The National

Not a big post today. The other night I was wondering around CD Plus in the local mall and for the first time, was impressed with the selection of music contained within. Typically one can never really find what you're really interested in, but sometimes the store pulls through and has some non-mainstream album you would actually purchase. I kind of feel like I'm borderline here, as a lot of the "indie" stuff I listen to is carried here.

The National is one of those bands whom I can purchase any of their albums and be completely satisfied in the pick-up. I managed to snatch a two disc edition of Alligator at the same store here a number of months ago, and the other night I grabbed Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers. The clerk was impressed with the album and said they should be getting even more of The National in sometime as more people request it. Good news because they're definitely my favourite music at the moment.

Going back a step, I was also impressed, standing at the front of the store and marvelling in the rows and rows of CDs, that they would have so much music there. Sure, they have a lot of DVDs, but they are somewhat crammed together and pushed to one side of the store. I was taking in the site because a recent trip to an HMV revealed that the majority of their sales is not from music anymore, but DVDs and now video games. You could even buy a Wii there! Which just does not seem right to me at all.

HMV was the go-to store for hard to find music. Although their prices were jacked up ridiculously, they would have what you wanted. Not so much anymore. So I'm now happy we have a CD Plus whose focus is still music (they even have a used section), although for the truly hard to find stuff, we'll have to depend on the online realm.

Oh yeah, if you haven't listened to The National yet, please do so!