Music books
The Life of Music review – pushing at the boundaries of the classical canon
Nicholas Kenyon’s wide-ranging survey of the development of western music is packed with his passion for the subject
Fiona Maddocks
11, May, 2021 @6:00 AM
Billie Eilish is publishing her family photos: ‘It made me miss a lot of parts of my life’
Ahead of her new album, the singer is publishing her childhood snaps as a book, showing life before her rise to fame at just 14. Now 19, she says she ‘wouldn’t do it differently’
Sian Cain
07, May, 2021 @3:54 PM
Anthony Payne obituary
Composer celebrated for completing Elgar’s Third Symphony but whose own voice was more modernist in style
Barry Millington
04, May, 2021 @4:53 PM
Finding the Raga by Amit Chaudhuri – a passion for Indian music
The renowned novelist explores the thrill of improvisation in a delightful, insightful book that is part singing diary, part memoir and part musical history
Oliver Craske
29, Apr, 2021 @8:00 AM
Pedro and Ricky Come Again by Jonathan Meades review – dandyish Hulk rampage
From Duchamp to Orwell, fascism to Brexit … this collection of journalism and speeches showcases one of the world’s best haters, who has never composed a dull paragraph
Steven Poole
28, Apr, 2021 @6:30 AM
The Who Sell Out: still a searing satire on pop’s commercial breakdown
Filled with product placement and advertising, the band’s newly reissued 1967 album put the pop in pop art, by showing how closely music was entwined with capital
Alexis Petridis
26, Apr, 2021 @10:03 AM
Rickie Lee Jones: ‘I had lived volumes long before I was famous’
A fractured childhood, years as a hippy drifter… the musician’s new memoir tells of her incredible adventures before she found fame
Sean O’Hagan
18, Apr, 2021 @9:00 AM
Lev's Violin by Helena Attlee review – a musical quest
The search for the origins of an exotic-sounding instrument leads to Cremona, home of the great Antonio Stradivari
Jamie Mackay
09, Apr, 2021 @8:00 AM
The Musical Human by Michael Spitzer review – a wide-ranging global history of music
From the first rhythms and birdsong to Whitney Houston and Arvo Pärt – how music has evolved over 165m years
Richard Lea
03, Apr, 2021 @6:30 AM
Into the woods: Sam Lee, the singer who duets with nightingales
Sam Lee built a studio in a wood, found a nightingale to sing with, hooked up a backing band, and livestreamed their concerts. But it is a race against time – for the song of the nightingale may soon be lost for ever
Patrick Barkham
31, Mar, 2021 @2:04 PM
My Rock'n'Roll Friend by Tracey Thorn review – a philosophical and furious memoir
The Everything But the Girl singer’s account of her friendship with the Go-Betweens drummer Lindy Morrison illuminates rock’s double standards
Kitty Empire
28, Mar, 2021 @8:00 AM
My Rock'n'Roll Friend by Tracey Thorn review – a story of sexism in pop
A vivid and witty memoir of the friendship between Thorn and Lindy Morrison of the Go-Betweens, two women in a cultural world dominated by men
Fiona Sturges
25, Mar, 2021 @9:00 AM
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