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
The second compendium of extracts from Continuum's acclaimed and successful 33 1/3 series.
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*
Everybody has their own little best-of lists in their heads --
sometimes a jarring mix of records beloved for the most intimate
and inexplicable reasons. Each miniature book in the 33 1/3 series
devotes itself to unraveling the allure of an album, from Jimi
Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland" to Belle & Sebastian's "If You're
Feeling Sinister" to Celine Dion's "Let's Talk About Love." The
excerpts crammed into 33 1/3 Greatest Hits Vol. 2 , $15.95 (which
follows 33 1/3 Greatest Hits Vol. 1 , $14.95), present a dizzying
array of passions that should send music lovers poring through
their own music collections. -
*Salon.com*
For all of us that were buying records way before back-catalogue
compilations and the mp3 came to dominate the music scene, the 33
1/3 series of short books, each dealing with a different LP, make
for perfect stocking fillers. Then comes the obligatory Greatest
Hits, a digest of some of the best writing from the series. With
the release of Volume 2 there is the usual mix of insightful
personal experiences and professional encounters with the various
artists. From pop to hip-hop, this book is guaranteed to shift
Christmas Day away from the turkey and the inevitable re-run of
It's a Wondeful Life to a raiding of the record collection at hand.
Conversations thus soundtracked and fuelled by the various chapters
will try to resolve such affirmations as The Stone Roses
"possessing an almost preternatural mastery of the pop paradigm" or
how and why (and, indeed, if) the Pixies became "gods in
abstentia". A book for all tomorrow's parties—oh, and the album
you're now thinking about is number 11 in the series.
*Popmatters.com*
This collection of 20 meditations on single albums (from the Pixies
to David Bowie) satisfies the biggest music nerd.
*Metro New York*
Like the first, this second compilation pulls together the best
chapters from 20 of the titles and exposes the writers' often
radically different approaches, from the near-scientific to the
decidedly impressionistic...Despite a strict on-album-per-band rule
being observed, it's also refreshing that an artist's most popular
record isn't automatically the one placed under scrutiny. Joni
Mitchell's Court and Spark is covered, rather than Blue; Nirvana's
In Utero rather than Nevermind. It's by occasionally turning the
blind eye to cynical commercial instinct, allied to the untrammeled
freedom granted to each writer, that's made 33 1/3 such an
eccentric and absorbing series.
*Word Magazine*
The 331/3 Series has now dissected more than 50 critically
acclaimed albums, each lovingly rendered by detailed journalism,
academic critique or Fever Pitch style memoir... it's also
refreshing that an artist's most popular record isn't automatically
the one placed under scrutiny... It's by turning this occasional
blind eye to cynical commercial instinct, allied to the untrammeled
freedom granted to each writer, that's made 33 1/3 such an
eccentric and absorbing series.
*Word Magazine*
The 33 1/3 of pocket books ... are superb little volumes devoted to
classic albums. What unites them is not so much their subject as
the standard of the writing and imagination that the authors have
brought to their task ... every one I've read has been well worth
the attention..
*The Herald (Glasgow)*
Continuum took two things that I love- music writing and books that
fit in my back pocket- and put them together to make a series that
is my favorite thing ever. I plan to get through all eighty-three
books, each of which contains a critical discussion of one classic
album.
*Paris Review- 'Staff Picks' Section*
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. --
Jim Dunn * 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. -- Whitney Matheson * 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 *
Everybody has their own little best-of lists in their heads --
sometimes a jarring mix of records beloved for the most intimate
and inexplicable reasons. Each miniature book in the 33 1/3 series
devotes itself to unraveling the allure of an album, from Jimi
Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland" to Belle & Sebastian's "If You're
Feeling Sinister" to Celine Dion's "Let's Talk About Love." The
excerpts crammed into 33 1/3 Greatest Hits Vol. 2 , $15.95 (which
follows 33 1/3 Greatest Hits Vol. 1 , $14.95), present a dizzying
array of passions that should send music lovers poring through
their own music collections. - * Salon.com *
For all of us that were buying records way before back-catalogue
compilations and the mp3 came to dominate the music scene, the 33
1/3 series of short books, each dealing with a different LP, make
for perfect stocking fillers. Then comes the obligatory Greatest
Hits, a digest of some of the best writing from the series. With
the release of Volume 2 there is the usual mix of insightful
personal experiences and professional encounters with the various
artists. From pop to hip-hop, this book is guaranteed to shift
Christmas Day away from the turkey and the inevitable re-run of
It's a Wondeful Life to a raiding of the record collection at hand.
Conversations thus soundtracked and fuelled by the various chapters
will try to resolve such affirmations as The Stone Roses
"possessing an almost preternatural mastery of the pop paradigm" or
how and why (and, indeed, if) the Pixies became "gods in
abstentia". A book for all tomorrow's parties-oh, and the album
you're now thinking about is number 11 in the series. -- Raphael
Costambeys-Kempzynski * Popmatters.com *
This collection of 20 meditations on single albums (from the Pixies
to David Bowie) satisfies the biggest music nerd. -- Allison
Williams * Metro New York *
Like the first, this second compilation pulls together the best
chapters from 20 of the titles and exposes the writers' often
radically different approaches, from the near-scientific to the
decidedly impressionistic...Despite a strict on-album-per-band rule
being observed, it's also refreshing that an artist's most popular
record isn't automatically the one placed under scrutiny. Joni
Mitchell's Court and Spark is covered, rather than Blue; Nirvana's
In Utero rather than Nevermind. It's by occasionally turning the
blind eye to cynical commercial instinct, allied to the untrammeled
freedom granted to each writer, that's made 33 1/3 such an
eccentric and absorbing series. -- Nige Tassell * Word Magazine
*
The 331/3 Series has now dissected more than 50 critically
acclaimed albums, each lovingly rendered by detailed journalism,
academic critique or Fever Pitch style memoir... it's also
refreshing that an artist's most popular record isn't automatically
the one placed under scrutiny... It's by turning this occasional
blind eye to cynical commercial instinct, allied to the untrammeled
freedom granted to each writer, that's made 33 1/3 such an
eccentric and absorbing series. * Word Magazine *
The 33 1/3 of pocket books ... are superb little volumes devoted to
classic albums. What unites them is not so much their subject as
the standard of the writing and imagination that the authors have
brought to their task ... every one I've read has been well worth
the attention.. -- Keith Bruce * The Herald (Glasgow) *
Continuum took two things that I love- music writing and books that
fit in my back pocket- and put them together to make a series that
is my favorite thing ever. I plan to get through all eighty-three
books, each of which contains a critical discussion of one classic
album. * Paris Review- 'Staff Picks' Section *
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