The Joy of Record Shops

HMV recently announced that they are going to close 60 of their High Street shops due to falling sales. I actually went in one this week to choose a birthday present for my wife. In the past they have rather annoyed me because not only have their music collections become limited by the encroachment of DVD and video game sales, but they subdivide their music into narrow (and often erroneous) categories like Folk, Country, Jazz, Metal, Dance (which I assume is waltzes and foxtrots) and something called "Urban" (which I assume is everything other than Country).

I always organize my record collection into artist A-Z and classical composer A-Z because, largely, this is how I listen to music: classical by composer and everything else by the recording artist. I was actually quite surprised to find that the Sauchiehall Street branch of HMV had arranged their selections in mainly alphabetical fashion. This is great as not only can I find things without second guessing which category they have deemed appropriate but I tend to bump into things that I would not necessarily find with an on-line vendor such as Amazon.

Of course, 90% of what is on display is of little interest and I find that I emulate that old Chewing The Fat sketch whereby the lead characters give an instant appraisal to all and sundry: "Wank. Wank. Wank. Good Guy. Wank. Wank. Wank. Wank. Wank. Good Guy. Wank. Good Guy. Good Guy. Wank..." and so on.

But it is surprising that there are quite a few artists that have appealed to me in the past and yet I have never bought anything by them. Billy Joel had a decent compilation album there. Do I like him? I remember buying an Elton John album which was played 2 or 3 times and then forgotten as his songs are pleasant enough tunes but don't really do anything for me beyond background music. Pink Floyd - should I replace those 3 CDs that went "odd" on me. The White Stripes? I know I like some of their stuff but I've never bought any.

So many things to chose and so little money! Also, so little time - I was, after all, meant to be choosing a birthday present. I looked along to "V" for Vampire Weekend which I knew Nina was interested in. All that was there was a blank marker card. Bugger! I then had a brainwave as I knew she liked Paloma Faith. Nothing again, but one of the shop assistants pointed out that they had her CD in the sale. I had a look but nothing again. I did see an Evanescence CD which I had some idea Nina liked. This is the gothy band featuring Amy Lee on vocals - or "that weird witchy woman" as I once called her. I then noticed that this was a 2 for 1 offer. I looked at the beginning and saw an ABBA album which I thought "would do".

It was only when I was making my way back to Queen Street station that I noticed that there is another HMV where the Virgin Megastore used to be. I went in but, again, there was no Vampire Weekend. They did, however, have Paloma Faith. The shop was nearly closing so I looked quickly for a second disk. It was between Faith No More, a sort of heavy rock band who I liked in the early 90s before Nirvana came along, and Faithless - I think they are an electronic group of some sort. I didn't bother finding out and just bought the disk before heading for my train.

Well, the Paloma Faith and ABBA sent down well, Evanescence is "good music to slit your wrists to" and Faithless was a bit boring: well, three out of four wasn't bad. So that is the joy of record shops. It's a different sort of shopping to the online world but with a sense of excitement at finding those little gems, lying lost at the back of a dim memory. However, they are a dying breed. In a few years it will be online or nothing.