Courtesy of World In Photo.

The Store

The most underrated place in the world to get vinyl has got to be Goodwill. Really, any thrift store carrying mostly musty grandpa sweaters and old shoes will oftentimes have one lonely box of records right under the VHS collection. The greatest part about finding records at thrift stores, besides the usual $1 per LP price tag, is that there is no one to jack up prices based on condition or rarity. The employees just slap 0.99 cent stickers on them toss the disks of wax in a crate to collect more dust. I heard once that a friend of a friend found a Smiths record at a small Florida thrift store, although I’ve never had such astounding luck. The long-forgotten boxes in the corners of every thrift store in the country may not all have abandoned copies of your favorite perpetually sad Brit, but there’s always something interesting to explore.

The Finds

• Barbra Streisand- Greatest Hits

My first thought was “I now know what to play if I ever feel the need to have an adult dinner party.‰” My 2nd through 15th thoughts were “dear lord now I get it.‰” How did I go so long without listening to the soul crushing beauty that is Barbra Streisand?

• Poco Loco Guitars (plus brass)- Love Songs South of the Border

Found on MusicStack.

The first song I listened to when playing this for the first time was “Adios Marquita Linda Amor‰” and it sounded oddly like it belonged in an 70s monster themed television show. That was really cool but unfortunately the listening experience went downhill from there and turned into simple background music as the record slowly lost my attention.

• Hanaan And Her Ensemble ‰Û_‰ÛÒ Music of Arabia

This is gonna date me, but back in the day that was 2007 there was this rad The Sound of Animals Fighting song featuring a female vocalist singing in Sanskrit. The song is basically the least annoying and arguably most creative thing to come out of the early 2000s “emo‰” scene of my youth. If it wasn’t for that small glimmer into the arena of world music many years ago I would have flipped right by this record. This was obviously strange to listen to at first, but the music on the record revealed itself to range from rhythmic dance music to slow ballads only made more beautiful by the music‰’s mystical lyrics.

Verdict

I now have three highly viable options to play in my home when my future in-laws come over to judge how effectively I can fake having my life in order.