Posts Tagged Book Review
Archive
August 21, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Ezra Furman: Lou Reed’s Transformer (33 1/3)
Lou Reed’s Transformer (33 1/3) Ezra Furman Bloomsbury Academic The death of the album – so greatly exaggerated. And the 33 1/3 series of books in tribute to classic albums (old and new) continues to trot out the titles. Here, musician Ezra Furman looks at Lou Reed’s Transformer album in this volume of the same […]Archive
June 9, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
James Rhodes: Fire On All Sides
Fire On All Sides James Rhodes Quercus James Rhodes, the classical pianist with rock’n’roll swagger, is a prodigy-level player that’s not there to please the purists but is – in his love of the music and his ability as conduit for it – far closer to being a purist than any of the snobs he […]Archive
April 24, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Brett Anderson: Coal Black Mornings
Coal Black Mornings Brett Anderson Little, Brown [This review originally appeared at The Spinoff] We are drawn, so often, to music memoirs for the clichés of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. The very best ones, however, ignore these tenets. Think Patti Smith’s Just Kids or Bob Dylan’s Chronicles. They also exist for both the mouth-breathing, moisty-palmed […]Archive
March 3, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Gabrielle Union: We’re Going To Need More Wine
We’re Going To Need More Wine: Stories Gabrielle Union Dey Street Books A memoir – in stories, We’re Going To Need More Wine is candid, well written. It’s both funny and heart-breaking. You know Gabrielle Union from so many movies and TV shows – but she was the ugly duckling at school, or so she […]Archive
February 28, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Art Garfunkel: What Is It All But Luminous
What Is It All But Luminous: Notes From An Underground Man Art Garfunkel Knopf; First Edition edition Something like starting from the beginning feels like the right thing to do… Do you remember that clip of Art Garfunkel talking absolute-fucking-balderdash between takes in the studio? For his memoir he’s essentially done the same thing. Why […]Archive
February 26, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Teju Cole: Blind Spot
Blind Spot Teju Cole Random House Award-winning novelist, essayist and journalist Teju Cole here provides an innovative, masterful meditation on the way we see things; the relationship/s between words and images. Blind Spot is all at once a set of micro-essays, a photography book, a travel diary and yet it transcends all – stands on […]Archive
February 18, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Jerry Dantzic: Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill
Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: With a Reflection by Zadie Smith Jerry Dantzic Thames & Hudson; 1 edition Less a review, more a recommendation – though sometimes one exist for exactly the other – this book of Billie Holiday photographs is a must-see/read for fans of the singer, the era; for fans of beautiful black […]Archive
January 25, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Tex Perkins (w/ Stuart Coupe): TEX
TEX Tex Perkins (w/ Stuart Coupe) Macmllan Australia Tex Perkins’ version of hard work involves a hell of a lot of partying and good times. And his memoir, scratched into place in perfectly digestible bite-sized pieces, has a hell of a lot of great stories.Archive
January 14, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
Matthew Weiner: Heather, The Totality
Heather, The Totality Matthew Weiner Little, Brown and Company; First Edition edition Matthew Weiner is best known as the creator of the TV show Mad Men, ahead of that he was a writer on The Sopranos – this is his first novel. It’s a slim volume, almost a novella really – the prose is sparse, […]Archive
December 13, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib: They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us
They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us: Essays Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib Two Dollar Radio I don’t mean this to sound at all trite, I mean it as a huge compliment – even if it might feel a forced comparison, but Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib’s work here in this book of profoundly moving, politically urgent, poetic essays reads […]Archive
December 3, 2017 by Simon Sweetman