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Buying Music in 2010: Mp3s (Digital Downloads), CDs, and LPs (Vinyl Records)

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello everyone, I’m back with another article, as I still don’t have my HD camera (that’s what happens when you order internationally) and I’m still inundated with work here at FMP Studios.  The Traveling Acai Berries were hoping to get a two-song recording session in, but we’d have to wait and see.  Those would still be in standard definition.

Anyway, onto tonight’s article:

Today at lunch, I told my colleagues at work (who are all much older than me) that I’m loving using my turntable.  A turntable, for those of you who either don’t know or have forgotten, is a record player.  And a record player is a machine that plays 12″ vinyl discs with grooves on them, producing sound.

Everyone at the table looked at me like I had four heads.  I heard, “He isn’t 25 years old- take off the mask, Scooby and reveal the real killer old man.”  But, I told them how much fun it was- having these great collector’s items and being able to just sit back and listen to some great music of yesteryear.

Then, you should’ve seen their faces when I told them I had bought new albums this year on vinyl.  They all couldn’t believe vinyl record albums (or long-players, LP) were making a small comeback.  Most of them had gotten rid of their collections or even their turntables.  What a shame!  I know they take up room, but I’m really loving them.  I thought I would write tonight about the options of purchasing and listening to music in 2009 that led me to my old-fashioned choice for music.

Let me start off by saying that, no, I do not believe that they are somehow superior in sound quality.  For years, it was all I could do to reduce as much hiss as possible from my own music recordings and I love the sound of clean, digital recordings.  I even love when companies remaster albums and take away all the hiss, like they did with Elvis’ #1’s album from a few years ago.  Listening to the remastered, cleaned-up version of “Heartbreak Hotel”, you feel like you’re in the room with Elvis.  And that’s a place I want to be. 🙂

So, albums are all but dead now.  I am in the vast minority of people that purchase full albums rather than individual singles.  And, that cross-section gets even smaller because I’m also the type of person that purchases physical albums rather than digital downloads.  You see, I’m a person that wants something for his money.  And purchasing an album online for ten dollars (from iTunes or wherever else you may buy them) just doesn’t seem right to me- you get a FILE?  No jewel case?  No CD?  Nothing you can put in your collection?  Let me tell you something- my father’s vast CD collection is a heck of a lot more impressive than the 10,000 digital songs I currently have on my iPod.

And with physical albums, you actually own something.  I can’t feel ownership of a file on my computer.  Call me old-fashioned, but I want something I can hold, something I can look at in the future without wondering if it’s compatible with my operating system.

So, there are three main ways you can purchase music in 2009, now that cassette tapes, DVD audio, and Super Audio CDs have bitten the dust.  There are digital downloads (mp3’s, usually), CD’s, and new vinyl albums.  Here are some of the benefits and drawbacks of each:

Digital Downloads: Well, the obvious reasons are- they don’t take up any space!  Most people don’t want to search through hundreds of CDs to find the song they want, and I don’t blame them.  These things are portable and even I have fallen in love with my iPod portable music player.  But, for my money, I purchase the physical album on CD or LP and then put it into my iTunes for conversion into mp3 or AAC format.  Then, I have a portable copy to take with me, but I also have the physical copy for both my collection and in case something goes wrong with the file.  Plus, they haven’t perfected sound quality of these compressed digital files.  Sure, mp3s don’t sound bad, but have you ever listened to a song in mp3 and then listened to the CD version right afterward?  You’ll really hear the difference.  And, they’re coming out with new, higher quality codecs all the time.  What does that mean?  It means that every time they come out with a better-sounding way of presenting your music, you’ll have to either convert your CD collection again or purchase the songs again in a higher quality.  I like to do the job one time and that’s it, so no thanks.

CD’s (Compact Disc): The best part about CDs is the sound quality.  They are essentially uncompressed and you simply cannot get audibly better sound quality without moving up to surround-sound audio.  CD’s have been our main medium for twenty years now and there’s a good reason.  They scratch, but not too easily.  They take up space, but about a quarter as much as an old vinyl LP.  And they’re really cheap to both produce and to purchase.  Stores often offer CDs for $9.99 when they come out and still make a healthy profit.  I really have nothing against CDs- they seem to be very archival and I feel great about my collection.  There are drawbacks, though- they can skip while playing them if you’re on a bumpy road in the car, they can have digital “artifacts” from not being produced properly, and they’re just a bit too small to reproduce a beautiful album cover with the same effect on a vinyl LP.  Plus, they’re portable…if you’re carrying one at a time…  You can’t put a CD in your pocket or even dream about carrying 10,000 songs with you at all times.  Plus, CD changers are bulky and outdated.

Vinyl Record Albums (LP): “Everything old is new again.”  Again, I’m a collector.  I really don’t buy too much new music anymore, as my back-catalog collection is essentially complete.  So, when my favorite artists come out with a new album, it’s not a big deal to purchase a vinyl copy.  Buying four albums a year won’t take up much space and I’ll be able to see those great album covers and read liner notes, etc.  Plus, the actual vinyl record albums themselves are a sight to behold.  And there’s something strangely serene about playing one- putting the needle on the record and watching it spin while you listen.  It just calms you down.  Plus, I get a nostalgic feeling when listening to records- like I was alive then.  You’d even catch me listening to stuff I normally wouldn’t, like “Sinatra at the Sands”, that I listened to a couple days ago.  It just felt right.  Of course, records went obsolete for a reason.  In fact, most people that used them long ago really don’t miss them that much.  They complain about the dust, the needle cartridges, the scratches, and how easy it was to make them skip.  Plus, they take up a ton of room when you have a bunch.  So, they’re a nice novelty to me right now.  And, most new albums out on vinyl come with either a digital download code or a copy on CD so you can still have the clean version of the album and keep the vinyl as a collector’s item.

There’s only one recording medium that’s dead now that everyone agrees was a good idea to kill: the 8-track player.  I never had one of these and don’t plan to.

I hope you enjoyed this article and hope that you’ll contribute to the conversation- how do you prefer to buy and listen to your music?  Are you considering the switch to vinyl again?  Do you think they actually sound better?  We’d love to hear from you!

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Video Blog: How Songwriter Jim Fusco Records A Song in His Home Studio

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By Jim Fusco:

Originally done in four parts, this remastered video (originally recorded in 2007 and remastered in 2020) is about the triumphs and pitfalls of recording a song in my home studio. You’ll see techniques, advice, and most of all, a bunch of bad luck. The song I’m recording is called “Go Back To Him,” written by Jim Fusco and Alberto Distefano.  The song was featured on my album “Halfway There”, available at http://jimfusco.com and on iTunes!  Make sure to stick around for the end of the video and check out the music video for “Go Back To Him”, complete with remastered stereo audio for the first time!  For those who saw the original video, you’ll recall how dark the video looked, as the overhead lighting in my home studio at the time was not conducive to great video quality.  Thankfully, through the magic of Final Cut Pro X, I’m able to breathe new life into this documentary, which captures what it was like to record a song at 4am (which was easily done at 23 years of age…).

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Brian Wilson’s “Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin” (2010) – The Weekend Review

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By Chris Moore:

RATING:  3.5 / 5 stars

For songwriters with strong, distinct voices, albums populated by covers are typically stopovers between other, more serious efforts.  For Wilson, it appears that projects such as this are where he looks these days to keep himself occupied while he waits for inspiration to strike.

Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin delivers just about what you’d expect from the former Beach Boy: lush harmonies laid over a bed of smart, tight pop music, albeit the pop music of a bygone era.

Perhaps the slogan for this release should have been, “Brian Wilson updates the music of the Gershwin brothers… to the sixties!”

The greatest criticism I can lob at Reimagines is its apparent contentment to revisit the established.  Wilson was given access to fragments of songs written but never finished by Gershwin that numbered in the triple digits, and yet there are only two new compositions — “The Like in I Love You” and “Nothing But Love” — which provide the bookends for the full-length tracks.

Simply put, this is what prevents Reimagines from reaching the same creative heights as Mermaid Avenue (the original, and Vol. II not so much), a similar project conducted by Wilco and Billy Bragg.  The key difference there, of course, was that they dipped exclusively into unfinished lyrics and wrote the music for them.  The results on Mermaid Avenue should be attributed just as much to Wilco and Bragg as to Guthrie, whereas Reimagines often reads as a collection of Gershwin tracks with the Brian Wilson filter applied.

In other words, Reimagines often plays more as a tribute from Wilson and his band than as a fresh and creative project.

On the other hand, to label Reimagines as a straightforward tribute to the Gershwin brothers would be to unfairly marginalize the creative spirit that Wilson so evidently brought to these recordings, not to mention the crispness and emotion that each of his lead vocals are imbued with.  There can be no question as to his intentions; he clearly threw himself into the project, as supported by reports that he would spend eight hours a day in the studio perfecting his vocals.

Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin (2010)

Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin (2010)

There are many, many positive words to be said about this record.

For starters, even on a project that lends itself to slow paced, old-school compositions — and he does indulge at times — Wilson and his crack band of music makers manage to carve out a record that verges on rock.  As would be expected, there are some beautiful bass lines and some wonderfully fun harmonies that beg to be sung along with.

There are other touches, many of them subtle, that should allow for Reimagines to be accepted among Wilson’s studio discography, as opposed to a one-off side effort.  Paul Von Mertens’ contributions can’t be overstated, serving as a link between the instruments that were employed on many of the original recordings of these songs and Wilson’s more rock/pop-oriented arsenal of drums, guitar, and bass.  Likewise, Probyn Gregory’s acoustic guitars add significantly to many of the tracks, filling in the gaps admirably.  The acoustic guitar is not an instrument one might readily associate with Wilson’s general sound, which makes it all the more notable.

“Rhapsody in Blue,” snippets of which serve as the intro and outro of the record, should be familiar to fans as a song that Wilson has noted in past interviews as one of his influences.  That this is the song he chose to place at the corners is quite fitting, and that he would choose to sing the multiple vocal tracks entirely on his own may, if nothing else, be read as a sign that he is still in command of his music.  Reports of his mental acuity — or lack thereof — may not have been greatly exaggerated, but no one should presume to claim that Wilson is present on his recordings in name only these days.

“Summertime,” the first full-length cover, touches on bits of Billy Stewart’s chart-topping 1989 version in the intro but quickly spreads out into a ballad filled out with horn blasts, twinkling bursts of piano, and strings that loom ominously on the horizon.  This version is a bit slow, but after the recognizable Wilson-esque romp of “The Like in I Love You,” it’s as though he is flexing his classical muscle, as he continues to do on “I Loves You, Porgy.”

Subsequently, the instrumental “I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’” sounds like it could have been found on a Pet Sounds outtakes tape, the bass harmonica adding greatly to that feel.  “It Ain’t Necessarily So” is probably the first track on the album that is a fully realized blending of traditional and more modern styles, to the point that the two are difficult to distinguish between.

This is when Reimagines works so well: when Wilson manages to blends a traditional approach toward these songs with his own distinctive sound.  Contrary to some recent criticism, Wilson does not merely reconfigure the words to fit over instrumentals that conjure his previous songs, except perhaps for “They Can’t Take That Away From Me.”  Where it works exceedingly well, by the way.

Where the album does fall short is on tracks like “‘s Wonderful” and “Love is Here to Stay” that fail to transcend lounge music, being little more than standard covers that don’t diverge all that much from the originals.

“I Got a Crush on You” sounds like it was ripped off a best ballads of the fifties disc, and it works surprisingly well.  It is followed by “I Got Rhythm,” which sounds like a cross between SMiLE and surf rock on the intro, before settling down into a groove that sounds like all the best parts of a sixties Beach Boys song.  Then comes the indisputable latter-half gem “Someone to Watch Over Me,” easily one of the most beautiful little tracks Wilson has recorded in years.

The original tracks are the strongest efforts on the album, and it is for this reason that the decision to stick primarily to covers will always baffle and disappoint me.  It is the single strongest justification for why I’ve denied Reimagines a rating of 4 stars: for all the promise of what could have been.  It is still an enjoyable record and I would argue that it has earned its place as a serious effort, in league with Wilson’s recent and quite excellent albums.

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The Deep Racks Report: “Carl and the Passions – ‘So Tough'”

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By Chris Moore:

I think we’ve all heard the term “deep track,” used to refer to songs that do not receive much (or any) commercial radio airplay.  This series is dedicated to brief but focused reports on ALBUMS that do not receive as much commercial or critical attention as they should.

Carl and the Passions – “So Tough” by the Beach Boys

After a series of unfortunate career moves in the late sixties, not the least of which involved Brian’s last-minute withdrawal from the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and the release of Smiley Smile in lieu of SMiLE, the Beach Boys’ reputation — particularly in the rock press — was lackluster at best.  By the early seventies, the band was experimenting with new sounds and recording what are arguably among the best albums of their career.

Carl and the Passions – “So Tough” arrived just as their re-established stardom was fading again.

While some may argue that the album is more a compilation of songs from four different, disconnected sets of writers, the end result must be weighed without placing too much emphasis on the drama that surrounded the sessions.  And there was certainly no shortage of drama.  During the sessions for Carl and the Passions, Brian Wilson drew further away from his brothers and the band, disappointing record executives and fans alike.  Dennis Wilson put his hand through a window and was unable to play drums either in the studio or in concert.  And, to top it off, Bruce Johnston had a falling out with Beach Boys collaborator Jack Rieley and subsequently left — either of his own free will or after being fired.

For any fan of the band, the history surrounding these sessions can only serve to affect one’s expectations of the album itself.

And that simply isn’t fair.

Granted, Carl and the Passions – “So Tough” may not be a masterpiece like Pet Sounds and Sunflower were (even though it was packaged with Pet Sounds, further increasing the probability that it would pale in comparison).  Yet, from the first piano notes of “You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone” to the final fadeout of Wilson’s tremendously moving “Cuddle Up,” Carl and the Passions makes good on all that could ever be hoped for on any Beach Boys album — namely, by delivering superb vocals,  fantastic instrumental arrangements, and a combination of upbeat tracks and more introspective ballads.

There is something intriguing about seeing the band fight to hold its own and truly redefine itself without Brian Wilson at the helm.  In a sense, they went back to the drawing board, inviting new members Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar to join the band, naming the album after an early incarnation of the Beach Boys that performed at a Hawthorne High School talent show, and returning if only momentarily to the endearing directness of their early liner notes with the inclusion of “Thanks to Alan’s Mom for renting the Bass Fiddle on the first session.”

“You Need A Mess Of Help To Stand Alone” is a great opening track, offering an interesting groove and somehow straddling the line between raw and perfectly honed.  “Here She Comes” boasts catchy bass and piano parts and properly introduces the influences of Fataar and Chaplin.  In their book Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys: The Complete Guide to their Music, Andrew G. Doe and John Tobler label this song as well as Fataar and Chaplin’s previous band and self-titled effort The Flame as “boring, overlong, and self-indulgent.”  Why they make this assessment, I cannot justify.

Look for a “Deep Racks Report” on The Flame in the not-so-distant future…

“He Come Down” is gospel rock that borders on the cheesy, but is still fun and convincingly felt.  Still, it is all but forgotten by the time track four kicks off.  “Marcella” is certainly a standout here and continues to prove why the powers-that-be were at least somewhat justified in endlessly seeking after new material from Brian Wilson.

“Hold on Dear Brother” and “Make it Good” are solid, enjoyable tracks, if perhaps overshadowed by the other Fataar/Chaplin and Wilson/Dragon tracks (respectively) also on this album.

“All This is That” is another perfectly rendered performance on the album, taking Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” and adding a pleasant transcendental twist in a manner that only the Beach Boys ever could.

“Cuddle Up” is easily one of the great Dennis Wilson tracks of all time.  Its simple, beautiful lyrics are delivered in this heartbreaking vocal performance with haunting yet pretty background vocals, always knowing when to build up and when to back off, fading out the album on a subdued orchestral note.

At the end of the day, Carl and the Passions – “So Tough” is an essential Beach Boys album for any fan who acknowledges their presence post-1966.  And if you’re a rock music enthusiast that doesn’t own a seventies Beach Boys album, then by all means go out and get Sunflower.

If you like that one, then you’d be missing out if you didn’t pick up Carl and the Passions, too!

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