The things you find in JB Hi Fi sales, languishing in discount bins... :

• Built to Spill - Ancient melodies of the future : $5 ! I still haven't really listened to Keep it like a secret much yet, despite having picked it up last year. But it's the kind of thing I think I'd like.

• Emmylou Harris - Red Dirt Girl : $8. I still dunno if I'm entirely sold on all of her stuff, but I'd been meaning to pick this up for a while anyway. We'll see how it goes.

• Frank Black and the Catholics - (self-titled) : $6. I wonder if it's as good as Pistolero ?

• v/a - Free the West Memphis 3 : $4. something else I nearly bought last year in a second-hand shop, 'cause it had a curious-looking array of talent on it, along with the Supersuckers covering You Am I's Heavy Heart.

• v/a - Heartaches and Highways, volume 1 : $6. Random country stuff that I'll probably get around to listening to on a rainy day, or something.

• The Apples in Stereo - The discovery of a world inside the moone : $4. I'd nearly bought this as an exploratory thing, back at the time it was floating around, but didn't quite manage it. What a bargain !

I also picked up a few new things, although once I noticed how much I was carrying, I put Elvis Costello and Jonathan Richman back. some other time, perhaps.

• Sheryl Crow - c'mon c'mon : I've never owned a Sheryl Crow album until now. And to answer Mavis, who said "I didn't even know you liked her," I suggested that I've become curious after the numerous half-decent tracks she's turned in on various tribute albums and other compilations I've picked up in the last few years. So I still don't know if I like her, but we'll see.

• Pet Shop Boys - release : I'd almost let them go when Nightlife came out - I hadn't bothered to buy it, but then a friend gave it to me while I visited NYC back in February 2000, and it was Good. They're a band I've followed throughout their existence (or at least, I've followed them via my sister's album collection since they started), and so I may as well keep going. right ?

• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - anthology through the years : more idle curiosity, really.