The truly staggering amount of oil that it takes to make a record
All the shipping, the vinyl, the cellophane lining, the high gloss
The tape and the gear Father John Misty – Now I'm Learning to Love the War
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Crude oil is a chief component of vinyl compound; it’s estimated that approximately one barrel of crude oil is needed to make 50 vinyl records, and that’s not even considering packaging or the gasoline for shipping.
Tillman questions the harmful effects of consumerism through the precise thing he’s trying to sell you – vinyl records – evoking the kind of self-referential irony that he strives for:
In terms of how I employ irony, there’s something useful about admitting that I’m trying not to think about how much oil it takes to make a record. The point of [“Now I’m Learning to Love the War”] is me asking this question that I think is useful to everyone, which is ‘what am I going to do with these resources and with my time that is useful and in the end is gonna benefit people?’ Is it just gonna be self gratification and navel-gazing? I think that that’s useful irony.
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