Yes, ABSOLUTELY clean your investment. Sometimes, brand new albums need cleaning even more than a decades old album. There can be a variety of factory contaminants, vinyl fragments and oils buried in the grooves. Frankly, I am amazed this is even a question. I ultrasonically clean every album when I get it, and then a short clean every six months. I can show you my filter after cleaning brand new, and visually perfect used albums. It get black.
Di I really need to clean my LP's?
Recently, when announcing to a relative my intent to use a recently purchased Spin-Clean Record Washer on some LP’s, of which I am the original owner and which have not been played in decades, her reply was, “If you’ve always handled them correctly, and stored them in their sleeves, why do you need to clean them?” I think that this is a very good question. Is there a good reason for me to clean them?