33 1/3 Greatest Hits, Volume 2

by David Barker (Editor)

Overview

The second compendium of extracts from Continuum's acclaimed and successful 33 1/3 series, Volume 2 features 20 sharp, savvy and very different writers' takes on albums by Neutral Milk Hotel, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, David Bowie, the Pixies, the Beastie Boys, Nirvana, R.E.M, the Band and many more. A perfect gift for the music lover in your life!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826428769
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/15/2007
Series:	33 1/3 Series , #2
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	348
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.73(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Elvis Costello

2. R.E.M.

3. Jeff Buckley

4. DJ Shadow

5. The MC5

6. Bruce Springsteen

7. David Bowie

8. The Band

9. Neutral Milk Hotel

10. Sly and the Family Stone

11. The Pixies

12. Beastie Boys

13. Stone Roses

14. Nirvana

15. Bob Dylan

16. My Bloody Valentine

17. The Who

18. Guided By Voices

19. Sonic Youth

20. Joni Mitchell

Editorial Reviews

This odd, beautiful collection was spawned from an odd and beautiful idea. Come up with a list of 50 classic albums for the last four decades, email it out to a diverse group of writers, musicians, industry wonks, and some people who defy description, and ask them to write a brief book about why they love it. David Barker did just that with his 33 1/3 series. He found the response from writers impressive and popular. The series of books, which can only be described as cute (measuring slightly bigger than a deck of cards and about half as thick), are a mixed bag that run the gamut from eye-opening looks at the essence of an album to pieces that leap the bounds of appreciation and are positively obsessive. This anthology brings together selections from the first 20 volumes of the series. On the whole, 33 1/3 Greatest Hits is an awesome romp. Think of it as a party filled with your smartest and most literate music friends. We all have at least one album we love, for whatever reason-it got you through a bad period of your life, reminds you of the best summer of your life, first time you made love-and when you hear it there comes a flood of feelings with each song. This anthology, these stories, capture that rush of emotions and brilliantly crystallizes the thoughts. Certainly worth a read.
Playback St. Louis

You've probably seen the 33 1/3 series at your local bookstore or record shop. They're those great little titles devoted to classic albums like Let It Be, Paul's Boutique and even Trout Mask Replica. This collects some of the best writing within those books. You'll find commentary about R.E.M.'s Murmur, the Pixies' Doolittle, Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation, Nirvana's In Utero, Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea...After you read it, you'll be a hit at the next hipster social gathering.
POP Candy

When a musician releases enough albums, it makes perfect sense to put out a Greatest Hits/Best Of career retrospective for those looking to have that output condensed to just the highlights. Although that concept doesn't really lend itself to books, it does make a certain amount of sense for the 33 1/3 series since each book is dedicated to an album, and a sampler could be useful for someone new to the series, which is now more than 50 books deep. The second volume of "hits" collects twenty brief passages on albums as seemingly different as Kick Out The Jams, Paul's Boutique, Loveless and Born In The USA, to name but a few, with the common thread being that each one is widely hailed as a classic. Although the effect of jumping from one story fragment to another every 10-25 pages is jarring, it does give you just enough to help you decide if you want to seek out individual volumes to get the full story on certain albums - and isn't that exactly what any good sampler should do? -
Losingtoday.com

From the Publisher