Böcker i 33 1/3-serien

Neil Young's "Harvest" is one of those strange albums that has achieved lasting success without ever winning the full approval of rock critics or hardcore fans. Inglis here explores the creation of the album and its lasting appeal.

33 1/3 is a new series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the last 40 years. Focusing on one album rather than an artist's entire output, the books dispense with the standard biographical background that fans know already, and cut to the heart of the music on each album.

33 1/3 is a new series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the last 40 years. Focusing on one album rather than an artist's entire output, the books cut to the heart of the music on each album. Joy Division only released two albums but they led the way out of punk rock and towards Madchester.

This epoch-making record of the late '80s effortlessly combines dense swathes of guitar noise and dance music. This turned out to be their last record, guitarist and studio maestro Kevin Shields having set their standards so high it was impossible to surpass them. Shields is now playing with Primal Scream.

Bruce Springsteen goes back on the road in 1984. Weinberg hits his drums with a two-fisted physicality that cut through the swelling chords. Springsteen sings with the throat-scraping desperation of a man with his back against the wall. When he reaches the crucial lines, the guitars and bass dropped out and Weinberg switches to just the hi-hat.

Talks about Josh Davis's (DJ Shadow) early years in California, the friends and mentors who helped him along the way, his relationship with Mo'Wax and James Lavelle, and the genesis and creation of his masterpiece, "Endtroducing" (released in 1996). This book includes several long conversations with him.

"Court and Spark" is Joni Mitchell's attempt at making a hit record, full of glossy production, catchy choruses, and even guest stars from every stratum of rock culture. The record was a smash, reaching number two on the charts in March of 1974, spawning three hit singles.

Since its release, "Sell Out", though still not the best selling release in "The Who's" catalog, has been embraced by a growing number of fans. As much as it is an expression of the band's expanding sonic palette, this work also functions as a critique of the rock and roll lifestyle.

"Songs in the Key of Life" is different from the four albums that preceded it; it's a maddeningly ambitious encapsulation of all the progress Stevie Wonder had made in that short space of time. This work covers Stevie Wonder's excessive work habits and recording methodology, his reliance on synthesizers, and other aspects.

Though "Nevermind" was Nirvana's most commercially successful album, and the record that broke them - and the grunge phenomenon - internationally, "In Utero" has increasingly become regarded as the band's best album, both by the critics and the band members themselves. This work tells the story behind the creation of "In Utero".

In the fall of 1980 Richard and Linda Thompson (of Fairport Convention fame) had recently been dumped from their record label and were on the verge of divorce. Somehow they overcame these miserable circumstances and managed to make an album considered by many to be a masterpiece. This title puts Richard and Linda Thompson's album in context.

A collection of short stories - each one a cover version of a song on "Rid of Me".

"Aja" was the album that made Steely Dan a commercial force on the order of contemporaries like Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and Chicago. A double-platinum, Grammy-winning bestseller, it lingered on the Billboard charts for more than a year and spawned three hit singles. This book paints a detailed picture of the making of a masterpiece.

Trent Reznor rode into music mythology on "Pretty Hate Machine", powered by Futurist industrial pistons and covered in ice-spiked synth hooks shined by new wave robots. Then there was his voice. This book interviews dozens of NIN fans to provide information on the heart of Reznor's very personal appeal.

Features twenty different writers' views on albums by Neutral Milk Hotel, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, David Bowie, the Pixies, the Beastie Boys, Nirvana, REM the Band and many more. This book also serves as a gift for the music lover in your life.

The Minutemen have enjoyed something of a revival, due to a chapter in Michael Azerrad's book "Our Band Could Be Your Life", and a documentary film, "We Jam Econo", showcasing the band's legacy. This book sheds light on the band's remarkable music and on an album. It includes interviews with Mike Watt, the band's bass player, and with others.

Takes a look at what many consider to be U2's most fully formed album through the prisms of politics, spirituality, and culture. This work features interviews with Daniel Lanois, Steve Lillywhite, Flood, and more.

Provides perspective on how Belle & Sebastian transformed themselves, over the space of a decade, from an underground, slightly shambolic cult secret into a polished, highly entertaining, mainstream pop group. This work includes interviews with band members, producers, management, and a range of fans.

Late in the Reagan years, three young men at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University formed the Christian rap group dc Talk. The trio put out a series of records that quickly secured their place at the forefront of contemporary Christian music. But, with their fourth studio album Jesus Freak (1995), dc Talk staked a powerful claim on the worldly market of alternative music, becoming an evangelical group with secular selling power.This book sets out to study this mid-90s crossover phenomenon-a moment of cultural convergence between Christian and secular music and an era of particular political importance for American evangelicalism. Written by two queer scholars with evangelical pasts, Jesus Freak explores the importance of a multifarious album with complex ideas about race, sexuality, gender, and politics-an album where dc Talk wonders, "What will people do when they hear that I'm a Jesus freak?" and evangelical fans stake a claim for Christ-like coolness in a secular musical world.

Released when ELP and Elton John were plodding from one packed stadium to the next, Radio City was a radical album. In time, power pop would become an official rock genre and the influence of Radio City would be widely heard through artists like The Bangles and Teenage Fanclub. This book examines the key ingredients of Radio City's lasting appeal.

In contrast with many of their punk peers, Wire were enigmatic and cerebral, always keeping a distance from the crowd. Although Pink Flag appeared before the end of 1977, it was already a meta-commentary on the punk scene and was far more revolutionary musically than the rest of the competition. This book tells about a punk band.

To absorb Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash is to be taken on a wild voyage with a cast of downtrodden revolutionaries. Despite this notion, the epic themes of the Pogues' second full length record have been overlooked by both critics and biographers. This book discusses the record's articulation of what it is to be magnificently downtrodden.

There was a time when people sat together to listen to records. This album with four separate CDs celebrates this disappearing moment.

Madness came to prominence in the UK in the wake of the Punk/New Wave explosion and must be seen in the context of Britain in the late 70s, musically, socially and politically. Through interviews with the band, this title tells the inside story of how Madness rose to be the most successful singles band of the 1980s in the UK charts.

Explores a key hip hop album marking the cross over point where the streets and the charts collided.

"Tusk", the first record in history to cross the million dollar threshold in production costs, was the Fleetwood Mac's critically acclaimed, commercially disappointing 1979 double album. This book looks at one of the most unusual albums ever released by a major rock band.

Offers an account of how the Bomb Squad produced a singular-sounding record - the engineering, sampling, scratching, constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing. This title delves into the original songs that were sampled and recontextualized. It shows which of the four Bomb Squad members had the most personal relationship with each sample.

Looks at the Rolling Stones band in the late 70s - inspired by a year just spent in the disco/punk cauldron of New York City. Weaving together the history of the band and the city, this title traces the genesis and legacy of the album that Mick Jagger would later call the band's best since "Let It Bleed".

In 1978, San Francisco, a city that has seen more than its share of trauma, plunged from a summer of political tension into an autumn cascade of malevolence that so eluded human comprehension it seemed almost demonic. The battles over property taxes and a ballot initiative calling for a ban on homosexuals teaching in public schools gave way to the madness of the Jonestown massacre and the murders of Mayor George Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk at the hands of their former colleague, Dan White.In the year that followed this season of insanity, it made sense that a band called Dead Kennedys played Mabuhay Gardens in North Beach, referring to Governor Jerry Brown as a "zen fascist," calling for landlords to be lynched and yuppie gentrifiers to be sent to Cambodia to work for "a bowl of rice a day," critiquing government welfare and defense policies, and, at a time when each week seemed to bring news of a new serial killer or child abduction, commenting on dead and dying children. But it made sense only (or primarily) to those who were there, to those who experienced the heyday of "the Mab."Most histories of the 1970s and 1980s ignore youth politics and subcultures. Drawing on Bay Area zines as well as new interviews with the band and many key figures from the early San Francisco punk scene, Michael Stewart Foley corrects that failing by treating Dead Kennedys' first record, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, as a critical historical document, one that not only qualified as political expression but, whether experienced on vinyl or from the stage of "the Mab," stimulated emotions and ideals that were, if you can believe it, utopian.