Really enjoyed this, easy to dip in and out of due to the short essays. Covering a huge breadth of music genres, I've discovered some great music through these pieces. Surprisingly for a book which features some of my favourite albums (John Cale's Paris 1919, Sleep's Dopesmoker, Stars of the Lid's And Their Refinement...), I found the essays on albums I'd never heard of before more compelling (Christina Aguilera's Spanish-language album!). Enjoyed how the book is split into types of response to the music rather than by genre or age (the first section on "Juvenilia" being the strongest), ensuring a rich mix of styles and interests together.

I've made a playlist of all the albums on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ETjZiJ66ciS0MmjIUylNu?si=xtDsd4wrSOqPXZIOvTQA... - found it really added to the book listening along where possible. If you're a curious music fan there's treasure to be found. ( )

The 33 1/3 B-Sides: New Essays by 33 1/3 Authors on Beloved and underrated Albums is a wonderful collection of sharp concise essays on some surprising albums. Edited by Will Stockton and D Gilson, this book would have been almost perfect if they had made themselves stick to the criteria they set for all of the other writers.

I'll get my biggest negative out of the way first. Stockton and Gilson wrote 2 introductions, one apiece, each serving as an introduction as well as each writer's contribution. Unfortunately, these two overly long, redundant, self-indulgent essays were almost enough to make me not want to keep reading. But once I started the legitimate essays there was no way I wasn't going to finish the book. The problem with the introductions is that they repeated, both within their respective essays and between the two of them, some of the same information. They beat the idea of a "b-side" to death, even to the point of stating things that simply aren't true. Album b-sides are nothing in principle like single b-sides. I like that they wanted to use a broad and loose understanding of what the term b-side could represent, but they could have co-written one short introduction that gave us that information, then put their respective essays in the appropriate sections. It would have kept the beginning of the book from getting bogged down in repetition and self-indulgence. And it would have required them to tighten up their writing about their album selections. Instead, their two introductions failed as good introductions and their discussions of their two albums are by far the weakest of the entire collection.

That seems like a big negative but it isn't when taken in context. The rest of the book shines. There is music that you will know and music that will be new to you. In that sense, this can serve to introduce readers to new (to them) music. More importantly, I think, is that even if we are reading about an album we don't know or just barely remember, the dynamic between that album and what it means to the writer will strike a note with most readers. We have all loved an album or song that it seemed like no one else "got." Or felt we discovered something new, or been helped through a period of life, or even given some insight on how to navigate life. These essays will remind you of those songs and albums, of those feelings of yesteryear or yesterday.

A couple of essayists revert back to their adolescent selves when remembering their choice. Instead of placing their beloved album as something in contrast to or different from what they had been listening to at the time, they put down the music of the period. If you read these people at their word, they believe that no one had a strong connection to the music they still, decades later, feel the need to bad mouth. It is like they are still teenagers trying, and failing miserably, to be cool. But even those essays, once you discount the lack of musical understanding, in spite of claiming such, are compelling for what they meant and, apparently, still mean. Lets face it, when remembering a record can make you spew disrespect for a list of songs and artists and, by extension, the listeners who might have been moved by them that record is special to you. Turns you into a juvenile, but meaningful nonetheless.

Highly recommended for lovers of music, for those who have strong connections with songs from their past, and those who like reading about and learning about music they might have missed.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )