That's good to hear.
I was also recently shocked to walk into my local music store and found an entire row dedicated to Vinyl. A definite shock to my system and gave me somewhat a nostalgic feeling.
I went into a CD/DVD store yesterday which has had vinyl LPs for a little over a year, and noticed that their still relatively small vinyl LP area had nearly doubled in size.
They had not only the 50th anniversary edition of
Kind of Blue, but also 5-10 of the 45rpm single-sided releases, plenty of jazz and oldies titles, and a whole "audiophile" section with some excellent titles, such as Jennifer Warne's
Old Blue Raincoat.
The newer stuff (hip-hop/rap, techno/trance, Madonna, etc...) was a much smaller section. Nice to see, since most of the new LP releases they started with a year ago were newer releases for the "rave" type DJs.
I was searching through the albums, and their seems to be newer bands releasing their latest albums on Vinyl. Bands such as NIN, Beastie Boys, Metallica etc. Among the new Metallica I found re-issued vinyl for Kill 'em All, Master of Puppets, Justice...I was shocked.
Metallica was formed in 1981. I wouldn't exactly call them new, although they have been undergoing something of a resurgence in recent years.
Although re-issues are great, I would prefer the original issue, but still...it is cool to see Vinyl making a recent appearance, I am friggin SICK of digital audio. It has no substance to it. It is a bit tough to explain, although i'm sure many here can relate, but original released vinyl such as a 1969 Zep, or a '63 Mathis has something more to it.
Kids are spoiled these days, i could get deeper into that subject, but i'll save you 3 pages of useless material. (as you can see, i'm a bit bitter)
With you on both counts here. I'm badly torn between wanting to support the resurgence of vinyl by buying more of the re-releases, and at the same time wanting to stick to original releases, because 90 percent of the time I've been able to A/B compare them, the originals sound better, and too many of the new ones are flawed in some way. Poorer sound is my biggest complaint, although things like warping and off-center holes and bumps in the vinyl are also all-too-common.
I've taken to searching for comments online before buying any new/re-release, and if I think there is a good chance to get an original pressing, I'll often just wait until I find a good one. I'll buy a few of the new ones, but try to stick to ones that people say are excellent, or ones I'm skeptical about finding in a good-condition original.
I have a hard time trusting re-issues. The new Quadrophenia has been remixed in some parts, not just remastered (George Lucas anyone?). And since everything now is done with computers, I can't imagine every re-release/remaster hasn't been run through a digital medium at some point in the process. Sort of defeats the purpose of vinyl imo.
Agreed. I would generally prefer all-analog (AAA) releases, of course still hoping that the mastering/mixing is done well.
NOT all of the re-releases which have some digital component of production have "digital sound", though, by any means. A few of the audiophile 45rpm LP releases have some stage of digital processing, but still sound fine, at least to my ears.
In the hands of a sensitive and talented person, using the best equipment available, remastering digitally doesn't have to be the kiss of death. Unfortunately, all too often it is, and if I want digital sound, I'll just buy the CD!
As for remixing, I've heard only a handful of remixes in my entire life that I thought were as good as, or better than, the originals. Remixing is almost overwhelmingly done in the hip-hop/rap genre, too, which isn't 'my thing'. When in doubt, and especially if I don't know better, I avoid anything with the word "remix" on it. I'll consider making exceptions to this when the original artist is handling the remixing.
My latest approach to dealing with all these issues is to investigate the background and other releases of anyone named on an LP as a recording engineer. Some people know how to do things 'right' and musically; others seem to prefer to "overwork things" with too much compression, loudness, etc...
Buy the former, avoid the latter, and you at least reduce the odds of being disappointed.
