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Dreaming of Vinyl...

Back when the Coat of Many Cupboards was pre-orderable over at the Idea Records website, I ran (figuratively, of course) to reserve my copy — probably along with everyone else on their mailing list. I put in my credit card information and waited the requisite number of weeks for the boxset to be released and shipped. When it arrived, I drooled over the gold paint signatures (Andy's and Colin's) and the nifty, fold-open cupboard-coat that houses the CDs. It was one of the few times that I've bought CDs and felt that the packaging was creative, inspiring and (for lack of a better term) cool.

And it made me wish that more CDs could have cool packaging... and it made me wish I could get Coat of Many Cupboards on vinyl...

I'm a vinyl-bigot. I'm one of the weird people who thinks that vinyl records aren't dead, they've simply gone underground. Quite frankly, you could call me a vinyl-whore. I have records in my collection on which the music is utter crap, but I own them because the vinyl/packaging is completely wonderful. When Scot and I go through our collection to reorganize it (as we infrequently do), he likes to comment on the crap-records that we own because I thought the packaging looked interesting.

Take, for example, the horrid Babyland EP that I have: a translucent hot-pink record with a cat face printed in black on it, housed inside a clear plastic sleeve. Who cares that the songs are awful and the musicians sound like tone-deaf L7 flunkies? (Apologies, if you actually like Babyland.) It doesn't matter — I love this record! To me, it's a prize ...but I don't listen to it.

You cannot find a translucent hot pink CD. I know. I've tried.

I remember gatefolds. I love gatefolds. The intense hoping that the records were high quality and you'd get 2 records instead of one. The bewilderment when you find that it was a faux-gatefold (one sleeve with a record in it and the other sleeve glued together). The ecstasy when you realize that the sleeves hold three or fours records andwith picture sleeves, a glossy insert and lyrics! The suspense is like a blind date — the major difference being that, with the record, you can just rip open the package to see what you are getting.

CDs have no need for gatefold packaging. The rare CDs that are gatefolds are that way because the album is really a collection of a lot of songs (like a tribute or an anthology) and not an album. Even then, the CD gatefolds are a disappointment. Hint to package designers: CDs are difficult to remove from a gatefold where both sleeves open at the inside spine! (Don't you people ever test your designs?)

The biggest packaging complaint, of course, is the small nature of the cases. Obviously, CDs are smaller than vinyl records and so the packaging is proportionately smaller, too. But, the smaller size means less room for creative imagery. Let's be honest with ourselves and admit, right here/right now, that size matters. Whether you're an 1980s teen drooling over the Duran Duran boys on the back of an album sleeve, an aesthete in mental debate over the meaning of whiteness of the Beatles' White album, or simply a freak like me who like to look at the album cover while listening to the music: bigger is better.

The CD re-release of Skylarking is incredibly "cute" — yes, it does look exactly like a miniature version of the original vinyl release. However, I'll take the "adult-size" version any day.

No discussion of vinyl releases is complete without some commentary on sound quality. Usually, when I mention sound quality, I get the response, "You like the popping and hissing noises?" Here's the scoop: good quality vinyl records that have been taken care of properly do not hiss and pop when you play them. Good vinyl gives you a better audio experience for most music than a CD ever could.

People balk, "That's not possible: CDs are digital." Yes, they are digital and that's the problem. Unless the music is digital, certain timbres and nuances are going to be lost in a CD recording. Why? Because most instruments —this includes vocals — are not digital; they're analog. By taking analog sound and reproducing it in digital format, you are bound to lose some color (in the musical sense) — i.e. harmonic overtone, undertones. Digitalizing analog sound flattens it out. While digitalization does reduce background noise, it also reduces the quality of the sound. This is one of the reasons why music always sounds so much better live.

It's true that "digital remasters" of albums can often be better than the original album release. However, I contend that this is often because the quality of the original recordings was poor and the digital remastering was necessary to enhance the music and reduce noise and degradation. This is especially true for recordings from the 1960s and 1970s. (I also happen to be a huge David Bowie fan, and I can really heard the differences between original pressings of his early albums and later remasters.)

Analog for analog and digital for digital. Grab yourself a 180 gram, virgin vinyl copy of of live album and a good turntable, and you'll hear what I mean. (Of course, if the recording is 100% digital, then obviously you won't hear what I've been blabbering on about...)

But, getting back to where I began this, I wish I had Coat of Many Cupboards on vinyl. I realize that there's not a huge call for vinyl anymore. However, I'm one of those rare people who would buy it (along with my CD version) and cherish it.