I was going to write a blog about Christmas memories with regards to getting records, but what I got for Christmas this year really change my mind about doing that. I have to say that I had a very vinyl Christmas.

We will start off with the items in the picture above. This is $110 worth of gift certificates to a local record store which I have mentioned in this blog once before. The last time I spent $25 there alone I came home with a small stack of records so I would hate to imagine how many records I could pick up $110. Upon discussion of what to do with $110, my wife seems to be eyeing up some rare Beatles albums with it. But we’ll see how that all works out once we hit the record store this weekend. I’m hoping to come home with a stack full of records including some real prime ones.

Of course the next gift that I need to mention is the brand-new record player, this is a Pyle belt driven record player that plays 45’s, 33’s, and 78’s and is portable on top of that. It also has a AM/FM radio built into it, and of course speakers. This allows me to expand my collection a little bit since my current Sony record player only plays 45’s and 33’s. I hope to open it this weekend and maybe to take it somewhere else in the house where we can listen to it and have some fun. Overall I’m very excited just to have these two gifts alone and I will obviously be putting both of them to some very good use.

Okay, as you can see in the photo above I also got two records that I’ve wanted to get for very long time. The first one is Babel by Mumford & Sons. This is a phenomenal album and I’d really suggest adding it to your vinyl collection if you don’t have it already. This band is excellent to hear on the radio, satellite radio, and even CD, but on vinyl they’re pure perfection. The album itself is a great one to have no matter what, and I believe it won a couple of Grammies, so that just goes to show you how good music is to begin with. One of my favorite songs on the albums B-side and is called Lovers Eyes.

The next album is another one I have been dying to get on vinyl for a very long time. Norah Jones Broken Little Hearts, was an album I had originally bought on CD after it first came out in 2012. When I began my adventures in vinyl record collecting this was one the albums that went to the top of my list to get. The 12 songs of the album are broken up into two separate records each one containing three songs per side. Not only that but adding to this albums uniqueness, the records are made of white vinyl, and the album also comes with a poster of the album cover which also makes the album unique by giving it the classical feel of an album from the 70s or 80s. Like the Mumford & Sons album this one also has some phenomenal sound especially in comparison to the CD which I also own. And let’s be honest Norah Jones looks pretty goddamn good on the cover as well.

I know some of you reading this blog are probably vinyl traditionalists, and perhaps having Mumford & Sons and Norah Jones in your collection doesn’t appeal to you. But I think having a nice mix of modern artists in with a collection of vinyl helps to keep one’s collection relevant by readily embracing new music as well as that of old music. I also need to mention that these new albums are fantastically well built, the 180 gram vinyl weight makes these records very strong and you really feel like you’re holding something substantial when you touch one of these things.

Overall that’s my very vinyl Christmas. I hope that you guys were able to expand your vinyl collections a little bit over Christmas as well and that you got some great gifts to help you expand your collection. If you want to comment to this blog and let us know about what you got for Christmas that you think is a phenomenal addition your collection go ahead and do so, we would be happy to hear from you. So with that said a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!