To all you Vinyl and Radiohead Fans out there today should feel like Christmas. Capitol records decided to re release most of Radioheads albums under the name "From the Capitol Vaults". The records are all remastered on heavy weight vinyl and they come out today!
I got my hands on The Bends a couple of years ago I had to specially order Ok Computer from the UK and I bought In Rainbows the day it came out. That left me with a large hole in my collection. I found Pablo Honey at Virgin Records Yesterday and am looking forward to hearing Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail to the Thief remastered. To those who are skeptical on a difference in sound, I dare ya, actually I triple dog dare you to listen to any album (especially Radioheads) on Vinyl and I guarantee you hear guitar parts and vocal harmonies you never heard before, even on songs you've heard a million times.
I haven't read much on the re-release of these albums and I know Coldplay's albums are getting the same treatment but I cant help to think that this has something to do with the fact that Radiohead is no longer on Capitol. It just seems like Capital is trying to make as much money off of Radiohead in as little time as possible.
Capitol recently released a greatest hits record of Radiohead's music that the band was against being put out. I am sure the band is making a buttload (lots and lots) of money from all of this but Radiohead isnt a band that tries to crank out "Hits" they are one of the few bands out there who still make concept albums that have a flow from start to finish, so you can understand why a greatest hits album wouldn't be part of their plan.
Greatest hits albums have also always confused me especially for bands that are still touring heavily and putting out great records, are you trying to say you wont have anymore "hits"? at least 311 titled their Greatest Hits album "Greatest Hits 93-03" letting everyone know they are far from being done as a group.
The Beatles released a Greatest Hits album 8 years ago which was about 30 years after their last release,But maybe thats a bad example considering just about any one of there albums is a Greatest Hits album.
I could ramble on all day about why I can't wait to hear these albums on Vinyl. Ok Computer is one of my favorite albums of all times and I must have listened to it from start to finish over 500 times since first receiving it from my brother in 9th grade. I know my copies got pretty abused and scratched up so I am on what must be my 3rd copy of Ok Computer. There is also something refreshing about having your favorite piece of music on a thick piece of molded Goo and not having to worry about hairline scratches that can completely destroy your favorite CD. Luckily now the CD just has to last long enough to get into your computer and hopefully onto a stable enough hard drive to be able to pass on down to future generations. I cant even wrap my head around the fact that Parents will be passing down Harddrives full of music to their kids or they will have to repurchase the record on itunes or (whatever is popular then). Arent they going to miss the smell of a Vinyl record?, or The Awesome Artwork,the wear and tare or any real physical interaction with the Album?.
My mom told me a story about when she was growing up her and a bunch of her friends would ride their bikes down to the local record store.One of them would buy the album or they would all scrounge up their money to buy a record. They would all go to one of her friends house's surround themselves around the record player and pass the Album in a circle, dissecting it and reading along with the lyrics. What Happened to that?
It might be the same thing that happened to screaming and crying fans, fans that couldn't control themselves during a Beatles or Elvis Presley concert and physically threw them at the members in the group. I would have hated to have been a Security guard to any one of those shows. Those fans probably knew more about those band members then they knew about their own best friends and to think, now they are our parents. What Im trying to say is that the majority of people are not as attached to albums as they once were and I think that the loss of the Vinyl record is a large part of that.
Our physical interaction to album artwork was cut in half by the CD and was completely destroyed by the MP3. The physical interaction of a record plays a huge part in your first impression of the band or the album and how you may interpret that particular album. This can be a good or bad thing depending on the artwork but now it barely exists. This is all another thing that Radiohead has a grasp of, every one of there albums has all new artwork as well as hidden artwork , prints of the Artwork and music videos that are DIFFERENT.
Music today just seems so disposable, everyone is looking for the next best thing, while great records are collecting dust.
.......Sorry to rant but doesn't it just bum you out?
I will just finish by saying:
When first listening to Ok Computer on Vinyl in Headphones I felt like I was hearing the album for the first time, their was so much I had missed in the compressed recordings I have heard for so long on CD's. If you are at all interested what I am saying Checkout The posted Video, This man know's what I'm Talking about: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmHLETTEfx4
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