We just love the ordered simplicity behind the boggling selection available in every category of music, film, games - and the supremely helpful staff. This is the place to satisfy every audio-visual urge!

Spring is the time for rebirth and renewal... and what better excuse can you have for updating your CD and DVD collection? It's not an indulgence. It's a seasonal must-do. Happily, this month HMV have some great new music releases to put a bounce in your step and some absorbing films to recharge emotionally. 

And, if you just can't bear to give those thumbs a rest, check below for the latest gaming challenges!   

Music

Detours - Sheryl Crow

Veteran guitar-playing songstress follows up 2005's Wildflowers with an album packed full of her trademark beautiful melodies and catchy, infectious lyrics which are sure please fans old and new.

Thriller - Michael Jackson

Deluxe 25^th anniversary reissue of the biggest selling album of all time, a bone fide phenomenon that instantly transformed Jackson into a global megastar and has since sold over 100 million copies. Featuring five top 10 UK singles - including ‘Billie Jean', arguably Jackson's greatest song - this new version also contains remixes by some of today's biggest names in RnB, a previously unreleased track from the original album sessions and a bonus DVD with "digitally enhanced" promo videos.

Rockferry - Duffy

The debut album from the Welsh singer, written and produced in collaboration with Bernard Butler, is a stunning showcase for Duffy's voice which is reminiscent of Dusty Springfield, Lulu and Sandie Shaw.

Seventh Tree - Goldfrapp

Goldfrapp are back with their fourth album which was recorded at their own studio deep in the English countryside. A sensual counterpoint to the glitterball glamour of Supernature,  this new offering shimmers and shines with the warmth of a hazy summer, an electric whirlpool over which Alison's glistening voice soars.

Antidote - Foals

What links the minimalism of American composer Steve Reich, guitars that sound like insects and tennis player Andy Roddick? The answer is one word: Foals. Despite strained intra-band relations, they quickly identified a winning formula - driving percussion hight in the mix, guitars played above the 12^th fret, no chords and splashes of synth colour.

Red - Guillemots

After cutting his teeth in UK indie acts during the late 1990s, pop visionary Fyfe Dangerfield formed the Guillemots in London in 2004. While their sound has hints of the atmospheric pop that marked many of the UK's top acts in the early 2000s, Dangerfield brought a truly distinctive vision to his music. The result is a twinkling, lovingly off-kilter take on orchestrated pop. Highly recommended.

Greatest Hits - Morrissey

Notorious fromer Smiths frontman Steven Patrick Morrissey's solo material has always divided opinion, but his Greatest Hits nonetheless compiles the highlights of an extensive back catalogue and two new songs, including the newly released single ‘That's How People Grow Up'.

Keep it Simple - Van Morrison

He first came to notice as the  powerful vocalist of the mid-1960s group, Them, and then with the solo hit ‘Brown-Eyed Girl'. As complex a performer as any that rock'n'roll has produced - masterfully combining folk, gospel, rock and jazz - the soulful Irishman continues to mix his pensive and passionate R&B-inflected rock with a decidedly mystical bent.

Bryan Adams

His 11^th studio album comprises 11 new tracks in classic style.

Started a Fire - One Night Only

Formed in 2003, the band started out as school friends in rural North Yorkshire. The teenagers became the subject of a fierce record company battle and eventually signed a deal in March last year. Full of melodic bounce, this album - produced by the legendary Steve Lilywhite (U2) - shows that they really are a band to watch out for.

Join with Us - The Feeling

The second album from the Sussex-based group picks up where the debut Twelve Stops and Home left off. Recalling ELO, Queen and Yes, the band take their blend of 1970s influenced soft rock and pop to subtle new heights. This is a carefully crafted record packed with sing-along hits and memorable melodies.

DVDs

The Invasion

This slick sci-fi horror hybrid is the fourth adaptation of Jack Finney's The Body Snatchers to land on screens. Infused with modern details like text messaging and 24-hour cable news, it updates the classic story of an alien epidemic for today's tech-centric world. The plot: after the space shuttle Patriot crashes unexpectedly, people across America begin to exhibit strange behaviour. Psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) notices the change in those around her and attempts to unravel the mystery. Also starring Jeremy Northam and Daniel Craig.

Resident Evil - Extinction

It is three years after the action of Resident Evil - Apocalypse and the world has turned to desert in this third film based on the now-classic video game. Survivors of the zombie-making T-virus are few and far between, but Alice (Milla Jovovich) treks her way across the desolate landscape, fending off zombies and fighting the Umbrella Corporation. Jovovich has perfected the role of the dangerous beauty.

Ratatouille - Winner of 2008 Golden Globe Award, Best Animated Film

In the new Pixar animated adventure, a rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family's wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau. Despite the apparent dangers of being an unwanted visitor in the gourmet kitchen, Remy's passion for cooking soon sets into motion a hilarious and exciting race that turns the culinary world of  Paris upside down.

Stardust

Based on the best-selling graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, this film takes audiences on an adventure that begins in a village in England and ends up in places that exist in an imaginary world. A young man named Tristan (Charlie Cox) tries to win the heart of Victoria (Sienna Miller), the beautiful but cold object of his desire, by going on a quest to retrieve a fallen star.

Games

Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends (DS)

Sequel to the best-selling cooking simulation game, this promises even more fun and even tastier gameplay as Mama cooks up a spicy storm with new recipes, twice as many mini-games and an all-new multiplayer mode to challenge other players to "cook off".

Frontlines: Fuel of War (Xbox 360)

An open world, infantry- and vehicle-based First Person Shooter featuring advanced next-gen weaponry in a desperate, near future setting where controlling the planet's depleting fossil resources determines the ultimate fate of civilization. A global war for oil is being waged between two superpowers, the Western Coalition (US/EU) and the Red Star Alliance (Russia/China), and players will be instrumental in determining how the war is waged - and won.

Lost (PS3)

As a passenger of Oceanic Flight 815, you survived the crash and find yourself on an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. As you begin to unravel mysteries of the island, you begin to discover secrets of your own.

You have to understand your past mistakes in order to survive and find your way home.

F Bowling: Pinbusters! (Wii)

This allows you to experience the excitement of the lanes alone or with up to four players. Utilising the Wii Remote, Pinbusters caters to any gamer looking for pick up and play action in a festive, party atmosphere.

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