Second Hand Music

Hi everyone, long time no speak.  Hope you’ve all been well.  As you may have guessed life has been hectic lately and the whole blog thing slipped a bit.  Hopefully I’ll get back on track.

In the past few months I’ve been buying a lot of inexpensive, second hand CD’s online to add the albums and artists to my collection that I didn’t feel the need to rush out and buy on the day of release.

I have bought some great albums that have slipped under my radar over the years and the few albums that I haven’t enjoyed quite so much haven’t bothered me as I’ve paid so little for them.  I’ve also been gradually replacing the albums I had on cassette and never got round to buying on CD and it has been a real blast from the past listening to the music that shaped my childhood.

When you can buy an album for under £2 I see no reason whatsoever to illegally download music and it is a good way to round out my music collection.

Some of the stand-out albums I’ve bought are ‘Separate Ways’ by Teddy Thompson, ’The Gadfly’ by Shostakovich, ’The Greatest’ by Cat Power and ’Torches’ by Foster the People.   Some old favourites I’ve replaced from my cassette buying days are Bon Jovi’s first few albums, ‘Hysteria’ by Def Leppard, ‘Gold:Greatest Hits’ by the Carpenters and a Best of Billy Ocean.

The old favourites have reminded me what great music some artists have made and The Carpenters have been played by me a lot.  I always knew Karen Carpenters voice was beautiful, but I haven’t played this album in ages and I forgot just how stunning it is.

Billy Ocean is an artist my mum liked as I grew up and listening to this took me straight back to sitting in the back seat of our car as we drove to my mums best friends house and hearing this from the tiny car speakers.  It was a warm and happy memory.

I’ve also noticed how some bands have gone off the boil.  Bon Jovi used to be such a good band, with some solid light rock and it feels with the albums they’ve released in recent years that they’ve turned into a schmaltzy romance rock band.  Saying that, I’m eagerly looking forward to Richie Sambora’s (Bon Jovi guitarist) new solo album that is released in a couple of weeks.

‘The Gadfly’ is one of those albums that my stepfather used to rouse me with in the morning and I never owned it for myself.  After being on holiday with him recently and him playing it for me again I thought I would buy it for myself and it is a beautiful piece of classical music and worth tracking down if you get the time.  I bought my copy for 1p and P+P on top!!!!

There have been many more albums I’ve bought lately and it has certainly been a rich and enjoyable few months listening and hopefully I’ll share some more of these with you.  Do any of you buy music second hand and have you found some gems you would otherwise have ignored this way?