“I remember first hearing about compact discs from an engineer at some recording studio I was visiting as a kid. I was probably about ten years old?”
“The engineer spoke about these mysterious discs with that blissful haze and awe that is so distinctive of an audiophile. ‘The quality of sound is nothing like you’ve ever experienced. And these things don’t skip! You could take one into the parking lot, stand on it and spin around and it will still play as just as perfectly.’ He said that, or something like it. I was a kid, so my memory is vague. But I remember being impressed. And when the CD finally made its way into every record store, I was ready. I wanted to experience what he was talking about.
I had grown up with vinyl. That’s just how one listened to music. The first album I ever bought for myself was Around the World in a Day by Prince, which was actually right about when CDs started making their way into record stores. And so I started to make the switch. You could argue that vinyl had limitations when compared to the futuristic compact disc. You had to turn over your vinyl records and with a compact disc you could just keep listening without any interruption. If you didn’t take care of your vinyl they would scratch and skip, CDs weren’t supposed to do that (although they do). CDs were small and compact, they felt like the future.
And here we are today, progress has again changed the way we listen to music. And so much more drastically than ever before. We now have the ability to hear any album or song at any moment, anywhere. If we wanted to, we could stream music twenty-four hours a day for the rest of our lives without any interruption ever. That’s incredible! It’s no wonder that the once futuristic CD now seems clunky in comparison. But it doesn’t surprise me that vinyl has made a comeback, and continues to be treasured by so many people.
Some of my favorite childhood memories involve me putting the needle down on a record and then laying on my bedroom floor listening to the music and devouring every picture, lyric, liner note, credit I could find on the sleeve. And if I wanted to hear a song again, I’d have to get up to lift the needle and lay it down at the start of the song. There was so much intention to it. It’s what every musician dreams of when they make music and share it with the world. That when you listen, you listen with intention. You give it all your focus for those 35-45 minutes. At least the first time you play it.
For my latest album, vinyl is the only option for a physical copy that I made. Like most people, I do love the convenience of streaming and downloading and how music can move across the world in seconds flat. But I will always love things that just can’t be rushed.”
—Inara George
Inara George’s Dearest Everybody is in stores now via Slow Down Sounds—on vinyl.
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PHOTO: ALEXA NIKOL CURRAN
