Theory of music and musicology

It was the season of the blockbuster.

Courtney Love has never been less than notorious.

Issued on America's premier rap label at the peak of the thrash metal movement, Slayer's controversial Reign in Blood remains the gold standard for extreme heavy metal, a seamless 29-minute procession of ten blindingly fast, apocalyptic songs.

It's the summer of 1979.

Described as the perfect fusion of poetry and garage band rock and roll (the original concept was "e;rock and Rimbaud"e;), Horses belongs as much to the world of literary and cultural criticism as it does to the realm of musicology.

Many albums could be cited to support the claim that great suffering yields great art.

It's October 1977, and the Rolling Stones are in a Paris recording studio.

July, 1967: It seems the entire country stopped to listen to a husky voice steeped in the simmering secrets of the South tell a tragic tale of teenage suicide.

It's October 1977, and the Rolling Stones are in a Paris recording studio.

This is a fascinating and thoroughly researched exploration of the best-selling gospel album of all time.

Released in 1979, AC/DC's Highway To Hell was the infamous last album recorded with singer Bon Scott, who died of alcohol poisoning in London in February of 1980.

Ween now seems like a permanent fixture on the pop-cultural landscape, but when the band first hit MTV in the early '90s, their longevity wasn't so secure.

What is the world that Nine Inch Nails made, and what was the world that made Nine Inch Nails?

1985.

Pink Moon explores how Nick Drake's third and final album has puttered and purred its way into a new millennium.

When the Motor City 5 stormed the stage, the band combined the kinetic flash of James Brown on acid with the raw musical dynamics of the Who gone berserk.

Black Sabbath's Master of Reality has maintained remarkable historical status over several generations; it's a touchstone for the directionless, and common coin for young men and women who've felt excluded from the broader cultural economy.

Pavement wrapped up at Easley Recording in Memphis.

"e;In the absence of love, there is loneliness, sorrow and desperation.

If You're Feeling Sinister shows how Belle & Sebastian transformed themselves over the space of a decade, from a slightly shambolic cult secret into a polished, highly entertaining, mainstream pop group.

Many albums could be cited to support the claim that great suffering yields great art.

"e;It's Time To Party,"e; the first track off of I Get Wet, opens with a rapid-fire guitar line - nothing fancy, just a couple crunchy power chords to acclimate the ears - repeated twice before a booming bass drum joins in to provide a quarter-note countdown.

Posing more riddles than the average sphinx, with its decipherable answers pointing somewhere dark, Song Cycle was anything but passive.

Two entwined narratives run through the creation of Swordfishtrombones and form the backbone of this book.

An album which distilled a genre from the musical, cultural, and social ether, Portishead's Dummy was such a complete artistic achievement that its ubiquitous successes threatened to exhaust its own potential.

A fully illustrated oral history of the Magnetic Fields' 1999 triple album, 69 Love Songs - an album that was afforded "e;classic"e; status by many almost as soon as it was released.

Christopher R.

July, 1967: It seems the entire country stopped to listen to a husky voice steeped in the simmering secrets of the South tell a tragic tale of teenage suicide.

Non-fans regard Celine Dion as ersatz and plastic, yet to those who love her, no one could be more real, with her impoverished childhood, her (creepy) manager-husband's struggle with cancer, her knack for howling out raw emotion.

First published in 1920, this book contains a fantastic guide to teaching piano playing for music teachers, written by Tobias Matthay.

Finally, after all that waiting, The Future arrived in 1980.

Stephen Catanzarite takes a close look at what many consider to be U2's most fully formed album through the prisms of religion, politics, spirituality, and culture, illuminating its previously unexplored depths, arguing that it's a concept album about love and the fall of man.

This is a fascinating and thoroughly researched exploration of the best-selling gospel album of all time.

Zaireeka is the anti-headphone and the anti-mp3.

After Rumours became the best-selling single album of all-time, Fleetwood Mac asked Warner Brothers Records to buy them a studio (the label refused, costing both Warner Brothers and the band significant cash in the long run) and then handed the reins to their guitarist and resident perfectionist Lindsey Buckingham.

Released in 1979, AC/DC's Highway To Hell was the infamous last album recorded with singer Bon Scott, who died of alcohol poisoning in London in February of 1980.

Though Nevermind was Nirvana's most commercially successful album, and the record that broke them - and the grunge phenomenon - internationally, In Utero has increasingly become regarded as the band's best album, both by the critics and the band members themselves.

Released when ELP and Elton John were plodding from one packed stadium to the next, Radio City was a radical album influenced by records that were already deemed oldies and yet sounding like a lean electrical jolt from the future.

Christopher R.

One of the finest hip-hop albums ever made, A Tribe Called Quest's debut record (featuring stone-cold classics like "e;Can I Kick It?

Pink Moon explores how Nick Drake's third and final album has puttered and purred its way into a new millennium.

Two entwined narratives run through the creation of Swordfishtrombones and form the backbone of this book.

Black Sabbath's Master of Reality has maintained remarkable historical status over several generations; it's a touchstone for the directionless, and common coin for young men and women who've felt excluded from the broader cultural economy.

In contrast with many of their punk peers, Wire were enigmatic and cerebral, always keeping a distance from the crowd.

From a Los Angeles hospital bed, equipped with little more than a laptop and a stack of records, James "e;J Dilla"e; Yancey crafted a set of tracks that would forever change the way beatmakers viewed their artform.

What resonated about Endtroducing when it was released in 1996, and what makes it still resonate today, is the way in which it loosens itself from the mooring of the known and sails off into an uncharted territory that seems to exist both in and out of time.

Even at four in the morning, the strip clubs and watering holes surrounding the Honolulu studio were still hopping.

Posing more riddles than the average sphinx, with its decipherable answers pointing somewhere dark, Song Cycle was anything but passive.

Words like "e;inspiring,"e; "e;expansive,"e; and "e;moving"e; are regularly used to describe Sigur Ros's ( ), and yet the only words heard on the record itself are a handful of meaningless nonsense syllables.

Though Nevermind was Nirvana's most commercially successful album, and the record that broke them - and the grunge phenomenon - internationally, In Utero has increasingly become regarded as the band's best album, both by the critics and the band members themselves.