The Sounds

"So how many records did you buy last night?" Elizabeth asked me.

"Six."

She gave a look—a sort of grimace—that expressed sympathy for my bank account. I nodded.

"What did you get?"

"I've had this total crush on a girl called Santogold.

"Her music is this dub, hip-hop, indie-rock fusion, and it's really fucking great. The store had her full-length, but only on CD. I almost bought it, but I held back because I know I'm eventually going to buy the vinyl. So, instead, I just bought the LP single. It was six bucks."

"A 45?"

"Nah, it's a 12" single."

"What else?"

"I ended up buying an album I already own on CD—Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows. It's really great, so I just had to have it on vinyl, too." I said this with a shrug, as though I had to explain.

Elizabeth smiled.

"And I love it," I continued. "The vinyl. It's big and it's heavy and it smells good..."

Elizabeth laughed.

"I also bought Iron & Wine's Our Endless Numbered Days," which was a "Recording of the Month" a few years back. Sam Beam's music is just beautiful. I've always loved the album, but I've actually never owned it. I gave it to a girl once, and I don't think she really appreciated it, but now it's mine. I also picked up The Black Light by a band called Calexico. I'd never heard it, but it's one of John DeVore's favorites. And I got Easy Tiger by Ryan Adams, an album that I heard at the last CES. Steve Silberman played it for me in Ayre's suite, and I haven't been able to shake it out of my mind; the sun going down and flooding the room as the music played. It's on orange vinyl, too. And the last one was Amy Winehouse's Back to Black. I had been resisting it for a long time, but that damn "Rehab" song is just so catchy, so I just said fuck it."

"Did it take you a long time to pick all of those out?"

"Kinda. I guess it took a couple of hours, but I really like browsing through all of the titles. I almost like the objects themselves as much as I like what they do. You know?"

"Oh, yeah. I remember when CDs came out, looking at them and just thinking they were so insubstantial—such a poor replacement—like, What is this?"

"I had never really understood that point of view until now."

"I guess because you're coming at it from reverse."

"Yeah. Now, I look at all the rows and rows of compact discs, and I just can't help from thinking, What a waste of space."

"Vinyl takes up even more space."

"Yeah, but it's different. What I mean is that the stores dedicate so much more space to them. It doesn't seem worth it."

"But that's changing."

"Yeah, it's really exciting for me to see all the new vinyl in the stores. Like we're on the verge of something important."

"Did you listen to everything you bought last night?"

"Most of it. And I was so tired, but I just couldn't stop listening. The sounds were so gorgeous. Especially with the Iron & Wine album. I just sat there listening, wondering what made it so special. Thinking about the sounds. Why do we need these sounds? Why do we love them? They're only sounds. They don't feed us or anything. They don't provide any nourishment. What is it about them?"

"Have you written about this yet?"

"Nah."

"It sounds like it's the beginning of a blog entry."

"Yeah, I mean, I thought about that, too. But it's like I don't have anything else to say about it. I mean, um... sounds! They're frigging great. They're so yummy."

"Yeah, maybe you should work on that for a bit."

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