Reverse alphabetical order, no descriptions:
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
John Vanderslice - Emerald City
*Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Sigur Ros - Hvarf - Heim
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
*Sharon Jones & the Dapkings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
The Sea & Cake - Everybody
Rogue Wave - Asleep at Heaven's Gate
*Radiohead - In Rainbows
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
New Pornographers - Challengers
The National - Boxer
MGMT - Ornacular Spectacular
*LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Kevin Drew - Spirit If...
*Iron and Wine - The Shephard's Dog
Field Music - Tones of Town
*Feist - The Reminder
Battles - Mirrored
*Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
The Album Leaf - Enchanted Hill
*Air - Pocket Symphony
*Denotes extreme awesomeness
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Welcome back, Vinyl.
In the past, I've been a pretty big naysayer when it comes to the whole vinyl arguement. I was pretty sure that the human ear cannot distinguish between a digital CD, well-ripped mp3, or vinyl source. So the fact that at this moment "December 2007 Adam" is sitting here listening to an LCD Soundsystem album on a vinyl setup in his home would probably surprise and anger "January 2007 Adam." I've read maybe a couple technically oriented articles about the advantages of the medium, but so far I haven't come across any subjective experiences of listening to vinyl "again for the first time."
That's what I'm hoping to offer here. My mind-change started when I was at a house party and the host was playing the music not from an ipod or cd changer, but from vinyl. As the night started, a couple bold attendees started shuffling through the LP collection, doing a bit of dj'ing while the host was occupied elsewhere. I joined in somewhere in the middle of the night, throwing on J. Geils Band and Wang Chung, suddenly realizing what the retro-thing was about. People had ipods and iphones, there was even a cover band playing downstairs, and the coolest shit at the party was obviously that fucking record player.
That got me enthused. Visiting with some friends across the state, I was surprised to find they had joined in without my permission. I nabbed my Dad's old record player the very next time I saw him. After taking my good time getting the need phono pre-amp, and of course some source material, I am at the time of writing listening to vinyl for the first time since 9th grade, when I discovered Led Zeppelin.
This is the same exact player, by the way, which is the crappiest part of the system. There is a bit too much hiss in the quiet parts of the record (LCD Soundsystem's 45:33), and I couldn't walk within 6 feet of the table on which it rests until I taped a nickel to the tone arm. I think that situation can be improved by a player upgrade. If you've heard 45:33, you'll be familiar with the fact that the first half of the album is pretty minimalist beat-pop. Since it wasn't testing the system, I didn't perceive a benefit, and points were subtracted for hiss and skipping. Somewhere into side C however, the instrumentation fills out and there is a single trombone belting out some "abstract randomness." Having played the t-bone for 6 years in school, I'm hyper sensitive to it's nuances. I'd forgotten about the detailed vibration sound of the player's mouthpiece when lower notes are played. I hear that when I listen now. Individual instruments seem more discrete, and there is more "space" in the recording.
The problem with such a qualitative judgement is that I want this to be a better sounding setup. I doubted that I'd be objective. But as the score gets pretty lush on side D I started thinking that I'm hearing some presence not felt from my high-bitrate-ripped mp3's played through a home theatre pc. The sound definitely fills the room and carries into the rest of the house in a much more balanced manner. Most importantly, I started to realize that my soundsystem is capable of more than what it's been asked. If you know about music production, you'll understand when I say that this sounds as though the source material is one generation younger than cds.
The sound quality is not the only advantage to vinyl. There's something about seeing that big artwork, physically pulling the music out of the sleeve, and carefully placing it on the wheel. I don't want to romance this too much, but it's not simply the nostalgia of throwing on Led Zepplin II and hearing the first few guitar chords of Whole Lotta Love. There's a hassle involved here, and one that makes me want to listen more closely to the music. It's difficult for an album to not be the focus of my attention when played this way.
Similar to the way portable mp3 players change the way people incorporate music in their lives, vinyl gives me a new experience despite the fact that I've listened to an album several times from a different source. It's a new experience gained by having a different behavior associated with listening to music. Simply put, listening to music is about more than hearing notes, it's the media collecting, artwork viewing, and the many other non-music things associated with a record. Vinyl has its own unique set of associations, and that's what January 2007 Adam did not anticipate.
93 arbitrary-and-meaningless-Adam-Points.
That's what I'm hoping to offer here. My mind-change started when I was at a house party and the host was playing the music not from an ipod or cd changer, but from vinyl. As the night started, a couple bold attendees started shuffling through the LP collection, doing a bit of dj'ing while the host was occupied elsewhere. I joined in somewhere in the middle of the night, throwing on J. Geils Band and Wang Chung, suddenly realizing what the retro-thing was about. People had ipods and iphones, there was even a cover band playing downstairs, and the coolest shit at the party was obviously that fucking record player.
That got me enthused. Visiting with some friends across the state, I was surprised to find they had joined in without my permission. I nabbed my Dad's old record player the very next time I saw him. After taking my good time getting the need phono pre-amp, and of course some source material, I am at the time of writing listening to vinyl for the first time since 9th grade, when I discovered Led Zeppelin.
This is the same exact player, by the way, which is the crappiest part of the system. There is a bit too much hiss in the quiet parts of the record (LCD Soundsystem's 45:33), and I couldn't walk within 6 feet of the table on which it rests until I taped a nickel to the tone arm. I think that situation can be improved by a player upgrade. If you've heard 45:33, you'll be familiar with the fact that the first half of the album is pretty minimalist beat-pop. Since it wasn't testing the system, I didn't perceive a benefit, and points were subtracted for hiss and skipping. Somewhere into side C however, the instrumentation fills out and there is a single trombone belting out some "abstract randomness." Having played the t-bone for 6 years in school, I'm hyper sensitive to it's nuances. I'd forgotten about the detailed vibration sound of the player's mouthpiece when lower notes are played. I hear that when I listen now. Individual instruments seem more discrete, and there is more "space" in the recording.
The problem with such a qualitative judgement is that I want this to be a better sounding setup. I doubted that I'd be objective. But as the score gets pretty lush on side D I started thinking that I'm hearing some presence not felt from my high-bitrate-ripped mp3's played through a home theatre pc. The sound definitely fills the room and carries into the rest of the house in a much more balanced manner. Most importantly, I started to realize that my soundsystem is capable of more than what it's been asked. If you know about music production, you'll understand when I say that this sounds as though the source material is one generation younger than cds.
The sound quality is not the only advantage to vinyl. There's something about seeing that big artwork, physically pulling the music out of the sleeve, and carefully placing it on the wheel. I don't want to romance this too much, but it's not simply the nostalgia of throwing on Led Zepplin II and hearing the first few guitar chords of Whole Lotta Love. There's a hassle involved here, and one that makes me want to listen more closely to the music. It's difficult for an album to not be the focus of my attention when played this way.
Similar to the way portable mp3 players change the way people incorporate music in their lives, vinyl gives me a new experience despite the fact that I've listened to an album several times from a different source. It's a new experience gained by having a different behavior associated with listening to music. Simply put, listening to music is about more than hearing notes, it's the media collecting, artwork viewing, and the many other non-music things associated with a record. Vinyl has its own unique set of associations, and that's what January 2007 Adam did not anticipate.
93 arbitrary-and-meaningless-Adam-Points.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Falesco Vitiano 2005
Bought because Robert Parker gave this $11 bottle 90pts and the cab-merlot-sangiovese mix sounded interesting, but maybe I'm missing something. The nose is interesting; I get vanilla, rasberry, and aerosol hairspray. Decent fruit, medium dryness, but tastes more like a ho-hum merlot than anything. Not bad, but not 90pts. Glad I tried it.
82 arbitrary-and-meaningless-Adam-Points.
82 arbitrary-and-meaningless-Adam-Points.
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