Why I'm Not Bothering with Record Store Day This Year

First of all, I want to make it clear that I'm not writing this because I want everyone to boycott Record Store Day. I'm all for supporting independent record shops, and queuing up for those special RSD releases is as good a way as any to do that; even if tomorrow morning is the only time you visit your local store all year, I guess it's better than nothing at all. Indeed, this quote from Ashli Todd (co-owner of Spillers Records, the shop where I buy most of my CDs) makes it clear that businesses like hers really need people to turn out for Record Store Day in particular:

"There are some great releases [on Record Store Day], but you have to sell everything, as the stock is non-returnable, and getting that right over 550 releases is a huge pressure. Some shops still haven't broken even from last year's event."

- From this Times article (you have to subscribe to read the whole thing, sadly)

So it certainly isn't my aim to persuade you to give Record Store Day a miss this year. By all means, get up at the crack of dawn and fill your boots with limited edition vinyl - just know that I'll be tucked up in bed, not caring that you beat me to a discful of Interpol remixes or a repressing of Regina Spektor's third album.

A Crack in Everything: Ocean Rain

Welcome to A Crack in Everything, the thing I sometimes do where I point out everything that's bad about the albums I love. It's a positive process.

Telling everyone that your new record is "the greatest album ever made" is risky business. Sure, it gets our attention, but you're setting yourself up for quite the tumble - after all, there aren't many albums that could live up to that kind of hype.

It's to Echo & The Bunnymen's credit, then, that Ocean Rain was extremely well-received; given the hyperbolic marketing campaign, even a quite-good album would have been laughed out of town. But Ocean Rain was good enough that people could kind of see where McCulloch and Co were coming from. Even if it wasn't really The Greatest Album Ever Made, it was close enough that the rock world were prepared to let it slide. After all, it would be churlish to complain about the album that gave the world My Kingdom and Seven Seas and The Killing Moon.