Anybody with at least a passing interest in collecting vinyl will surely have heard of Record Store Day: an annual event celebrating independent record stores across the UK, US, Australia and more.
Each year, a number of special limited edition albums are pressed on vinyl and released to celebrate the occasion.
These can only be picked up from participating independent stores, meaning you won't find them at HMV, Urban Outfitters, or Amazon.
READ MORE — Huge Edinburgh queues spotted as fans descend into frenzy for Record Store Day
The Record Store Day releases also can't be pre-ordered or bought over the phone or on the internet, meaning if you want to pick one up you need to head down to your local shop on the day.
While I have been collecting vinyl for a few years now, I had never previously gotten involved before, but decided that this year I wanted to check it out for the first time.
Taking a look at the list of all the exclusive albums, which Record Store Day has on its official website, there was a lot that I was interested in.
Unfortunately, with my limited budget, I had to edit my list down to two records: The Sea by Corinne Bailey Rae and to hell with it by PinkPantheress.
Most people will likely be familiar with a few songs from Bailey Rae's self-titled debut album — particularly 'Put Your Records On', which reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart back in 2006 — but her second album flew under the radar, and I've been waiting years for it to be repressed on vinyl.
PinkPantheress has already made huge waves in her short career after several of her songs went viral on TikTok last year. Her debut mixtape to hell with it, which managed to reach number 20 on the Official Albums Chart, is a unique mix of dance-pop, drum and bass, and garage music.
With my goal set, I took a look at the participating Edinburgh stores on Record Store Day, and decided I would hit up Assai Records first.
I was surprised to learn that it was opening its doors an hour early at 8am, and realised that more people were likely to attend than I had previously assumed.
In light of this, I decided to play it safe and set my alarm early and aim to be at Assai for 7.30am.
Assai Records
Naturally, I slept through my alarm and didn't wake up until after 7am.
I was already running late and didn't have time to pick up some coffee, so I ordered an Uber to Assai Records on Grindlay Street rather than face the 45-minute walk from my flat.
While the Uber arrived a little later than planned, I reckoned it wasn't too big of a deal as it was the still over half an hour before the shop even opened.
I couldn't believe my eyes when the car pulled up outside the store and there was a queue of at least 100 people stretching all the way around the block.
Although I knew that some keen beans would arrive to the shop hours before it even opened, I had no idea so many people would be willing to hang around in the cold.
After more than an hour queuing, I was at last allowed into the store, where a member of staff greeted me by asking what albums I was looking for.
I gave them my short list, and within seconds I had both records in my hand.
After all that queuing, I wasn't quite ready to leave the store — and the warmth — so I took a bit of a look around to see what else I could pick up.
Since I was still relatively early, there were a lot of albums on the shelves that I had spotted from the list on the Record Store Day website.
From Childish Gambino's hip-hop and R&B dual mixtape STN MTN / Kauai to Mariah Carey's greatest hits collections Number 1's to A Frightened Rabbit EP, I was suddenly wishing I had more to spend and so thought it was a good time to leave Assai.
Underground Solu'shn
Although I'd picked up the two albums I'd wanted, and seen a few more that I was interested in, I was riding high on adrenaline and wasn't ready to end the day there.
I decided to head over to Underground Solu'shn, and independent dance, electronic and specialist record shop on Cockburn Street just off of Princes Street.
With the Corinne Bailey Rae and PinkPantheress record safely in my tote bag, I forewent another Uber and decided to walk over — finally picking up some coffee on the way.
When I got there, I found another queue out the door, though it wasn't as mammoth as the one at Assai.
After around half an hour of waiting, I was at last let into the store.
Those who have shopped at Underground Solu'shn before will know that it is a very petite store, and so not one fitted to the massive crowds of Record Store Day.
In light of this, they wisely had their own system of stocking albums in which staff asked customers one-by-one which records they were looking to pick up and handed whatever they had over the counter.
Because of this, there was no opportunity to sift through all of the albums on offer, and so I left the shop and had a think about where to head next.
Avalanche Records
I'd only planned to check out two record shops today, but after my visit to Underground Solu'shn my thirst for browsing wasn't quite satiated.
I checked my phone to see where the other record shops were, and while I would have liked to have checked out VoxBox — one of my favourites in the city — I wasn't so keen on the 20-plus minute walk.
I decided instead to head to Avalanche Records, an indie shop in Waverley Mall that I'd never visited before — and what better time to try it out.
Maybe because of its slightly more hidden location, or because all of the most eager music fans had already came and been, the was not a queue in sight when I rocked up to the shop.
While their selection wasn't as big as the previous two stores, it was a massive relief to be able to move around without feeling like I was too close to a fellow shopper's personal space.
There were a few things I spotted that I would have bought had I been able to afford them, such as a picture disk of The Cure's 1982 album Pornography and Frightened Rabbit's State Hospital EP.
And with that I had decided I had had enough of Record Store Day for one year.
With my two albums in tow, I headed home happy, exhilarated, and exhausted.
