Reviews - Perfect Sound Whatever

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415 reviews for:

“i’m doing much better now, by the way”

reading a book from someone i admire who talks so passionately about music was a great way to spend time over a bank holiday weekend

brb gonna go listen to every album he discusses

jadmo_11's review against another edition

3.0

I'll be honest, I thought this was going to be a lot funnier than it was. It's not really what I expected.

However, once I got into the flow of things, I did find it quite interesting and can appreciate the general premise of this book. Listening to the audiobook did help me find the humour in some of James' personal stories, but some of the chapters regarding albums of 2016 just sounded like he was reading a wikipedia page :/

That being said, he does write really well and it was an easy read, I started to enjoy it more near the end. Think I'll have to stick to his stand up though.

craftychelc's review against another edition

4.0

I basically full on love James Acaster now.

kmariek's review against another edition

4.0

I'd already listened to most episodes of the podcast James Acaster made about this and had seen Cold Lasagna 1999 repeatedly, so this book was basically going to have to be unintelligible, morally reprehensible trash for me to dislike it. Luckily it wasn't, and beyond the rapid fire stories about his favorite albums from 2016 were made, James includes stories about his breakdown, his relationship with music, and what it's been like for him to be in a bunch of bands. Nice. Maybe only in the physical version, you get a calendar with 366 days (taking leap years into account) of great albums from 2016. As James mentions at some point near the end, though he's dying on the hill of 2016 being the best year in music for his own personal reasons, it's cool that you can pretty much take any year and find so much good music if you really dig, and the internet makes it easy to do that right now.

Appendix: James Acaster reads for the audiobook which is cool. I had the book and the audiobook and was glad since even after years of British TV, studying abroad in the UK, and listening to James Acaster himself talking in podcasts for extended periods of time, I was like a C- on understanding his accent sometimes, especially for band names which don't always make sense right away as words together.

elliebeadle's review against another edition

3.0

I didn't feel like super compelled to read this book (hence why it took 2 whole months!!!) but it was an enjoyable morning listen and james is a super nice reader - he's funny and engaging. Lots of info which was why i was like EeeeeeeeEK intense and u actually have to LISTEN to everything he says but def something a bit different from my usual thriller, YA stuff and the memoirs I listen to.

hamesunderscore's review against another edition

5.0

emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

samjunipero's review against another edition

5.0

Maybe it's because I'm in a weird and tough place in my own life right now – i.e. I'm battling terrible depression and anxiety currently. So hearing (as I listened to the audiobook for this) one of my favorite comedians talk about his own mental health struggles and suicidal thoughts was affirming. Some of the things James talked about here could've easily come from my own head. I really, really loved this book. It's raw and real and deep and hilarious.

As someone who loves music, as it's helped me through much in my life, I adored listening to someone talk about their love of music as they discovered new artists and albums. It might be kinda silly to say but this book helped give me some will to keep living (I have so many albums to listen to).