In my entirely anthropologically-unqualified opinion, I’m certain that a good chunk of the reason behind the vinyl resurgence is the fact that obtaining discs of black wax scratches the obsessive collector itch in many folks. Something like a hunter-gatherer instinct that’s under-utilized now that we have office jobs and take away pizza to sustain us.

I can only truly speak for myself though. As my CD collection has been migrated to FLACs on my hard drive and streaming services overtake even that, listening to vinyl has become more an “event” for me. Now I love being able to pull out my phone, click 3 times and have new releases coalesce out of the air into my stereo, but there’s a certain distance from the song. The tactile nature of the whole turn table process leads to more ceremony and reverence for the music. Plus, thumbnail meta data has nothing on shelf full of 12” cover art.

Thus begins my collector-geekism. There’s a sense of pride in a well ordered shelf full of albums. Or maybe I've just got an obsessive personality and I’m lucky that I got into music and not hard drugs. Either way, I’ll walk into a store looking for one record and come out with most of my week’s salary dubiously “invested” in spinning discs. I also have a particular kitschy quirk; I can’t say no to a coloured vinyl or a picture disc. I’ve caught my self walking to the register with records I actively don’t like, purely because they happen to be in very pretty limited edition colours. It's really quite a worry how often I'll set my self a budget for music for the month, then quickly blow passed it. I'm sure I'm not alone here either.

I don’t think there’s a 12 step program for me. At least the support groups seem to have a lot of fun.