Going back to vinyl.

In 2023 I became aware that my enjoyment of music had changed drastically since the introduction of streaming services such as Spotify and YouTube. I’ve lost any kind of connection with artists and albums. I suspect this was due to how I was enjoying music at the time. It was less of a conscious act of putting on an album and listening to it, rather putting on a playlist and letting it run as almost a white noise machine while I am working. I made the decision to go into the depths of my garage and unearthed my CD collection from years past. I was astonished that not only did I still have it, but it had survived in as good as condition as it did. As I started to replay some of the albums from my youth I really wanted to engage with music on a much more physical level. So, I set out with a project of building a hi-fi system.

I wanted the system to have the necessary components to play CDs and vinyl. I bought a bundle on Amazon that got me into vinyl as straightforwardly as possible. I knew that the setup would not be audiophile grade but that’s not what I was aiming for. I wanted to see if I would resonate with physical media and vinyl specifically. It turned out that I did.

While I was waiting for the record player to be delivered, I had been making myself aware of the various vinyl stores in my area. I picked up multiple records for songs and artists that I knew very well. When I received the bundle and spent some time setting it up, I played my first vinyl which was Will Smith’s Men in Black. When I started playing that record, I was blown away at the clarity. My only knowledge of vinyl records was from various movies and TV shows where you would hear this hissing crackling popping sound that would accompany some kind of tune. In fact, it would sound so bad that it would be difficult to name the tune that is being played. However, the vinyl was clear and crisp with lots of presence and the absolute antithesis to everything I thought I knew about vinyl records.

I had been recommended a vinyl record from a YouTube channel called Sunset Mission. I had bought it as part of the bundle, so I’d have something to play and to test the record player with. However, I had not heard of the band before or indeed the record. I had gone purely on the recommendation. I was pleasantly surprised with what I had found. It was a record in a genre that I didn’t listen to with any seriousness but was very enjoyable all the same. This first win really gave me the appetite to continue with collecting other records both ones that I had heard before and stuff that I hadn’t and to continue enjoying the medium.

Today my vinyl collection is almost exclusively reserved for the artists that I enjoy the most. I have gone on to build a small wall where I can display the fantastic artwork that goes with many of these albums. One brilliant side effect of this has been to encourage me to seek out new bands and their albums. As well as rediscover old bands that I have dropped off of years ago and catch up with their discography.

Here are a few albums that have seen a lot of play on my turntable:

• Linkin Park – Reanimation
• Daft Punk – Discovery
• Stratovarious – Survive