vinyl records

A friend has been posting album covers on Facebook, perhaps what I miss most about getting vinyl records. Like a 'Kindle' could never replicate the feeling of holding an actual book, a lot of my memories are tied to having an album sleeve to look at and admire while listening to music at the same time.

While I could get all nostalgic about vinyl records, they did have their drawbacks. What was most frustrating had to be when I got home with a new record, and listened to it for the first time. Besides enjoying the music, I was always aware and a little tentative of the idea that it might have scratches or some other kind of defect, in which case, it was back to the store to exchange it. And as the years went by with vinyl records, I noticed that they were getting thinner and thinner and more likely to be warped.

As for the sound, my hearing isn't sharp enough to notice whether or not there was more warmth in records compared to listening to CD's. I've read that there are audiophiles that insist that CD's are missing a special something that vinyl provided - I can't tell. And if there is, I prefer having the many advantages that CD's provide: remote control convenience; having the choice to 'repeat,' 'shuffle,' skip past songs, etc.; much less chance of having defects and in turn, less likely to be damaged from mishandling - these are just the ones that come to mind first.

But back to the way they're packaged... albums by a landslide!

The cover artwork could have as much meaning as the album itself. As time goes on, where MP3's and digital music render having any artwork at all unnecessary, even CD's are getting outdated, let alone album covers. It's kind of sad to have to even describe what it was like - the 'old' days keep coming up faster and faster, don't they?

It's not like a lot of time was put into the artwork of every album what was released, but some albums had covers that were iconic. The Beatles first come to mind, with the cover for Sgt. Pepper's. One of my favorites was the kind-of-package/cover that came with the 'Magical Mystery Tour' album, with a series of pages in a sleeve that opened up. And how much meaning would have been given to Paul being barefoot while walking across Abbey Road had the artwork only been CD size, or even worse, only bought online for an iPod?

One of my favorite records is Chicago VI, particularly because of the cover. Besides the beautiful artwork, the sleeve has texture and opens up too, where there is another photo of the band, this one shot in the same style as the cover, but with the band members standing in a field. Another favorite album is Heart's 'Little Queen' with Anne and Nancy Wilson dressed in medieval/gypsy outfits - I remember being a teenager and having these two lovelies to be smitten with as I stared at the cover and listened to the record. I realize that album covers must seem archaic compared to what's available on the web... oh well, lots to remember and wonder about.