Four of the best books about music

As we find ourselves stuck behind doors yet again, Epigram Music shares its picks of the best books about music

Epigram Music, Various authors

The North will Rise Again - John Robb

The North will Rise Again provides a comprehensive and fascinating insight into the development of the famed Manchester music scene from its early beginnings with The Buzzcocks in the 1970s, through to Oasis at the height of Britpop in 1996. Written by music journalist and Manchester resident John Robb, the book chronologically traces influential Manchester bands, narrated by the band members themselves alongside friends, fans and industry professionals. Inside, you’ll find the greatest Mancunian exports of the twentieth century: The Buzzcocks, Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, and Oasis, amongst many more.

The book reads as a ‘who’s who’ of alternative music legends, featuring a mind-bending array of indie A-listers: Pete Shelley, Bernard Sumner, Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Ian Brown, Shaun Ryder, Noel and Liam Gallagher tell the stories of their development in the city they love. Informative, personal and insightful, the book feels as though you are tapping into the minds of these Mancunian greats. Biographical in tone, it features a great array of personal insights, anecdotes and stories that many music fans will not have heard before, whilst still manging to be incredibly informative.

An absolute must read for any music fan, The North will Rise Again is bursting at the seams with Mancunian pride. It is the story of a city finding its voice against all odds, told by the influential people that made it happen.

- Katie Hubbard, Third Year Geography

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us – Hanif Abdurraqib

Poet Hanif Abdurraqib’s collection of essays is one that revels in subjectivity; it tells stories of friend’s funerals, of news caught through a TV screen in a shop window, interlaced with accounts of screaming one’s lungs out at underfilled venues. Taking its title from a note draped above Michael Brown’s memorial site (which he visits just prior to finding himself the only Black man among the crowd at a Bruce Springsteen concert), Abdurraqib explores his relationship with the musical scenes he belonged to as a teenager and as an adult, with frustration, joy and unbridled connection. Oscillating between political diatribe and train-ofthought-poetic-run-ons, his essays cover musicians across the board, from the aggressive optimism of Carly Rae Jepsen to the heightened suburbia of The Wonder Years, to the cinematic portrayal of Nina Simone.

He expertly interweaves the strikingly intimate alongside glimpses of the wider world. There’s a section on Chance the Rapper playing a tribute to Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks; elsewhere in the city, stories of early Fall Out Boy shows in hidden basements become the medium for memorialising a friend’s tragic death.

On revisitation, what’s most striking is Adurraqib’s ability to capture a suspended state of the world as it was in 2016 - at once far away and starkly familiar. Beyond whatever quagmire of political upset exists within a given time, that which remains unfailingly present is the music inside it.

-Flora Pick, Deputy Music Editor

Perfect Sound Whatever - James Acaster

Borrowing his title from Jeff Rosenstock's 2016 album WORRY, comic genius James Acaster’s Perfect Sound Whatever is the ultimate musical listicle meets memoir. We’re taken on his strange quest to prove 2016 the best year of music of all time. Along the way, we lend an ear to his experiences of heartbreak, to playing in terrible teenage bands, to bagging even more terrible DJ gigs, and even to an anecdote involving him trying not to shit himself on Conan.

Unfiltered, unadulterated joy radiates from the pages. It’s a work undoubtedly penned by a man who experienced the ineffable feeling of finding an album you love, 366 times (apparently). The novel feels far removed from the sometimes more exclusionary musical writing, defined by it’s niche knowledge. In contrast, this isn’t a plodding list of the most underground indie no-names, but one that includes Beyoncé (among others). It concludes with a leap year calendar: one song per day taken from each of the 366 albums he discovered.

A love letter to the life-saving power of music, the book is a compulsory read for music lovers of any persuasion – else, you can listen to his new Perfect Sounds podcast and hear his comedian friends be subjected to his thesis instead.

- Mia Smith, Second Year English

How Music Works – David Byrne

Few people can claim to be experts on music. A subject as diverse, subjective and transitive as popular music demands an unflinching lifetime of expertise. Thankfully, Talking Head’s David Byrne is one such expert. How Music Works covers every facet of the music industry, from a history that stretches from the beginnings of recorded music to Byrne’s own experiences as a bestselling recording artist. His skill as a musician translates flawlessly into those of a writer; non-fiction often feels stale and monotonous, but Byrne illustrates his expertise with vivid anecdotes and experiences, making it a constantly engaging read. He namedrops without vanity – while so many musical autobiographies feel like expressions of the authors own egotism, Byrne creates an exhaustive account of how music is created, perceived, marketed and sold, with little mention of his own successes.

It’s a compelling read, and one that anyone with musical aspirations can pick up and enjoy – though fans of Talking Heads are certainly in for a treat…

- Lucas Arthur, Music Editor