In my review of Kelly Clarkson’s Breakaway I mentioned that if I were to pick one album to perfectly represent the early 2000’s as an era, it would be Avril Lavignes Let Go. At the time I didn’t own a copy of that album, but soon after writing it I found a copy at Barnes and Noble one sale for 8 bucks (I also found Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters, sweet!) You may think that such an advocate for used media and searching for albums would turn up her nose at buying new music from such a mainstream store, but I actually love looking for music at Barnes and Noble. Their selection is tiny and mostly mainstream, so finding something you like rocks! I could just buy these more popular albums on Discogs or eBay for cheap, but wheres the fun in that?
I still view thrift shops, local record stores and libraries as the best place to find obscure albums from artists you’ve never heard of, but when I wanna add Queens greatest hits to my collection I’m fine with buying it new. But then, that raises a moral quandary: at a big record store you give your money to the big artist, but at a thrift store none of your money goes to the artist. This is indeed a problem, but one I can justify by time. I think the artist with no other releases is banking on residuals from an album that’s 20 years old all that much. Plus, I’ve found artists at thrift stores that I then went on to fund by buying new releases of theirs. It’s a system that I feel works well enough for me, though realistically I could’ve totally found Queens Greatest for pennies online. Oh well, I just really needed to listen to Innuendo.
Oh yeah, the album. It’s good, not as many songs got radio play as Breakaway had, but it’s pretty good. I think I still prefer Kelly Clarkson, though. If I hear sk8er boy on the radio I’m gonna rock out, but I don’t seek these songs out as much. Obviously you can find this album everywhere, physical and digital.
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