heya
just a touch of nostalgia, look you see, in a dual format i suppose. i took it upon myself to wander and to browse hmv recently; just before the most recent lockdown. whereas i had no intention of purchasing anything as such, to do so would have been a most splendid thing.
to eliminate any false (and needless) sense of suspense or drama, no i did not buy anything. an outcome which, alas, has been far too frequent the case with my most increasingly infrequent visits. unsure if there shall be further, frankly. maybe i just own already all the decent albums what one can get off of a shop, perhaps no great albums which have a conventional retail release are likely to be created.
ostensibly, then, HMV still operates as a store which was known as the home of music. there above is the window display, and indeed music is advertised. no clue what the bottom two albums are, but above are more easy to identify. the one is Cliff, or Sir Cliff, which probably has a built in target market and will be quite handy for random Christmas gifts. as much of a fan of U2 as i am, also featured is the utterly pointless All That You Can't Leave Behind anniversary edition. the two disc reissue consists of the album and a "highlights" live CD, for £14.99. for context, you can go into most branches of Poundland and get the album for £1, whereas the 2 DVD set of the full concert they offer CD highlights of can be bought online for £2 or £3. i am not sure i see the value in paying for a slightly different booklet with slightly different pictures of Larry the drummer and whoever.
as for the remainder of this section of window, as you can (kind of) make out it features many things not specifically music related, but all the same pertaining to "pop culture". with particular emphasis, of course, on the frog out of The Adventures Of Buckethead And The Frog, or 'Baby Yoda' as he (or she, or it, or whatever) is most commonly referred to. this serves as a hint as what one shall find inside.
diversification is, of course, a good thing for any business, and makes sense. however, to walk into HMV and find some music shoved on the end of a large aisle filled with sweets was, in truth, depressions. yes, this is what we have become, i suppose, turning our back on the sheer beauty of physical format music, instead opting for illicit downloads and "streaming". you can't touch, feel, hold or own a stream, you can't bond with it. but i am a dying breed.
in addition to the sweets they also had a whole stack of seemingly unsold "blind box" things full of "merch". these were on offer for £9.99, with an indication that the contents were worth "at least" £25 on amazon. well, maybe. but then again anyone can register to sell things on amazon, and list those items at any price which takes their fancy, so that's not much of an indicator of actual value. surely, i was kind of tempted, but ultimately no i did not buy one as it might well have been "merch" for something i had not the slightest interest in.
some consideration was given to a purchase. by, or rather at, the time of my visit to HMV, the order i had placed online for the four (4) CD version of Flaunt It off of Sigue Sigue Sputnik was two weeks overdue. whereas i was in no rush to hear it, i was getting a trifle miffed. it seemed wise to investigate just buying it in a music shop and cancelling the (seemingly) forever delayed online order. sadly, or alas, HMV had opted to charge £10 more for it in the shop that the online price. no thanks, waited and it did indeed turn up within the week. yes, some sort of post of comments on it all, eventually.
whereas i have no official confirmation or experience of such directly, i am imagining or assuming that someone somewhere has decided that HMV is "non essential" and taken it as a given that they are now closed under the new lockdown thing. or maybe they have just started selling sweets as a "food product" so as to be allowed to remain trading. chances of me returning seem, alas, sadly slim.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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