I presently don’t possess a turntable but this has not affected my pursuit of vinyl and I still track it down with the fervour of a teenager. And indeed maybe part of the fixation is a sort of teenage hangover. Long after the posters have fallen off the wall and the tee-shirts have outlived even their retro vintage glam, the records live on, still providing you with all the pleasure and associated memories. Mind you, at the same time, I’m sure that there’s a box of records in most attics whose contents no one will ever own up to, but is still gone through on occasion, with all doors locked, for a private giggle.
But of course it was never just the vinyl, the record sleeve is also held in high esteem and sometimes the artwork is loved just as much as the music. A glance at certain sleeves can transport us to other times and places just as readily as the music can. In fact purchases, sometimes admittedly unwisely, can indeed be made on the strength of the artwork alone.
Is this to go? Be thrown on the scrap heap? Be sacrificed in the name of progress? Be cast aside, to make way for a more banal future? Ok, it’s not exactly the end of civilization as we know it but I for one shall mourn its passing, if passing is what’s to happen.
Dublin has a healthy number of specialist independent music stores dealing to a large amount of music crazies. In them you will find everything from the most obscure jazz oddities to whatever the press is mooting as the next big whatever this week, there is enough here to keep us all happily rummaging.
