THE AMP IS THE HEART, THE CD PLAYER IS THE BRAIN, THE SPEAKERS ARE THE HANDS AND FEET. AND THE ALBUM ITSELF IS THE SOUL.


DOES AN ALBUM AGE LIKE A GOOD WINE?

You know it does.

How much of your life do you want to spend listening to music? Are you also interested in career, family, planet-saving activities, sleep? I for one am definitely interested in the last two at least.

There’s only so much music listening we can do in our lives. What do you want? 1001 albums to listen to once before you die, or 250 albums to listen to four times before you die?

Yes, this may be my rym hobbyhorse, and no it’s not moral, spiritual or scientific or historical truth, it’s just personal taste. But after forty years of collecting, and observing the own heart falling for albums, have you had the same experience as me? You buy an album, you may think you think it’s pretty good on first listen, but then round about the third or fourth listen it really starts peaking, and you’re really diggin’ it?

All my life I’ve tended to have an album on high rotation for the first four to six weeks, then, before I get sick of it, I put it away for a while. But contemplating my musical tendencies closely in the last five or eight years, I’ve found when I pull an album out again in 12 to 18 months it sounds even better, I put it away again for a while, then after three or four years it sounds absolutely grreat.

Music gets into the synapses. Yes, a good album most certainly does age like a good wine.

Thus, a dilemma appears. The modern collector often collecting thousands of albums within a few short years via downloads, where can he or she find the time to listen over and over, and let the album get into your bones?

Until you’ve heard a loved album for the 20th or 30th or 40th time, you have not yet experienced the absolute best music can offer! I reckon.

Myself, I’ve got it sorted. Nowdays, accessing new music via “the tube”, I like to listen to an album two or three times. Sometimes I love it straight up and purpose to seek my own copy forthwith, other times I’m not too warmed, but still listen a few times, and if still not rapt, just stick the album on a list and consign it to archival.

This leaves me a comparatively modest collection, and as recently stated, I’m a funny creature, but to me, albums, like friends (ideally) are for life. It can take 15 years with me for an album to be thoroughly played out.. and even then, it may only mean a rest for five or seven years, after which time, its delights revealing themselves anew for a spin or three, to then be placed again only in semi-retirement.

Such an approach to collecting however, actually requires a bit of self discipline! Somehow I sensed this even at 16, when I started my collecting. My mum was such a softie, it would have probably been possible to bludge endless money off her for records, but I decided from the start only to purchase one a week; then after a few years, one a fortnight. In time my collection became quite impressive, but still small enough that i was able to know each album well.

I just reckon one appreciates one's albums more that way.


THE GOLDEN AGE OF ROCK

Not the fifties as some would believe; 1967-1973.


HOW I GOT INTO RYM

I only started getting on the net regularly from about 2002, and for the first few years I was determined to use it only for my highest purposes, social justice, political activism etc, not time wasting. But one Saturday night I decided to relax my rule and just read a little about music for fun. I googled The Triffids and the first page I clicked on turned out to be a biog on David McComb from a fan page. Then I clicked my second link and BANG! There was a picture of "Treeless Plain" and a couple of reviews and an opportunity to write my own review. HOLY MOLY, I was HOOKED! I joined instantly, quick as I could figure out how, and within five minutes had posted my first review - "Seventh Sojourn", Apr 03, 2005.

I never knew I had a lack. I raised myself on the NME Book of Rock #2 (1977), that was my music Bible for 30 years. The moment I found rym I found what I had been looking for all my life. It was love at first site. It was like finding facebook after growing up on telegrams.

Of course there are endless music sites on the net, some good 'uns such as progarchives.com, even some great blogs. But I've never investigated a great deal. Rym was my first love and rym's pretty much all I need. Thanks sharifi and all those early reviewers whose classic writing I still treasure. SandyMc, 30 Oct 2016.


COLLECTING METHODOLOGY

Thanks to technology, i’m now at the top of my game with collecting like never before. I open three screens: firstly of course, rym; when the reviews for an album draw me in, i click on Redeye, my local and Sydney’s top record shop, which has it’s entire calatogue (everything still available worldwide) listed; finally, if I find the album is still in print at a reasonable price, I go to youtube.

I don’t require spotify, grooveshark or any of those things; the “tube” has only ever let me down once, ever. Could only find a couple of tracks from Skygreen Leopards Disciples of California; otherwise, no probs.

Then I just enjoy the old fashioned thing of going into the city to order the CD, or often enough, find it in the racks. Even comparative rarities such as The Seeds’ debut, Ultravox "Systems of Romance" and "I Looked Up" by the Incredible String Band have been sitting right there in the racks over the past six months. Thumbs up to Redeye.


IT’S PLAYBACK TIME!

My stereo I’d had since 1983 finally died of old age in 2014, and I made the decision to buy a new stereo. The first two major suburban shopping centres I tried had no true stereo equipment shops at all; only JB Hi Fi which does sport a good CD range, alongside DVDs, computers, iphones etc etc etc; and “trendy” strange-looking music systems which looked suspiciously like they were made in China. No. No. I am going to buy a new stereo, I thought, that is going to last me the rest of my life. NOTHING less will do.

It was time to search online, and I headed out to Liverpool, about an hour’s drive, to find an excellent old-school music shop, Pacific Hi Fi. Now this illustrates how arduous my quest was: first I had to walk around for half an hour and phone the shop to find it; then, when leaving this major centre on the outskirts of Sydney, I drove round for three quarters of an hour, only to find myself back where I started!

But I’d identified a CD player and amp which I trusted would suit my needs, and listened to a few sets of speakers.. When I came back, it would be to purchase a whole system.

A week later I returned with my own CDs, listened repeatedly to my narrowed down list of about three or four speaker systems, and found one which was quite nice and not too expensive. Soon after, I left with the sales assistant to help me carry to my car with greatest pride my acquisition: English Cambridge Audio Topaz AM10 amp (AU$400), Cambridge Audio Topaz CD 10 CD player (AU$400), and US Infinity Primus P162 speakers (AU$500).

I’d narrowed my choice down to the Infinitys or a fine pair of Richters, Australian speakers, and the bloke who’d founded the company had actually lived for a while in my town and been an acquaintance/friend of mine. The Richters had a very rich, warm, open, woody sound, very good, and the Infinitys had a slightly sparse, echoey sound, or something like that. But the Infinitys had better separation – better able to clearly hear each instrument, and this was always my prime consideration.

I imagine my shock when I got home to find my large box of two speakers actually contained only one speaker! I quickly got on the phone to the shop, and the very apologetic, friendly sales bloke admitted he’d made a mistake, and the Infinitys actually cost $500 each – the pair was $1000. But he said, “I’ll make you a deal. If you want the other speaker I’ll just charge you cost price, $290, for both of them.”

Of course by this time I’d already immediately set it up and put on an album, Tim Buckley’s "Happy Sad", and was absolutely ADDICTED – I HAD to have that other speaker.

So that how I ended up with an $1,800 system for $1,380.

My stereo is not connected to the internet in any way. It is Old School. When I listen to music, I listen to music. No ads, no multiple screens in front of me, no pinging sounds in the mix from facebook msgs that have just popped up.

Unless I pull one of my sturdy Infinitys right up beside me whilst I sit at my computer surfing rym. Like tonight.

PS I might add that I normally have my speakers equidistant from my armchair, forming a classic triangle listening position; and so my speakers ain’t in no corner – they’re right in the MIDDLE of the room.

SandyMc, Feb 22, 2016


UPDATES
17 Feb 2016: I don't write very long reviews about albums that don't really grab me. Usually the only thing that needs to be said is the songwriting/arranging is not particularly above average. So, since there's some much great music out there, why make room in your life for the vast sea of ordinary?

14 Feb 2015: I started on rym with the high ideal of rating everything against "Abbey Road", "Nursery Cryme", "Stormcock", "Thick As A Brick", "Seventh Sojourn", "Lark's Tongues in Aspic", "Dark Side of The Moon", "Crime of The Century" etc. Though my standards have slipped a bit, still I cannot emphasis strongly enough that, when you do the maths, 3 stars actually puts an album in the top 50 percent, and is therefore exactly what the rating denotes, just above average. 3 stars for me is a mark of respect.

July 2014: YES. I too believe Bowie's best song was "Sound and Vision".

July 2014: I am now in semi-retirement from reviewing. The first reason is that, following a renaissance of my album-collecting which really took off when I discovered rym, I've now spent ten years years latter-day steady collecting. Since I bought my new stereo system, I strongly feel it's now time to really LISTEN closely again to all those albums rym has introduced me to over the past ten years. Second reason for my semi-retirement is that it has become increasingly clear to me that what I might write about an album after having owned it for six months will offer differ compared with my review after two or three years of listening to an album. I've always thought the original reviews on rym, which rymers posted about albums they'd had for ten, twenty years, had a depth which can be lacking in reviews scraped together from first impressions. Therefore, I have maybe ten or fifteen recent acquisitions which I could review now, but ideally I'd like to wait until I've had these recordings for at least two years, and post my reviews from a deep place of experience with the albums.

This method has drawbacks of course, as there can be an urgency for collectors wanting to find the best of what's come out in the last say 6 to 12 months, and review systems which include an initial review followed by a later update are an excellent way to get the best of both approaches.


MY VIEWS ON:

Rym "maintenance": This is where you work on tidying up your account, if you're a perfectionist rymer, as I and many of my friends are. For example, after they brought in the new format, for about five years I was unable to figure how to italicise album names! I contented myself with my own less-than-perfect standard of putting album names in inverted commas, but since I began using upgraded Windows, I have discovered the italics button, and it's a long-term project to go back and italicise all those album names.

Sexiest Album Cover of All Time: Saint Etienne, "Foxbase Alpha" (1990)