It's an archival effort structured through individual album reviews, each of which transcends mere formal description. The chapters are meticulously tailored, immersing readers in the musical and sociopolitical milieu from which these albums sprang. But they also explore how these artists speak to common experiences across the Spanish-speaking diaspora – regardless of their “zip code of residence, their accents or their stylistic influences.” The book is full of great Easter eggs, as well as playlist suggestions from guest contributors. Its creative direction is heavily inspired by the blogs and streaming platforms that revolutionized the decade, with playlists, sidebars and titles surrounding each review as if you could click on them. Whether you're reading about culture-changing artists like Arca or discovering Puerto Rican trap pioneers like Füete Billëte, Witnesses of the end of the world is an illuminating compendium documenting scenes and sounds that have lived in the shadows for far too long. —Isabelia Herrera
Wayward: Just Another Life to Live
By Vashti Bunyan
Those drawn to Vashti Bunyan's memoir probably already know her story: a 1970s British singer-songwriter whose freak-folk debut Just Another Diamond Day she developed a cult following—thanks in part to fans like Animal Collective and Devendra Banhart—that inspired her to return in the 2000s with a long-awaited follow-up. Originally launched in the UK last year, Wayward offers much more than that familiar redemption arc.
The story of Bunyan's life is one of striking contempt and quiet beauty, the combination of which moves the heart in unexpected ways. She recounts wearing her father's fragile 78 shellac so thin that her parents removed the needle as punishment. skipping class to play guitar and fraternize with future Monty Python co-founders Michael Palin and Terry Jones. and recorded her debut single with Jimmy Page, while Mick Jagger imitated her voice. “I was quietly glad to be a small part of the big fuck-you,” he writes.
Constantly drawn to the outdoors, from searching for bones among the ruins after World War II as a child, to traveling to the Scottish community of Donovan by horse and buggy in her 20s, Bunyan long rooted the wandering spirit of her music in a desire for corporeality that is muddy and rundown. For a figure who has been championed as fragile and innocent, the true story of Bunyan the musician is that of a woman turned nomad fueled by the realization that the more people and places you encounter, the more your understanding of the world grows. – Nina Corcoran
World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music
By Jeff Tweedy
Jeff Tweedy admits in the introduction to his third book, The world in a song, that he would have started here, with short love letters to important songs throughout his life, if he had been more confident as a writer. Instead, the Wilco frontman felt pressure to write a more conventional memoir in 2018 Let's go (so we can come back)then followed this with How to write a song, his down-to-earth approach to the guru-filled gutters of the “creativity guide” genre. Both books are excellent – warm, funny, unflinchingly honest and clearly the work of a true music lover. But The world in a song it allows Tweedy to go full nerd, not as a tangent to a story but as the story itself. The effect is something of a book-length version of Pitchfork's own 5-10-15-20 interview series, where stray memories are reflexively interwoven with certain lyrics or melodies.
Tweedy writes like he talks – direct, enthusiastic, intimate, self-aware when spoiled – and is a quick and enjoyable read even when he's writing about well-worn hits like “Smoke on the Water”. The best parts are when he focuses on specific moments with family members that changed his perspective on things: his mom belting out Lene Lovich's “Lucky Number” while watching an episode of “New Wave.” The Midnight Special With him, her own “live alone, die alone” worldview. discovering, after many years of assuming otherwise, that his cousin did not write Bachman–Turner Overdrive's “Takin' Care of Business.” It's not all classic rock and vintage alternately, though – gotta hand it to Tweedy, I didn't expect to be so moved by his take on Rosalía's “Bizcochito.” She writes, after Googling translations of the lyrics and realizing she understood the sentiment even though she didn't speak Spanish, “I could really hear the look on her face. I could see the man she was singing to—identify the heartache at a particular time in her life.” – Jill Mapes
Dutton
