The Turnaround

There are endless debates, most of which are pointless that just go around and around in circles, about which physical music format is the best. One guy I know is so hard core that he won’t buy or listen to music unless it’s pressed on vinyl. He is absolutely ridiculous and is the paragon of those who espouse the widely held view that vinyl is superior for many reasons: that vinyl sounds warmer and deeper than CDs or MP3s, the LP’s large dimensions make the cover art more striking, and sometimes there’s a surprise poster that’s hiding in there. Sure, the best sounding album I’ve ever heard is a pristine OG Blue Note mono deep groove LP, with the 47 West 63^rd Street address on the label (serious jazz heads know what I’m talking about). But a universally unflinching viewpoint—no matter the reason—that vinyl is the best format, is just silly and very arguably wrong. From a purely listening standpoint, the only thing that matters is what format lends itself to the best listening experience—not the size of the cover art, not the perception of how an entire physical format of media sounds, not the extra bells and whistles that come with deluxe packaging. Nothing having to do with the particular object. None of that.

From a purely listening experience, there is only one best physical music format: the compact disc. Here’s why:

• Consistency: each CD in a batch of a new run is going to sound exactly the same as any other. I never open a new CD crossing my fingers that there isn’t something wrong with it. Unless you buy it from some dude on the corner asking everybody who walks by “hey, you like hip hop?,” that new CD is going to be worry free. And even then, that guy’s DIY mixtape is probably going to sound good, even if he can’t rap.
• Fidelity: Unless they’re physically thrashed and won’t play, CDs don’t get surface noise from minor scuffs and scratches like records do, even on a shitty system. And they’re gonna keep on sounding good play after play after play. Theoretically, CDs can oxidize over time and either become unplayable or suffer a huge loss in fidelity. Out of the thousands of CDs I’ve owned in my life, none has ever oxidized, even the ones I currently own that were pressed in the late 80s.
• CDs don’t melt: Seriously. I’ve unthinkingly and mistakenly ordered LPs during summer heat waves only to have them arrive on my door extremely warped after spending days in the back of a 150 degree truck. So warped the tone arm goes up and down like a rollercoaster. I even have one LP where the warp is so extreme it bucks the needle right off the album and into the air before bouncing back down on the record. A CD, even after being left roasting in your car, can be enjoyably listened to in all conditions.
• Longevity: ever tried playing a 20+ year old cassette? If your deck doesn’t immediately eat it, the chances are that the tape has degraded so bad over time that it sounds like it was recorded underwater. Admittedly, that’s a cool sound effect, but not an ideal way to listen to your favorite Pearl Jam tapes. But a CD copy of Ten from 1991, yeah, “Alive” and “Jeremy” and “Even Flow” are still gonna be as epic as they ever were.
• Finally, CDs are lazy-person friendly: I love my numerous double-LP gatefold editions. The big 12”x12” art pops, and if the inside spread isn’t filled with liner notes, the art gets even more stunning when you open up the gatefold. (And that goes for any gatefold, single or double LP. My Ohio Players records are basically centerfolds. Fire, Honey, Contradiction—oh my). Because the music on 2 LP albums are spread out onto four sides, there’s less music per side than if it was just pressed onto one LP, meaning the grooves are spaced farther apart which theoretically allows for better sound quality, or so I’ve been told. Despite all those qualities, there are times when I want to listen to a music I just want to put the record on and chill. I don’t want to have to get up from the couch every 10-12 minutes to flip or change the record, especially if I’m under a blanket and a cat is on top of me. Ever try and listen to a relatively brief instrumental hip hop record spread across 2 LPs? Total drag. I’m looking at you J Dilla’s Donuts. Brilliant album. Tragic on vinyl. Related note: people who have the patience to deal with 45s/7” and 78s are better humans than I.

Of course, there’s an argument to be made that the CD is dead, some of which I must admit renders my entire argument null. Neither my newish car or newish computers came with CD players or disc drives. There are only two rooms in my house with CD players where I can listen to my CDs. It’s been a long time since I’ve even seen a Discman, so forget about leaving the house. None of this is ideal. So I can’t believe I’m saying this, but if you are under the age of 40, or don’t have a CD player, or don’t want to fill up your living space with stuff, etc, etc, etc, then, and this hurts me to the core to say, digital is it—ideally playing a file off your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever device you’ve got. But if you’re going to do that, at least do yourself a favor and pass over mp3s in favor of lossless formats like wav or flac. At least you’ll be hearing all the music, and you can hear it anywhere and anyhow you want to. Just make sure you back that up. I’m not trusting my Bandcamp collection will always be accessible online. And if the only place you can find the music is Spotify, well, do that.

That being said, if you’re in a pinch, there is an acceptable alternative to the CD or digital: anything you’ve got will do. About ten years ago I once came across a copy of jazz harpist and keyboardist Alice Coltrane’s album Huntington Ashram Monastery in an antique mall. For cheap, probably less than ten dollars. Like many albums of its age, it had surface noise and static and the expected imperfections. I loved the album, but the noise was so bad it competed with the album, and in some places, outcompeted the album, which kind of ruined it for me, so I traded it in. I thought that “oh, I’ll just find a better condition copy down the road, or I’ll find it on CD somewhere. No big deal.” Wrong wrong wrong. I haven’t seen a copy of it for sale in the wild since and I’m not willing to pay the premium on eBay or Discogs. And as a friend texted me while we were discussing Huntington Ashram Monastery, Alice Coltrane is now a “CD artist,” in that the prices of her LPs are unreachable for most people. Although I’m not super enthusiastic about sending Amazon money if I don’t have to, I recently bought a CD reissue of Huntington Ashram Monastery. It sounds divine.

It’s taken me years and years to learn that having an album that I want to listen to is better than not having that album, even if the sound fidelity isn’t ideal. So if you’ve got something on cassette that still plays. Do it. In fact I’m going to go put my cassette of Boyz II Men’s Cooleyhighharmony (which I bought when it first came out and for some reason still have) on my deck right now and cross my fingers it’s not all warbly. Do you drive a 1976 Buick Riviera and all it’s got is AM radio and an 8 track player? Go to the thrift shop and fill up your glovebox with some Iron Butterfly and Creedence. Bottom line: listening is better than not. But if you’ve got a choice, give a CD a spin.