On The Record: Jennifer Fife*
* by Jennifer Fife, Lyndsay Connor
cover picture

Jennifer was born in Texas, studied music and flute performance in Oklahoma, and moved to NYC to work in Music Business. She’s a Senior Producer at Antfood and happens to be the biggest Björk fan this universe has ever seen.


How many records are in your collection?

After having moved apartments a few times and dealing with the headache of packing and hauling heavy but delicate vinyl, I keep my collection at around 200 records. If I don’t listen to a record, I exchange it for store credit rather than keeping it in storage. I have about 200 CDs as well, which are much easier to store and move around.

What’s the first record you bought consciously?

When I first started buying music, vinyl wasn’t back yet. My first album was probably a CD or even a cassette. I wish I knew what it was - probably Hanson, Spice Girls or Backstreet Boys. I’ve come a long way since then! But there is still a place in my heart for these bands. My parents were really into grunge and alternative music, so when I was done enjoying what I had picked out, I looked through their collection. That soon led to spending every dollar I came across on CDs. I was lucky to have a used CD store in my suburban hometown.

What’s your favourite album art?

Volta by Björk. I have a giant poster of it in my apartment that I bought at a Björk concert at Red Rocks in 2007. It’s bold, colorful and absolutely hilarious - and it gives me so much joy. It’s very Björk. There was actually a Björk retrospective at MOMA, and I got to see the suit she’s wearing in person.

Björk - Volta

Which record would you say is the cornerstone album in your collection?

Lately, there are a couple, and they are polar opposites. Lingua Ignota Sinner Get Ready is an emotional and disturbing album, and I’m here for it. The other is Barbara Streisand’s Guilty. It’s an album of her performing songs written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. It’s an incredible album. I heard the opening song in the movie Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar - which is a fantastic movie, by the way - and I had to know what the song was. I always knew she was one of the greats, but now I’m a Streisand fan. It is an interesting feeling when you realize that you had to grow up to appreciate something that was always available to you.
But if I don’t know what else to put on, then Harry Nilsson Nilsson Schmilsson, Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life or Kate Bush The Dreaming are my go-to’s.

Which record was the first one you formed a serious connection to and opened your interest in music?

I have a lot of milestone records, and it’s hard to say what was most pivotal. Pulling Radiohead’s Pablo Honey out of my parents’ collection was significant and then I followed their journey as they evolved as a band. My whole family also loves The Beatles. When you spend time with each Beatles record for the first time, it is incredibly formative. A record that set me on a path of being stirred by experimental music was Björk’s Medúlla - my favorite album of hers. It is her acapella album and, incredibly, she built everything from voices alone, even the beats. It’s a bit dark and even primal. Even though I was already all-in on music at the time, this album made me who I am.

Jen’s Record Collection

How long have you been collecting vinyl?

I grew up in Texas, and the closest decent record store, Good Records, was in Dallas. When I was about 17, they were moving locations and held a clearance sale, but I had just had my wisdom teeth out so I couldn’t go. I asked a friend to pick up something for me if there was anything interesting. They bought The New Pornographers Twin Cinema, but I didn’t even have a record player at the time. Still, I took the record with me for a few years as I moved around. I eventually got a record player and it went from there. I had that one record, but my parents had an enormous collection, which had merged when they got married. I asked if I could take the things they had doubles of… they said no, but I took the duplicates anyway.

Do you have any complete discographies?

I have all the LPs of The Beatles, Chelsea Wolfe, Joanna Newsom and Björk. I have everything available on vinyl that Björk has released. Even live albums, remix series and the albums that came out in the early 90s, that she later repressed in color!

Which record did you buy last?

Newer releases I recently picked up are L’Rain Fatigue, Spellling The Turning Wheel, and of course, my queen Björk’s new album Fossora which will no doubt define this era of my life, as her other albums have done for me.

I also recently picked up two records of Debussy and Ravel pieces for orchestra and string ensemble. They were still factory sealed and had been pressed in 1986 - so they’re older than me, and yet no one had ever played them until I bought them. Who knows what their journey has been, but it’s fascinating that it took me pulling it out of a bin for it to finally be listened to.

What do you put on on a Sunday morning?

Neil Young’s Harvest or Joanna Newson’s Have One On Me, or Divers. She doesn’t allow her music to be distributed on Spotify so I have to put her on my turntable in order to listen. Actually, Neil Young recently removed his music from Spotify, too. I guess in my leisure time it’s nice to interact with some machinery. I don’t listen to music passively, just in the background - and you can’t listen to a vinyl record passively. It demands your attention. You have to get up and interact with it physically. I used to put This Heat’s Deceit on the turntable all the time, but then The Heat’s discography finally hit Spotify.

Is there an album you have been trying to find for years that you still haven’t found?

At a record store, my pattern is to look in New In, then Experimental and then Psych Rock, if they have it. I was at Deep Cuts in Ridgewood and I saw a record I love - Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo - in the psych rock section, but it was expensive so I left it. I kept thinking about it and when I went back to buy it, it was gone and I haven’t seen a copy of it since.

Why do you still collect records?

It’s funny, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with vinyl because I’ve been on the manufacturing side. It is expensive, profits can be low, the storage and shipping logistics are difficult, and you end up with a lot of waste, but despite all of its shortcomings, the format has endured. I think this speaks to our collective love of the format.

There are two reasons I buy vinyl. You can go into record stores that specialize in used records and you can dig through and just pick up what looks interesting. It’s something you wouldn’t have encountered elsewhere so it’s worth taking a risk as you might love it, and they’re cheap. If I don’t like it, I can go and trade it.

You can also buy brand-new albums to support current artists. That is a big reason why I continue to collect vinyl, it’s a great way to put money into the industry where it needs to be. It creates demand for vinyl, but it doesn’t stop you from listening to them online, so you’re supporting multiple income streams. If you go to a show, buy a t-shirt and a record, you’re helping guarantee a long career for the artist you love. Everyone wins.