Shop talk

It's been a while coming, but Episode 3 of Sounding Bored is now up online, barely hours after being recorded. Inevitably we had to kick off with some reflections on Prince's legacy, before getting into the meat of the episode: a discussion of record shops, the pressures they're under, their prospects for the future and the (questionable) value of Record Store Day. Needless to say, I took the opportunity to sing the praises of Spillers in Cardiff and Piccadilly in Manchester, as well as paying tribute to Nottingham's late, great Selectadisc and very recent casualties Avalanche (Edinburgh) and The Music Exchange (Nottingham). We wrapped up with an appraisal of Anna Meredith's extraordinary debut album Varmints, out on Moshi Moshi.