Some songs sound better on vinyl…
Even in the age of hi-res audio and Cd-quality streaming, you can't beat the sound of 12 inches of plastic. Here's a few of our favourites...
Andrew Murphy, staff writer Lubomyr Melnyk Pockets of Light (Erased Tapes, 2013)
This record, and in honesty each and every one of Lubomyr Melnyk’s works, proves vinyl is capable of a sensory experience beyond that only of sound. This was the first time Melnyk had composed with other ambient musicians, having for decades pioneered continuous music as a solo pianist – he was 64 years old. Produced and recorded by Peter Broderick in Berlin, with input from Nils Frahm and Martyn Heyne, the album Corollaries opens with Pockets of Light, a breathtaking 19-minute voyage through a remarkable ambient landscape.
Record label Erased Tapes makes all its releases available as lossless downloads, so you don't need to own a physical copy to avoid sonic compression, but the benefit of vinyl here is at least two-fold. There’s the implication that the effort you’ve made to place a record upon the platter prepares you for deep listening, which this work undoubtedly deserves, but more specifically there’s an almost hypnotic relationship between continuous music and watching your record spin indefinitely that cannot be replicated.
Mogwai Remurdered (Rock Action, 2014)
Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite said that, since filling in the pieces live, this record now sounds texturally sparse. That isn’t an indictment of the original arrangements – in fact, that sparseness draws focus to its fewer lines. In particular, there is a low-end drone propping up
Remurdered that I’ve really heard, or felt, only twice: with the band playing it live and on vinyl through a capable pair of floorstanders.
Playing it through your laptop – even with a great pair of headphones and DAC – just doesn’t dig deep enough. Moreover, there’s a wide use of analogue synthesizers on the Rave Tapes album for which, philosophically at least, an analogue source just feels right.
Alexis Taylor Crying In The Chapel (Moshi Moshi, 2016)
When Alexis Taylor released the Piano album last year, he described it as a kind of secular gospel recording. These solo piano arrangements, of his own songs and those written by others but personal to him, do have a hymnal quality and a temperament that feels as if it ought to be listened to on vinyl.
Fly forward a few months, however, and Taylor offered up further reason to play Piano on vinyl when he released companion album
Listen With(out) Piano. Whereas the original record strips songs to their barest elements,
Listen With(out)… brings together an assembly of Taylor’s favourite musicians to record an album that can be played concurrently with
Piano, broadening arrangements with vocal harmony and wider, though still minimalist, instrumentation. This particular cover of Elvis Presley’s Crying
In The Chapel spotlights the concept’s riches with modulated harmonies married to the original piano track, without foregoing its gospel-like character. You can hear all the blended versions on Spotify, but there’s beauty in playing the two albums with two decks. The idea that you’d likely need to borrow a mate’s turntable to do so also gives the record a communal edge that resonates with a churchlike atmosphere.
Simon Lucas, digital editor Neil Young Tonight’s the Night (Reprise, 1975)
Recorded ‘as live’ in the studio, and featuring some scandalously sloppy performances, Tonight’s the Night is one of the best recordings I’ve heard in terms of letting vinyl, as a format, showcase its qualities. The size and shape of the room the musicians are in is explicit. The snares beneath the skin of the snare-drum rattle and resonate in response to bass guitar notes in a way that’s diluted on CD or via a streaming service, and the bass guitar itself is loaded with detailed information. On vinyl, the bass notes seem a product of strings and fingers and plectrum, while on other formats they simply sound like a bass guitar.
On vinyl, there’s a fullness to what is otherwise a fairly sparse-sounding recording, and a more instinctive sense of timing and interaction between the musicians than any alternative format can deliver.
The Smiths Bigmouth Strikes Again (Rough Trade, 1986)
Despite being released in a year when CD was riding roughshod over the popularity of vinyl, Bigmouth Strikes
Again is even more vividly alive when delivered by the ancient format. Many of the things that made The Smiths a unique proposition are in play here, but it’s Johnny Marr’s absolute mastery of the guitar that benefits most from vinyl’s formidable strengths. His deftness, his lightness of touch and his desire to serve the song are all elevated; the organic crunch of acoustic rhythm guitar contrasts beautifully with fluid electric picking. And the sense of a band bearing down as a single entity during a weightless few bars in the middle of the track is given greater space, greater urgency and greater dynamic impetus than on CD, let alone than via Spotify. Blackalicious
If I May (Mo’ Wax, 1999)
Blackalicious seemed out of step with turn-ofthe-century hip-hop, but their debut album Nia demonstrated that positivity and consciousness were no impediments to producing as chunkily head-nodding a recording as any nominal competitor. On vinyl, If I May is easily identifiable as a painstakingly assembled aural collage, the different elements and sources effortlessly identified.
The pieces fit together perfectly, and the droning, elongated low frequencies have greater substance and are more oppressive when listening via vinyl – and that’s without impacting on the shining guitar phrases or vocals in the midrange. In part, hip-hop and DJ culture kept vinyl alive throughout its darkest days – sometimes it’s easy to hear why.
Jonathan Evans, editor Lou Reed Andy’s Chest (RCA, 1972)
The second track on Reed’s glam-rock influenced Transformer (produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, it could be nothing else) meanders in slowly with Reed’s vocal and a slowly wandering bassline. Things soon kick off with the full band, Bowie and Ronson on backing vocals and some frankly bizarre lyrics. Perfect. And made more perfect when played on a record player. That evocative intro in particular benefits from the warmth of vinyl, but the dynamism of the track lends itself to the fine old format as well. And, talking of perfection, it makes a fitting prelude to the next track on the album, the sadly now overplayed – but still sublime – Perfect Day.
Fleetwood Mac Second Hand News (Warner Bros, 1977)
One of the seminal albums of the 1970s kicks off with Second Hand News. And in doing so it highlights the joy – the importance – of playing albums and songs on vinyl. Today, it’s all too easy to flit from track to track, genre to genre, decade to decade with only the slightest prod of a finger and without a second thought. Putting an album on a turntable, though, requires at least a modicum of commitment. And the opening few bars of Second Hand
News mean more than just that track. The jaunty intro also brings with it the certain knowledge of tracks to come – and the order in which they’re coming. The popularity of events such as Record Store Day means that today’s generation of music fans, who have been raised on the MP3, are more likely than they have been for some time to start learning for themselves the particular joys of making such an investment in their time.
Frank Sinatra Makin’ Whoopee (Capitol, 1956)
It was a toss-up between this and Mood Indigo from another Sinatra/nelson Riddle masterpiece, In The Wee Small Hours. I must have been in a good mood…
In fairness, you could pretty much take your pick of tracks from either of those wonderful collections – Nelson Riddle’s musical arrangements are simply genius, and Sinatra is on peak mid-season form, with hypnotic phrasing and nonchalant ease with a lyric.
Makin’ Whoopee appeals particularly though, as a beautiful synergy between two musicians at the top of their game. And it’s a fun, light, easy-going concoction that’s perfect for an early autumn evening. Big band at its best.
Joe Cox, brand development editor
Aphex Twin We Are The Music Makers (Apollo, 1992)
Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is a typically sought-after Aphex Twin release, the added ‘bonus’ of some inconsistent pressings adding to the legend. I own a not-very-good copy – one side of the double-lp seems a bit rough around the edges – and yet I find myself enjoying the vinyl release more than the digital.
The hazy sound palette, deep, sometimes fuzzy, bass and the intricate percussion all benefit from a little warmth, while the dreamy nature of the album means this is one I’d rather play in full on vinyl. Beauty in the imperfection, though myriad Discogs comments will point you in the direction of the ‘best’ vinyl release, should you want a pristine version…
Burial U Hurt Me (Hyperdub, 2006)
Everything about this record means you really ought to hear it on vinyl. Born out of the brooding, underground sounds of dubstep and UK garage – two genres built on the dubplate culture of reggae and dancehall – Burial makes a melancholy, ambient-meets-dub record that (literally) pops and crackles with atmosphere.
With vinyl noise used liberally throughout to build moody soundscapes, actually playing it on a heavyweight vinyl pressing makes perfect sense. The chopped-up vocals sound full of emotion, the video-game samples add dynamics and tension, and the drums flow with a skittish rhythm. And, of course, you can’t beat the sound of a hoover bass line on vinyl.
Kalani Bob and Remegel Deep Breath (Groove Yard, 1995)
I would be doing my teenage self a disservice if I didn’t include one of my first vinyl purchases. My love affair with vinyl began as a superstar DJ, playing to crowds of two, sometimes three, friends in my bedroom, and it was UK garage records that took up much of my pocket money.
Mixing classic US house piano keys with bumpy basslines and pitched-up vocals, Deep
Breath is the stand-out tune and an archetypal mid-’90s club track. And the main reason this is best owned on vinyl? It wasn’t available in any other format.