You know you love vinyl—it sounds better than anything else, and it gives you the chance to examine large cover art and pore over info sheets inside. Before Spotify, this was how we hopefully found lyrics! And along with the beauty of LPs is the happy afternoon spent in a record store, moving through the albums in the bins. Flip, flip, flip. It’s not a lost art form, far from it. Recently, the Financial Times put together a list of the best record stores in the world, and we’re happy to tease out the five U.S. ones that landed on the list. Is it any surprise that four of them are in New York City and environs? Here we go!
Westsider Records, New York City
This store is only 10 minutes from Central Park and carries vintage jazz, classical, soul and disco. It’s at 233 W. 72nd St.
Jazz Record Center, New York City
You’ll have to take the elevator to the 8th floor to reach this haven of new and secondhand jazz albums. It’s at 236 W. 26th St.
Academy Records & CDs, New York City
This store carries an assortment of LPs, CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays, all at good prices. It’s at 12 W. 18th St.
Amoeba Music, Berkeley, CA
On Telegraph Avenue in the heart of the free speech movement’s origins near UC Berkeley, this amazing record store carries so much vinyl that it turns over quickly and rewards repeat visits. Other locations are in San Francisco and Los Angeles. It’s at 2455 Telegraph Ave.
The Thing, Brooklyn, NY
This basement thrift store lets you sift through unorganized collections, so come with an exploratory mindset rather than expecting to find the stacks alphabetized by genre. It’s at 1001 Manhattan Ave.