One For The Road

Sunglasses on, hats at the ready, otro más por favor… vinyl vacation style

For many of us in the northern hemisphere, the shorter days and longer nights so typical of this time of the year mean spending more time indoors.

In London, the sun sets just before 4pm, fog is your usual morning companion, and the thermostat drops faster than you can say Christmas.

My husband and I like to escape to warmer latitudes for a few days during this season, which means I haven’t been spinning vinyl as I normally would.

Instead, I’ve been busy sipping cocktails by the sea. Tough choices, right?

Daily London life can be as exciting as it is frantic, especially towards the end of the year. This trip is exactly what we needed in order to unwind and recharge our batteries before that dreaded final stretch of the year.

Romantic candlelit dinners, swimming in turquoise sea and reconnecting with nature have made me the happiest man alive, but listening to music is something I cannot fully go without.

I’m sure you can relate.

Trying to set up a turntable on the beach is not precisely my definition of relaxation. Sometimes a vinyl lover needs to bite the bullet and accept being at the mercy of streaming platforms for a few days.

But you know what? This is not another rant. And no, I didn’t suffer a concussion whilst on holiday.

Let me explain.

Every time I get away on a vacation like this, I realise how different the music listening experience is compared with my usual vinyl sessions at home.

Aspects such as sound quality, intentionality, autonomy of choice, and directly supporting your favourite artists by owning physical copies of their work are things you cannot easily replicate in the digital realm.

However, on the other side of the equation, there’s a very simple, pragmatic, even mundane fact of life: the outdoors.

When was the last time I had listened to music outdoors?

I don’t mean a concert experience, or hearing one of your favourite songs by chance as you go for a walk in your local park.

I mean purposefully listening to an album of your own choosing, from start to finish, completely outdoors.

With this tropical breeze gently caressing your skin. With waves gently lapping in the background. With instagrammable skies and birds chirping in the distance.

I had to think really hard until I realised it was exactly one year ago, on the same beach as I am now.

How could this happen?

No one lives in London because of the weather, but it’s often not as bad as some people think. London summers can be gorgeous, with 10pm sunsets, pink skies and even your grumpiest friends in the jolliest of moods.

There’s a lot to be said about the big city, work-hard-play-hard, lifestyle I chose. I wouldn’t trade it for the world, not yet at least.

But this has been special in its own kind of way.

I could write treaties on the deeper bond vinyl lets us forge with our favourite records.

The sacred ritual of taking out a record you chose and paid actual money for, placing it on your turntable, feeling the texture of the sleeve and letting the sound overtake you.

But there’s also something special about the no-hassle experience of summoning your favourite song at the click of a button whilst lounging on the beach with a drink of choice at the ready.

I’d be fooling myself if I didn’t see the appeal.

Not sure I can call it sacred (baby steps, guys, baby steps) but it is, admittedly, a ritual in its own right.

I cannot envisage life without vinyl, but nor can I envisage life without a beach holiday, so there you go. Trade-offs, I guess.

A vacation often gives you the opportunity to make certain exceptions. For some, it’s sleeping until noon, or indulging in a nice dessert.

I was up at arse o’clock in the morning every day so I could hit the gym as soon as it opened.

There was, as you can expect, a beach body situation to deal with, so no dessert for me either.

Trade-offs, again.

Perhaps my one and only exception, which might sound silly to you but was a huge deal for me, was to stop fretting about the things I normally fret about.

Just take the damn music, I said to myself, in whatever form it comes. Don’t look at the specs. Is it lossless? Is it hi-res? Let’s pretend I don’t care.

I’d be lying if I said my music experience has been the same. It’s hard to focus on the details, a bit like watching a movie with your most talkative friend. You know you’re going to have to give that movie another watch if you want to know what it was actually about.

For this alone, listening to a vinyl record will most certainly be the first thing I’ll do when I get back home.

For now, though, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be lounging by the sea, listening to some of my favourite records while sipping an Aperol Spritz.

Not a hard a trade off, if you ask me.

Thanks for reading/listening. Happy spinning!