books on tapes :: nytbr's music issue

the new york times book review's music issue arrived on doorsteps and in corner stores this morning. the cover review, by geoff dyer, discusses the rest is noise: listening to the twentieth century, a new book by new yorker music critic alex ross. ross also has an excellent piece on the internet & the current state of classical music in the new yorker's recent arts issue, which you can find here.

other articles of note from the nytbr this morning include stephen king on eric clapton's autobiography; reviews of jonathan gould's new beatles book; ben ratliff's study of coltrane; oliver sacks's tales of mucis and the brain; and books on gram parsons, pattie boyd, and a piano prodigy named ervin nyiregyhazi.

the sunday book review used to be, for anyone's guess, appointment reading. but i have been, over the last year or so, probably longer, increasingly disappointed with the scope of the reviews and the quality of the writing (walter kirn here exempted). geoff dyer's piece notwithstanding, the music issue feels more of the same. & it's a shame, really; for at a time when book pages in newspapers across the country are dwindling, the one that stands on perhaps the most stable ground generally, and continually, fails to justify that standing.

my latest novel - the reputation of ross francis
billy bragg & wilco - walt whitman's niece
camera obscura - books written for girls
greg brown - the poet game
modest mouse - bukowski
joanna newsom - the book of right-on
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plenty of issue has been taken with sash frere-jones's piece on the lack of soul in indie rock music, but frere-jones himself has done a fair job collecting & responding to criticisms in his new yorker blog. the latest post details a response he received from will butler of arcade fire.