“A few years back someone must have mentioned that music sounded better on vinyl, so I was interested to know if it was true and how much of a difference it actually made.”
“My parents insisted that it was just rose-tinted nostalgia and reminisced about annoying crackles and the time-consuming nature of the process when I asked if we could get their collection down from the attic, but they gave in. Getting into our attic is a chore in itself seeing as there’s no ladder, so I was obviously pretty keen to test it out. Anyway, we hauled it all down and set up in the front room.
I think the first one I put on was Dark Side of the Moon and the three of us stood back and listened with a fair amount of anticipation. It was obvious that, despite dismissing the notion it could sound much good, I had stirred up some sense of intrigue and anticipation in my parents, who in all fairness, had a rather respectable collection.
Maybe it was just the effort that had gone into it or the fact it had become an event, but I think everyone was convinced that there was something in it straight off. It helped that Dark Side of the Moon was loaded with so many striking sounds, and I remember the piano parts sounding so good as though it were in the room with you.
I spent the rest of the night trying out different records and experienced my first sense of frustration with vinyl when one of the sides on a Lou Reed collection was scratched and barely listenable. But, from that point on, I was adamant that vinyl sounded superior and liked the fact it made more of an event of listening to music, rather than having songs just stream in the background of other pastimes.
I started buying up any vinyl bargains that I could find and banging on about it to other people and the rest of the band—perhaps it was just in my head, but I swear the vinyl revival took off a couple of weeks later.
After all that, the stylus is broken on my and Toby’s turntable at the moment—which makes George Harrison sound like Metal Machine Music—which I don’t know how to fix. So, I guess my parents had a point.”
—Declan Andrews
The Cradles’ single “Ideal Girl” is out now via Solva Records.
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