Jerry maybe I'm a little too 20th century also, but I DO remember how exciting it was to bring home a single, and later an album. I would often discover music just as exciting on the flip side - my early singles were Beatles and Motown records so there was no shortage of treasures there.

But I really loved my albums collection- and the entire process of buying them, listening to them while enjoying the photos and artwork and all the writing on the cover- just 'reading' the cover was almost as exciting as hearing the music. I could never experience the same 'unwrapping your holiday presents' feeling with tapes, CD's an IPOD (which I've borrowed but don't own). Also your record collection was almost like a signature style, as individual as your way of dressing and talking. Someone once remarked that my album collection was impressive b/c it contained a lot of music that would last, instead of forgetable 'hits' - we wound up dating for years lol. The thing is, I would always read who the songwriters were on other people's albums,so I would be the 'first on the block' to get albums by people like Jackson Browne and Chris Smither, and later Gillian Welch or Nanci Griffith. On CD's I can barely read who the performers are.

Well I suppose you feel most comfortable and attached to what you grew up with and got used to , but I DO agree there was something 'weighty' about albums. And for my money,the music never sounded better than listening to a good stereo set,whether it was Bruce Philips, Beethoven by NY Philarmonic, Blood on the Tracks by Mr. Zimmerman, Missippis John Hurt or Tommy by the Who.

Final thought- a stellar album played on a good stereo gave a shared experience, perhaps like our parents gathering around the radio- but those people hooked into their Ipods and Berries I see on the bus or the street look a little too robotic to me.