cds

Call me a dinosaur, but I still buy CDs. I know, it's weird. I'm strange that way. I thought of this a while ago when the new Lady Gaga album dropped and Amazon offered it to the world for 99 cents but I still bused and walked to Target and bought Born This Way (the deluxe edition, mind you). When the poor boy cashier (it was his first day, I chose the one bottle of pesto sauce without a barcode, sorry!) rang up Born This Way he offered the comment "sold a lot of these today." Gaga did sell a million plus albums her first week but one suspects the bulk were on iTunes and elsewhere, still, I like being part of those hordes descending on stores and buying something that we can put into our hands. Something that I put into a CD player, something comes with pictures and lyrics and production notes and endless thank yous to God and random idols. I like that when I bought the most recent Kanye album last November the hippy dippy guy in his fifties who works at my favorite record store here (he wears straw hats, no big deal and has a goatee) knew what I wanted as soon as I walked in and had it behind the counter. I like buying hard to find albums off artists' websites (David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim's amazing concept album about Imelda Marcos) or special-ordering imports (hello glorious covers album by Marianne Faithfull). I know that I can buy things cheaper in iTunes and cheaper still can find things in the various illegal streams of music that are uncorked faster that anyone can stop 'em. Not all albums were created equal - lots of pop artists write a series of singles that don't together constitute an album so much as a vessel for radio play and iTunes downloads. I love a well-turned pop tune, but I also love artists that craft albums where songs flow together, make sense together, balance each other, constitute a journey, tell a greater story when considered as a unit, when listened to in one sitting (possible on repeat). When I get a new album I listen obsessively, I hear lyrics everywhere and I know the album backwards and forwards, fall in love with songs that are never singles and decide that a certain ten second moment is the best on the album. And everytime I move, my CDs outnumber everything else.