Got my Art Angels vinyl yesterday...

My only problem with vinyl collecting is that with new releases and reissues, where the album is presented on vinyl in a form that is either so impractical you are unlikely to actually listen to it much on vinyl (i.e. the double or triple vinyl version of an album that was designed for CD or download era and fit on one CD) or a form that is an adaptation offering less than the other versions (i.e. Realiti is not on the vinyl) the "ritualistic" part goes so far beyond the "instant rewarding feeling" that it just becomes another commodity fetishism addiction (and waste of physical resources- more are required to make vinyl LPs than CDs, for example).

I'm not saying I wouldn't want Art Angels on vinyl. Maybe. I definitely would if the vinyl version included every song on the digital version (just in terms of flow, it's hard to imagine Pin not preceding Realiti). I at least need to preserve the illusion that vinyl I am buying is something I might conceivably listen to in that format, not just fetishize, and why would I choose to listen to a Realiti-free Art Angels? I'm very exclusive with what albums I want to collect on vinyl though. Unless something is either one of my two or three favorites of that year or is an album by one of my two or three favorite artists ever, or has some of my favorite album art ever, or has had some extreme talismanic significance in my personal life, preferably all at once, then I probably don't want to own it in that beautiful but too often useless format. Grimes satisfies all of those criteria- but then we arrive at the final problem- her music is neither designed for vinyl, nor even benefits in Art Angels period, due to the removal of songs to fit on the format, and due to her hyper compressed (intentionally compressed) post-'80s pop production style, which is inimical to the format. I'm sure it sounds really good, even maybe "better," but "better" in a way the artist didn't intend, if you get my point. The aesthetic of Grimes was vinyl friendly in her Visions iteration to the extent that it was based on a specifically vinyl-era, '80s nostalgia, but Grimes' futurism today is based on transcending the past-fetishism of a physical format like vinyl, particularly one that is environmentally problematic. She sells it because it is part of doing music now, she has little choice. I bet she secretly has anti-vinyl opinions though (as she did in the past).

/r/Grimes Thread Parent