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thecommonswings's review
5.0
Let me start by saying a few words about a different book, Rob Young’s Electric Eden. English folk rock is a genre I am very very passionate about but what that book ended up as was a mess where Young obviously had his conclusion sorted out before writing, and cherry picked a very Wire friendly selection of records to prove his point. But that’s dishonest. It completely misses the moments where pop music and folk rock intersected, for example, because a folky pop song didn’t really fit into what he wanted to say
Barnes, thankfully, avoids this completely. He’s happy to discuss almost prog records and dalliances with pop music. He’s happy to say some records aren’t very good. Admittedly he has enough space to do that in (insert your “as bloated as Tarkus” joke here) but he also does it because he’s a fan. He’s very much in love with this music and wants to praise it. Sadly this means occasionally his writing is a bit awkward and lumpy (especially in his necessary but slightly stilted diversion chapters, especially the ones about politics and feminism) but at best it’s like reading a very long fanzine about this stuff
And it is infectious. As in I’ve now listened to Yes properly and quite liked it. I draw the line at ELP (I’m not mad) but it has made me listen to and reappraise a lot of records, and does so with a keen eye for detail and an impressive array of interviewees. Not a perfect book but, like the genre, it tries for something magisterial so you can’t blame it for occasionally going through a duff passage
Barnes, thankfully, avoids this completely. He’s happy to discuss almost prog records and dalliances with pop music. He’s happy to say some records aren’t very good. Admittedly he has enough space to do that in (insert your “as bloated as Tarkus” joke here) but he also does it because he’s a fan. He’s very much in love with this music and wants to praise it. Sadly this means occasionally his writing is a bit awkward and lumpy (especially in his necessary but slightly stilted diversion chapters, especially the ones about politics and feminism) but at best it’s like reading a very long fanzine about this stuff
And it is infectious. As in I’ve now listened to Yes properly and quite liked it. I draw the line at ELP (I’m not mad) but it has made me listen to and reappraise a lot of records, and does so with a keen eye for detail and an impressive array of interviewees. Not a perfect book but, like the genre, it tries for something magisterial so you can’t blame it for occasionally going through a duff passage
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