Nick Drake Vinyl Reissues

Bryter Music and Universal are in the process of reissuing Nick Drake's core catalog on vinyl. I am happy to report they are doing an exceptional job.

A couple years ago I sent an email to Martin Calliman (aka 'Cally') asking that he consider reissuing Nick's catalog on high quality LPs. I was pleasantly surprised that he wrote me back. It was clear from my email exchange with him that he is not a vinyl "true believer." Nevertheless, it was a refreshing correspondence because it is rare to hear someone in the industry speak so frankly. Perhaps my email, along with those from many other vinyl enthusiast Nick Drake fans, convinced Cally that a vinyl reissue campaign might be worthwhile after all.

So far, Bryter Layter and Pink Moon have been issued as both deluxe sets with bells and whistles, as well as reasonably priced standard vinyl reissues. A deluxe box of Five Leaves Left is due out at the end of the month, to be followed by a standard issue vinyl LP. Universal also issued a Record Store Day version of the self-titled compilation that was Drake's debut release in the United States.

While the boxes look to be of very high quality, I opted for the standard reissues. From what I have gathered the mastering on the deluxe and standard titles are identical.

So, how do they sound? In short: fantastic.

I had a much sought after and highly praised U.K. first pressing of Pink Moon on loan (I could never afford one) for several days and compared it to the new reissue. I don't go in for a lot of precious audiophile language, but the reissue sounded at least as good as the original to me. I'm sure someone with a $50K turntable will show up to tell me I'm wrong, but for normal folks the differences in sound quality (other than the fact that the reissue was quieter) are not going to be important.

I also own a U.S. Antilles pressing of Bryter Layter, and I preferred the sound of the new reissue to it. Likewise, the self-titled album sounds wonderful to me although I have nothing to compare it to.

I've seen conflicting accounts as to whether these were all cut from the original master tapes or not. It appears Pink Moon, at the very least, was. I'm not sure how much it matters. Original engineer John Wood has remastered these titles with great care, and with obvious respect for the sound of the original vinyl releases. They sound and look brilliant, and if you are a Nick Drake fan with a turntable these are easy to recommend.

Bryter Music, Martin Calliman, John Wood and everyone involved in this reissue program are to be congratulated for getting it right.

"Occupy Audio" My [Rear End]

The Wall Street Journal notes that Neil Young's latest release, Americana, will cost $10 on CD and $42 on LP.

Young summarized his feelings on the need for better sound quality with a rallying cry that might apply to his pricing strategy, too: "Occupy audio!"

I'm going to call bullshit on Neil Young and his "occupy audio" rallying cry. You have to work on Wall Street to afford LPs at those prices. One of the reasons I stuck with LPs while CDs took off was I could get them dirt cheap while the music industry hideously overpriced CDs (while constantly promising that prices would come down soon). But now the tables have turned and LPs are a luxury good for well-heeled "aesthetes." Sure I like the way LPs sound better than CDs, I also enjoy the experience of putting an LP on my turntable more than slapping a CD into the player. Maybe that makes me an aesthete or maybe that makes me an idiot, but I'll be [darned] if I'm gonna pay that kind of price for the privilege.

In my entire life I don't think I've paid $42 for a vinyl record more than a handful of times, and I own some pretty nice, collectable stuff. I didn't pay $42 for my first pressing Gram Parsons records, I didn't pay $42 for my first press UK copy of The Clash's London Calling, I didn't pay $42 for my Funkadelic records, and I sure as [heck] didn't pay $42 for my copy of Tony Orlando and Dawn's Greatest Hits. That beautifully pressed and packaged Trypes LP I wrote about yesterday cost me less than $18. (That's a fair price for a new vinyl record, and I'm happy to support the efforts of a label like Acute Records.) The only time I can remember paying more than $42 was when I bit the bullet and bought a near mint copy of PiL's Metal Box on eBay, and I agonized over my extravagance for weeks afterward. Records aren't worth $42 to me, and I don't care whether Neil Young presses them in Germany or on Jupiter, or what kind of fancy wrapper he puts on them.

Perhaps the most insulting part of all this is one of the reasons these new LPs tend to sound better than their CD counterparts is because they intentionally make the CDs sound like [human waste]. As I've documented here many, many times modern CD mastering typically involves sucking all the dynamic range out of the music as well as applying overly-aggressive EQ. After foisting "perfect sound forever" on us for years, the music industry now tells us LPs sound better, and are happy to charge me a $30+ premium so I can congratulate myself on my ability to discern the difference between a common, vulgar, digital CD and a finely pressed, analog LP. But the truth is, if they're both well mastered, I struggle to hear any difference at all between LPs and CDs. Sorry, I want absolutely no part of this [unicorn infested] charade. I'll just scavenge yard sales for CDs now that the cultural elites are dumping them.

Honestly, I think what really irks me about the whole thing is the fact that Young has appropriated the language of the occupy movement to promote a product that is priced strictly for the 1% crowd. It's in poor taste, and it's insensitive to the economic struggles that so many Americans and others around the world are facing at the moment. Occupy audio my [rear end].

Update 06/25/12: Portions of this post were edited due to moral objections from my children. All replacement words are now in brackets [ ]. I apologize for the use of potty mouth.

LA Times: Hello Spotify, Goodbye Vinyl?

There's an interesting article in the LA Times in which Randall Roberts ponders the impact that streaming and download services are having on traditional notions of music "collecting." This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately, and if I ever get a few spare moments to organize my thoughts, I'll share them with you.

In the meantime, I recommend reading Roberts' piece, which is very good. How have services like Spotify, Rhapsody, iTunes, MOG, Google Music, etc. affected your music purchasing and collecting habits? How have they affected how you think about your music "collection"?

Olympic Records - Providence RI

Olympic Records, 580 Wickenden Street, Providence, RI

There is another new record store in the Providence Rhode Island area, and I wanted to check in and offer you my report. I knew Olympic Records was going to be my kind of place as soon as I walked in the door. On my right was a wall full of vinyl records, on my left three pinball machines, and The Replacement's Tim was playing on the store's turntable.Vinyl, pinball, The Replacements...I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. If Olympic offered a selection of microbrews it would be pretty close to my idea of heaven.

Vinyl only!

Olympic is very much a vinyl focused shop, I didn't see any CDs for sale, although I noticed a few on a rack behind the checkout counter hidden like a dirty secret. I dug through the bins a bit and spotted a lot of tempting stuff. I ended up picking up used copies of The Jam's Beat Surrender EP and The Incredible String Band's No Ruinous Feud, as well as a new copy of Fugazi's Steady Diet Of Nothing. I saw a lot of newish indie-rock vinyl from acts like Panda Bear, Animal Collective and Veronica Falls, as well as some reissues of older indie faves like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. It's been a long time since I've seen a copy of We're The Meatmen And You Suck! in a record shop, and I found it strangely comforting to see a copy hanging on the wall along with vintage pressings of albums by Ignition and The Sex Pistols.

Olympic does not yet have huge amounts of used vinyl, and there is plenty of room for growth in their bins. What is there is well chosen and looks to be in excellent condition, so you don't have to waste time sorting through a bunch of beat up Boston and R.E.O. Speedwagon LPs in order to find the good stuff.

Pinball! (L-R) Bally's Paragon; Bally's Future Spa; Williams' Black Knight

The store's owner, Kevin, is a very friendly guy, and he told me that business has been good so far. I was impressed when he used his iPad with a reader that plugs into the headphone jack to process my debit card. He told me this was the cheapest way he found to process credit cards. Neat. He was kind enough to spot me some change so I could play a game of pinball. I played a (very quick) game of Black Knight (I need to brush up on my pinball skills). I'll have to give Paragon and Future Spa a spin on my next visit. All three machines feature amazing classic pinball art and are in beautiful condition cosmetically and are in full working order.

With the more old-school shop Round Again Records just down Wickenden Street, Exit 2 off I-195 in Providence is an excellent destination for vinyl record fans.  I'd recommend parking near Olympic, making your way down the hill to Round Again, then crossing the street to enjoy some sustainable coffee from the Coffee Exchange before your return trip.

I remain somewhat skeptical about the so-called "vinyl revival," but I've seen two new record shops devoted mostly to vinyl LPs open in Providence over the past couple years, and they seem to be attracting a younger clientele, so maybe there is something to it after all.

New York Times: Vinyl Revival Article

I ran across this interesting vinyl revival article on the New York Times website:

''The records -- even on my old turntable -- sound much better, much more like live music,'' said Mr. Ciaramella, a patrolman who pounds out power chords in a rock band when he is not pounding the beat. ''With vinyl, you feel like the band's right in front of you sweating it out. And with CD's, it's like you're in a sterile scientific lab and there's no emotional connection to what you hear. And then there's the full-size album cover art.''

Mr. Ciaramella is not alone. Vinyl records are back in vogue, thanks to an odd alliance of veteran musicians, college-age alternative rockers, rap fans, dance club disk jockeys, recording engineers and audiophiles who have helped revive and strengthen a format all but given up for dead by the musical mainstream.

In the past few years, sales of new vinyl have grown as more LP's have become available. Fifty of the Top 200 albums in a recent issue of Billboard were available on vinyl. 

I thought that sounded pretty similar to a lot of the recent articles I've read about the resurgence in vinyl sales. Then I noticed the publication date on the article.... May 7, 1998. This may have been the very first "vinyl revival" article. Thirteen years later and the format is still reviving.

I also noticed that the article was penned by Michael Fremer, who has probably done as much as anyone to aid that reviving process through his staunch advocacy for LPs and high-quality vinyl playback in the pages of Stereophile, as well as on his website musicangle and elsewhere.

Vinyl Sales Growth Continues

According to Digital Music News, vinyl record sales are up 41% over the first half of 2011. This follows a reported 14% growth rate for the year 2010. I've expressed pretty deep skepticism about the sustainability of the so-called vinyl revival, so it's interesting to see vinyl sales have not yet reached any kind of plateau.

It's hard for me to know exactly where this growth is coming from.

I have a few friends who, like me, buy vinyl records. But none of us ever ditched our turntables or stopped buying vinyl records, so I doubt we are contributing to any serious growth. Also, we mostly buy used records with a smattering of new releases mixed in. And any of the stories you see about sales growth for vinyl records, of course, only relate to new LP sales. But most people I know have no idea that you can buy vinyl records of new releases in the year 2011.

Sometimes I'll talk to someone who will say something like "I'd like to get a turntable again," but they don't seem particularly serious about it. When they say it, it sounds like some vague but unobtainable ambition, like saying "One of these days I'd really like to sail around the world in a Sunfish."

So maybe it really is the young whippersnappers fueling this growth?

NPR Story - Slow And Steady: Vinyl Survives

I was working on a post on how many of the recent "vinyl revival" news stories that have been popping up over the past few years bug me, when I came across a very good story from NPR called "Slow And Steady: Vinyl Survives."  NPR gives a reality-based account of the recent increase in vinyl sales, along with a thoughtful analysis of why many people still find the format appealing in the year 2011, despite the fact that there are more convenient and cheaper options available to today's music consumer.

The NPR story contains an implicit critique of one of the things that really bothers me about so many other stories devoted to the recent growth in vinyl sales:

"In recent years some headlines have cast an increase in sales for vinyl LPs — once considered a casualty of the CD era — as something like a beacon of hope for the struggling music industry. The reality isn't all that rosy. Though vinyl sales grew by 14% in 2010, according to Nielsen SoundScan, they still counted for less than one percent of the year's total album sales."

That is a critical point that is often overlooked. Despite the "spectacular" rise in vinyl's popularity, it still accounts for less than 1% of all albums sold. Vinyl records are very much a specialist, niche, format, and likely to remain so in both the short and long term. Anyone who suggests otherwise is either dreaming or being dishonest. One year growth of 14% sounds spectacular when taken out-of-context, but there are numerous reasons why that growth is unlikely to be sustained long-term that have to do with both the physical reality of pressing records and format demographics, which the NPR piece covers quite nicely.

I highly recommend checking out this story because it avoids the cliches and hyperbole that plague so many of the other recent stories I've seen/heard/read. Rather than point out each of those stories specifically (there are a lot of them), I've created a handy parody that summarizes them instead:

Anchor: "Remember the good old days when you listened to scratchy vinyl records instead of CDs or downloads? Well those days are back!" [Cue sound effect of tonearm skidding across a record.]

Reporter: "While CD sales are down again this year and digital downloads are flat, there's one format that is experiencing amazing growth, and it represents the music industry's last, best hope: the old-fashioned vinyl record." [Again, cue the sound of tonearm skidding across a record, because you just can't use that baby enough.] "That's right, according to Soundscan, vinyl records experienced a remarkable 14% growth in sales last year." [At this point, be sure to neglect to mention that they still accounted for less than 1% of total album sales in 2010.] "And it's not just weird, aging baby boomers fueling this spectacular growth, it's weird young kids too."

[Cut to a socially maladjusted looking kid in a record store.]

Kid: "Vinyl is like cool and stuff. And it sounds way better than CD or MP3, it's, like, warm. MP3 isn't even really music. I hate MP3. And I hate the kids at my school. I spend all my money on vinyl."

[Cue clicking and popping vinyl noise sound effects.]

Reporter: "Vinyl's true believers say that the abhorrent noise that all sane people jettisoned the moment the CD hit the market is part of the 'special warmth' that makes it so appealing to them."

[Cut to a picture of a record spinning on a Crosley all-in-one record player that you can buy at Bed Bath & Beyond for $50 ($40 if you remembered your 20% off coupon) while Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water" plays in the background.]

Reporter: "Yes, in today's high-tech, hurry-up world, the losers who are falling behind are finding comfort in the nostalgic glow of noisy records."

Anchor: "Thank you Sacha. Tomorrow night, we document the extreme psychological duress of Wall Street C.E.O's who are unfairly being asked to give back their bonus money after crashing the world's economy."

Okay, I exaggerate a little. But check out the NPR story, it's actually quite good.