“The first vinyl record I ever owned was given to me by my brother, a double vinyl edition of Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois.”
“At the time, my brother was living in Los Angeles and I was about to leave Nashville to spend a brief season in North Carolina. This copy of Sufjan’s masterful record was something I treasured for years—but especially in the year after my brother gave it to me. To this day, it’s one of my favorites—one of the more popular editions in his Fifty States Project. My love of these songs was only heightened by the fact that my brother had sought out and procured this beautiful album for me.
In the two years following that gift, I spun Illinois almost every day. It was the only record I owned at the time, but I soon collected others—mostly found at Goodwill and other cheap thrift spots—to add to my small collection. Art Garfunkel’s Watermark, which housed a song titled “Saturday Suit” that became a bit of an anthem for me in those days, was a favorite.
I think the thing that I love most about vinyl is the fact that it is so inherently fragile and impermanent. A song itself is simultaneously permanent and passing. That moment when a writer or group of writers pulls a fresh, breathing melody and lyric out of thin air is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. It’s like you’ve made something out of nothing, though one could say, you’ve made something out of everything.
The vinyl format is just a reminder of that dual nature of songs—a beam of light only shines until it reaches its destination, where—who knows?—maybe it reflect off a mirror, give light to a garden, or just bounce into space. The possibilities are endless.”
—Matt Lovell
Nobody Cries Today, the debut full length release from Matt Lovell arrives in stores on June 5, 2020—on red vinyl. Preorder the LP here.
