The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The Music Shop 

by Rachel Joyce (Steven Hartley, Narrator)

Release Date: January 2nd, 2018

Genre: Fiction / Music / Romance 

8 hrs 30 mins

Published by Penguin Random House Audio

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️My Goodreads Rating 

BOOK BLURB:

1988. Frank owns a music shop. It is jam-packed with records of every speed, size and genre. Classical, jazz, punk – as long as it’s vinyl he sells it. Day after day Frank finds his customers the music they need.
Then into his life walks Ilse Brauchmann.
Ilse asks Frank to teach her about music. His instinct is to turn and run. And yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with her pea-green coat and her eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems. And Frank has old wounds that threaten to re-open and a past he will never leave behind ...

MY THOUGHTS:

The Music Shop is a nostalgic homage not just to vinyl lovers in general, but to a time when record stores were a place where one could go and talk about their love of music…

The year is 1988 in England.  Frank owns a neighborhood record store that only sells vinyl.  He refuses to sell tapes and/or CDs, but the record Reps keep telling him companies will stop making vinyl.  Production costs are too high and CD sounds are much cleaner.  Frank’s few clients love him.  Frank is like the music-guru-therapist, who can find you the exact music you need to listen in order to ease your troubles.  Together with his only employee, Kit, and the surrounding shop keepers, Frank is part of a community that accepted and welcomed him, and life is good.

“Music is about silence… the silence at the beginning of a piece of music is always different from the silence at the end… Because if you listen, the world changes. It’s like falling in love. Only no one gets hurt.”

Everything changed the day that Ilse Brauchmann fainted in front of his store.  Much to Frank’s surprise, Ilse confesses that she doesn’t listen to music…and so their journey begins.  They meet every week from then on, so that Frank can teach Ilse about music.  He teaches her about Vivaldi, Miles Davis, Sex Pistols, Joni Mitchell.  He talks about what he hears and feels when he listens to certain songs, and he tells Ilse to just listen…

“For Frank, music was like a garden – it sowed seeds in far-flung places. People would miss out on so many wonderful things if they only stuck with what they knew.” 
 
Joyce gave us a cast of characters that is funny and peculiar in their own ways.  In between music lessons, a lot of things happen, and just like real life, people move on, little shops close and music becomes digital.  You’ll need to read this beautiful book to find out what happens…   

“Because life goes on, the music told her, even when you think it can’t. Yes, there is fear. There is real cruelty. Not knowing what the fuck. Those things are there. But listen because there is this too—this beauty. The human adventure is worth it, after all.”

The Music Shop is an irresistible love story about two very different people and the music that brings them together.  A treasure to be cherished by all music and book lovers! 

The audiobook narrator, British actor  Steven Hartley, did a fantastic job!  I will be looking for other audiobooks narrated by him ♥
And, because this book touched me so much, I just couldn't resist ordering a copy of the physical book for my own collection.


”There was once a music shop. From the outside it looked like any shop, in any backstreet. It had no name above the door. No record display in the window. There was just a homemade poster stuck to the glass. FOR THE MUSIC YOU NEED!! EVERYONE WELCOME!! WE ONLY SELL VINYL!!”