You’re browsing TMT, so you clearly like reading about music. And if you like reading about music, perhaps you like really reading about music — you know, through that perpetually underrated source of intellectual maturation, otherwise known as books. Enunciate if the word sounds foreign or outdated to you: “booooooooooooks.” Say it again with me now: “booooooooooooooooooooks.” Hopefully you’re doing this where other people can hear you, so you can literally sound like a literary zombie. Aren’t books just an indirect way of acquiring brains, anyway?
The chance to simultaneously satisfy your bloodthirsty interest in both books and music comes with the announcement that the folks at Bloomsbury Academic are (more or less) set to release the next batch in their 33 ⅓ book series, in which various authors write in detail about influential, noteworthy, or creatively distinct albums.
Ignoring for a moment the books that have just been announced, the series currently consists of 86 editions, all of which (minus the one written about Radiohead’s Kid A) focus on albums released prior to the turn of the century. The new batch, which will be released over time throughout 2013 and into 2014, includes books about more contemporary albums, such as ( ) from Sigur Rós, Biophilia (TMT Review) from Björk, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (TMT Review) from Kanye West. Older classics, like Devo’s Freedom of Choice and Gang of Four’s Entertainment!, will also be highlighted.
The varying authors suggests a similarly varying degree of quality, but kudos to Bloomsbury for continuing this worthwhile project. Check out the full list of books set to be released, below:
Andrew WK - I Get Wet, by Phillip Crandall
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol II, by Marc Weidenbaum
Beach Boys - Smile, by Luis Sanchez
Björk - Biophilia, by Nicola Dibben
Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe, by Tara Murtha
Danger Mouse - The Grey Album, by Charles Fairchild
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, by Mike Foley
Devo - Freedom of Choice, by Evie Nagy
Gang of Four - Entertainment! by Kevin Dettmar
Hole - Live Through This, by Anwyn Crawford
J Dilla - Donuts, by Jordan Ferguson
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, by Kirk Walker Graves
Michael Jackson - Dangerous, by Susan Fast
Oasis - Definitely Maybe, by Alex Niven
Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Blank Generation, by Pete Astor
Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson, by Darran Anderson
Sigur Rós - ( ), by Ethan Hayden
They Might Be Giants - Flood, by Alex Reed and Philip Sandifer
• 33 ⅓: http://33third.blogspot.com
More about: Aphex Twin, Bjork, J Dilla, Kanye West
