of the best debuts in Rock History, so I’m happy to find a new version of that.
Using Google Documents, I maintain my Vinyl collection. Originally, it was an invite only form, but I’ve published a version on the web for those interested.
If there were justice in the world, Tupelo Honey would get as much acclaim as Astral Weeks does.
I only have Moondance and Astral Weeks (along with his greatest hits). I’ll have to give Tupelo Honey a listen.
If you like Queen, did you ever hear a mashup of it by The Kleptones called “Night at the Hip Hopera”? It’s brilliant. You can find it at http://www.kleptones.com/pages/downloads_hiphopera.html.
I’ve got a CD of Tupelo Honey I can lend you. I was looking for something along the lines of Moondance, but was very happy with my purchase after the second listen …
In your Google Doc I’m confused by the 180 Gram column. Does it make more sense to generalize that? Or make it boolean instead?
(And since you’re using WordPress seemingly, you should check for the extension/plug-in that allows users to sign up for email notifications/subscribe to a post.)