Seven Inches

Now, call me an old fuddy-duddy (yes, please do) and hose me down with whipped cream and custard, but why oh why have bands started releasing 7" vinyl singles? Have I missed some announcement about a shortage of whatever shiny material CDs are made of?

Now, clearly, there's a marketing angle to all this, much like punk bands in the '70s released records on coloured vinyl to make them a bit different and collectable. There's also the elitist angle that claims music sounds better on vinyl, but that's just snobbery really. There's possibly a retro, anti-digital thing going on too. I suppose there's also something about vinyl being a 'real' record.

Do the youngsters who buy vinyl really have turntables at home?

Now, I love my old records and, let's face it, 12" covers are much more attractive for album art than the tiny pictures in a CD case. But I also love my CDs. I do download music - I downloaded the Human League's 'Secrets' the other day since I couldn't find the CD anywhere - but I'd much rather go into a record shop and browse, picking up CDs, scanning track listings for those elusive songs of yesterday that I need to find and leaving the shop with a new treasure or two in my bag. But I don't really want vinyl because I no longer have a record player and don't particularly want to get one. How many formats do we need music in? I have a turntable to digitise vinyl records but if it's available digitally then that's the format I might as well buy.

What's started me off? Well, Theoretical Girl's new single is a 500 run of vinyl only, Blood Red Shoes new single is in CD + 2 x vinyl, all of Comanechi's recordings are in vinyl only so far. What's this about? Mind you, Maximo Park do the CD + vinyl thing and the Sex Pistol's re-issue of their singles last year were in vinyl only format as well. Clearly I must be an old fuddy-duddy. Point me in the direction of the cream and custard fountain...