Los Angeles — EARLIER this month the Canadian singer Nelly Furtado, who has sold more than 20 million singles worldwide, released an album that almost no one could find, and even fewer could listen to. That’s because the recording, “Hadron Collider,” which she made with the musician Blood Orange, was presented in a format once thought long relegated to the trash heap of tech history: the cassette tape.

Many people over 30 remember cassettes, with nostalgia, if not some disdain. And yet, for a slice of music fandom, Ms. Furtado’s choice of medium makes perfect sense. Cassettes, somehow, are making a comeback.

Go to any indie show and inevitably, among the T-shirts and knickknacks, there will be tapes. Some record labels are now cassette-only. The National Audio Co., America’s largest manufacturer of audiocassettes, reported that 2014 was its best year yet.

But before the revisionists completely rewrite my adolescence, let’s be clear about something: As a format for recorded sound, the cassette tape is a terrible piece of technology. It’s a roll of tape in a box. It’s essentially an office supply.