Endless River...

...and a lot of water under the bridge? (no pun intended!) It's a been a 'wee while' since I bought my first Pink Floyd album and a few things have changed since then. Just sticking to the music, the process of acquiring the latest and last album is a world away from the first ever purchase. Back then it was a case of either finding a new release upon visiting the nearest record shop (Bruce's, Kirkcaldy) or reading about an upcoming new album or single in the music press such as Melody Maker, Sounds, or NME. Now, everything is available immediately, on demand, no waiting. I ordered the CD in the evening, for delivery in a couple of days but also got immediate access to a the album via cloud services and a digital download to PC, phone, tablet etc. I like the convenience, the availability, the sound quality and access to all the information about the creation and content of the album, but there are some things that we don't get 'nowadays' and which I miss. Things like fantastic artwork on a 12" album sleeve (maybe even gatefold?!) the tactile sense of owning the album in a physical form of 12 inch vinyl (CD just isn't the same) and the sense of purpose or even occasion that was involved in setting up the record player, amp, speakers etc. for a listening session. Some of my long-time favourite music exists in my head complete with the pops and crackles from scratches on the vinyl surface and, from albums recorded on to cassette, I have the clunk-clunk-clunk of the needle at the end of the groove when the tonearm didn't lift. These small things locate much of my music collection in memories. You just don't get that with digital.