"Why Vinyl's Boom Is Over." Neil Shah's doom-laden piece with the booming headline in the July 22 edition of the Wall Street Journal triggered some thoughts.
"Folk music duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings were frustrated by the quality of vinyl LPs being produced today. So they decided to cut their records themselves," writes Shah, quoting Rawlings as saying "What people do nowadays is take a digital file and just run vinyl off that." Neil, if you wanted to write a gush piece on Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch, whom you clearly adore, then fine, I have no objections but don't append it to an "issue" to make it relevant.
And speaking of that duo, their whiny, doom-and-gloom quotes fit right in with their music. I have always found it to be funereal in the extreme and a weak copy of the mountain music performed and recorded by a truly great performer like Hazel Dickens.
Not so long ago, at a concert in Santa Fe, NM, I accompanied Mike Metzger, former managing editor of Stereophile's Guide to Home Theater, to see Welch and Rawlings perform at a club for a crowd that stood in hushed reverence. Of course when the tempo of the music never gets above the level of a dirge, it's hard to be anything but solemn. In one of the evening's very quietest moments, Mike blurted out, "If I'd have known I was going to a funeral . . ." A chorus of loud, annoyed "Shhhs" went up and we quickly exited the building pursued by menacing stares from the Rawlings/Welch faithful. Neil Shah's Twitter feed is now a full-blown shrine to those two. Give them credit, they have created and nurtured a cult of sorts. And this kerfuffle oughta sell them a few more records.
My greatest objection to the piece would be its lack of balance. A little research would have uncovered facts like that there are labels, artists, LP pressings plants, and even major-label catalog departments who are making excellent-sounding vinyl, be it new music or reissues. While the headlong rush towards selling vinyl again has produced LPs with sonic issues, this is by no means an all-encompassing problem. As for pressing plants, RTI and QRP are two domestic LP pressing plants that do quality work. In my backyard, Brooklyn Phono also does quality work. If you want to make good-sounding vinyl in 2017, there are certainly good choices.
Not so sure either about that 80% figure Shah cites as new LPs that are cut today from inferior sources. A number of labels, Analogue Productions being a great example, won't reissue LPs if they cannot find a quality source. And these labels, Intervention Records would be another example, would never resort to the "hiding" of sources that one of Shah's interview subjects mentions. As a general rule, if the low price of the reissue or new LP is too good to be true, the sound probably ain't great. And read the hype stickers. Most reputable labels will make point of trumpeting their sources. Again, a little balance might have rounded out the portrait. But then that scare headline wouldn't have worked would it?
And then there's confusion. If Welch and Rawlings' former label Warner Music Group licensed a Dutch LP reissue label to make LPs from a CD, well then shame on them. But then how is it that Bill Fields from the same Warner Music Group is allowed to blame "less-reputable labels." Like who, the WMG who gave Music on Vinyl the license?
And to the heroes of our story I say: learn from your mistakes and PS: welcome to the music business. Don't tar an entire industry because of your unfortunate experience. Again, they're highly skilled at making art outta being morose.
Also, in reading the quotes from Michael Fremer, editor of our sister site www.analogplanet.com and longtime Stereophile senior editor, I immediately suspected there was more to the story. The entire "Yeah, but . . ." section of the interview with Michael had been cut out. I'm sure he had more to say. Only what supported the "crappy vinyl—LPs are dying again" argument was printed. Stay tuned to analogplanet.com for more.
And finally how can you do a Death of the LP (again) piece by citing only Music on Vinyl as the culprit? From my experience with them, Music on Vinyl licenses music from major labels only for distribution outside the US. They shouldn't even be doing business in this country. While their records can be found on eBay and Discogs, I rarely see them in record stores or even on Amazon.
Again, while not all LPs are created equal and some not-so-great newspaper editing may be at work here, never fear folks, new vinyl isn't all going back to the cut out bins quite yet.
