“Born in ’82, I grew up with cassette tapes and compact discs. I mainly remember playing CDs as somehow, even when I was very young, I knew cassette tapes were rubbish (in the same way we all knew Minidiscs were rubbish when they made their brief interruption into our musical lives). My early memories of vinyl involves only 2 records – Eddie Grant’s “Electric Avenue” and Sex Pistols’ “Something Else.” These were the only vinyl records I was allowed to play when I was younger as they were unwanted Christmas presents passed on to me by my Dad. Unfortunately for my parents, I discovered “Friggin In The Riggin” (the B-side on the Pistols record) and played it incessantly.”
“There was then a long interlude in my relationship with vinyl that only ended this very summer, when I acquired a Crosley turntable and started rediscovering some old favourites. So far my favourite acquisitions have been Shellac’s Live At Action Park and 1,000 Hurts, Low’s Trust and Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. I still listen to a lot of CDs and MP3s, but putting on a vinyl LP is just a different proposition. It’s like the difference between sitting leafing through a magazine to settling down to read a good book.
Now, technically speaking, vinyl records are inferior to compact discs. Vinyl shortcomings include incomplete stereo capability, fidelity reduction toward the centre of the record, production quality issues, easily scratched and damaged grooves, static pops, wow and flutter, record wear and warping through age, false starts, delicate styluses…these are all problems we don’t encounter with our CDs.
However, despite all this, vinyl just sounds better.
Maybe it’s because vinyl can capture and reproduce more frequencies. Some people say it sounds warmer. Lots of people grew up with vinyl and just love the routine of handling and caring for the records. My reason is this: modern digital recording and production techniques can leave CDs and MP3s sounding fake and cold. They often sound nothing like a live performance, especially played through low quality PC speakers, which is unfortunately how a lot of music is consumed these days.
For some bands maybe this is a good thing, but for me nothing ever beats that live band giving it everything, and part of that sound is the little imperfections and tempo shifts that makes everything just sound better. The closest you’ll ever get to how you feel listening to that live band while you’re in your living room is on a vinyl record, and if for no other reason, that’s why I hope the recent resurgence in vinyl sales goes exponential.”
—Bob Dick
Verse Metrics’ Radians is released via Return Of Order Records on December 1, 2012.
