Aloha? Hawaii?

I dunno, nothing exactly screams Hawaii on this cover.

I guess the plants are what do it, cuz the girl with the artificially (I suspect) color boosted eyes doesn't scream Hawaii either. *shrug* What I'm gettng at is, this is one of the least stereotypically Hawaiian album covers I have. In that sense, it's a bit of a failure, because it doesn't make much of an impression on its own among the plethora of Hawaiian albums. Moving on...

The back cover wasn't too interesting either, but I always like these self-aggrandization boxes that were on most records. Never really saw this with CDs, probably in part because there was just no room, but also because people eventually realized that you get what you pay for and such things were unnecessary. Buy a junky stereo, you get junky sound. But I figure there's much more real variation in vinyl and needle quality than in CD players as well.

Speaking of needles, I was checking a record yesterday and the arm slipped and the needle broke. Yay. I have ordered a replacement, but I wish I had a better player in general. I'm always a little wary of playing good quality records on it. It's an ION Profile LP with USB, seen below. The USB was the draw for me, but I've never actually used that feature. Maybe someday...

Looks nice, sounds decent (feels like it's too quiet, though), but the cover design is just plain bad. Way too much of a gap, especially on the sides. I ended up adding strips of clear tape to block those stupid holes because SO MUCH DUST gets in. I suspect they left those gaps so people could slip a finger in there to lift it up, but come on, it's not like it's heavy or something. I wish I could add a little strip of rubber or silicone along the edge to seal it better. But at least the record area itself is mostly dust-free.