This is somthing I owned for quite a few years before actually being able to hear it. It’s on a mysterious format known as vinyl… and my dad’s old turntable had long since bitten the dust.
But then I was bought a USB turntable to help convert vinyl into MP3s and one bored Sunday afternoon, I decided to give it a go.
I own lots of Divine Comedy stuff – Neil is a total and utter legend and anyone who says he isn’t needs to have their head seen to. With a hammer.
Where was I… oh yes, I own lots of Divine Comedy stuff, lots on vinyl and this was the first one I chose to bring into the modern era.
There’s a few reasons for this. It’s his only picture disc, it has songs that you can’t find anywhere else and I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s heard them in a good long while.
On my first listen, which was after recording it from the vinyl because the software won’t record and play at the same time not even if I ask it nicely and tick the box that says it will, it was like hearing a whole new world for me.
You must understand that there’s little Divine Comedy that I haven’t heard and to have something come at you for the first time when it was recorded so long ago and when Neil has been through different albums with different styles, is wonderful. There is no other word for it.
I only wish that more people in the world could hear this music.
OK, so it’s not the best quality recording in the world, it’s a little crackly – and I do understand that some people rant and rave about the ‘warmth’ of music on vinyl (something I can never relate to because I grew up surrounded by cassettes, CDs and now MP3s, but that’s another argument entirely) – but I’m bothered about the crackles, about the sound not being perfect. For me, hearing these tracks for the first time is like discovering a new book from the Bible. To me it’s that significant.
And I know that’s a really strange analogy for some of you reading… but I am kind of obsessed.
