Also of interest...in new rock ’n’ roll chronicles
Out of the Vinyl Deeps by Ellen Willis; Electric Eden by Rob Young; Enter Night by Mick Wall; Is This the Real Life? by Mark Blake
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Out of the Vinyl Deeps
by Ellen Willis
(Univ. of Minnesota, $23)
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Out of the Vinyl Deeps “resurrects a nearly lost, vital, invaluable voice” in early rock criticism, said Ken Tucker in NPR.org. Ellen Willis, the first pop-music critic at The New Yorker, brought a distinct and distinctly feminine voice to a genre dominated by such male critics as Robert Christgau and Lester Bangs. “Crafted with an utter lack of fan gush,” her pieces on the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, and others “sound as fresh and appropriate to the present music scene as they did decades ago.”
Electric Eden
by Rob Young
(Faber & Faber, $25)
Most music fans know the story of how Bob Dylan and other artists transformed American folk music into folk-rock, said Tom Nolan in the San Francisco Chronicle. British music journalist Rob Young’s “encyclopedic and often mesmerizing” new book is a “fascinating saga” that charts a comparable movement across the pond, in which such artists as Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, and Vashti Bunyan raided British folk-music traditions to bring the past into the psychedelic era.
Enter Night
by Mick Wall
(St. Martin’s, $28)
“Born of working-class American rage,” Metallica emerged in the mid-1980s to create “some of the most powerful and definitive heavy metal ever made,” said Alan Light in The New York Times. The 2004 film Some Kind of Monster set the bar high for Metallica bios, but Mick Wall’s holds its own. The book pivots on the death of bass player Cliff Burton in a tour-bus crash in 1986, which seemed to turn the survivors’ focus toward pure commercial success.
Is This the Real Life?
by Mark Blake
(Da Capo $25)
“It’s surprising that it took 20 years from Freddie Mercury’s death for a major Queen biography to appear,” said Michaelangelo Matos in the A.V. Club. Mark Blake’s attempt isn’t definitive: Despite the participation of two of Mercury’s bandmates, the British rock journalist hasn’t fully captured the band’s 1970s peak and offstage excesses. Still, he’s strong on the later years, offering a “genuinely moving” portrait of an AIDS-stricken Mercury recording furiously as his strength wanes.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Royal family website attacked by Russian hackers
Speed Read Pro-Kremlin group claim responsibility just two weeks after King Charles condemns invasion of Ukraine
By The Week Staff Published
-
Larry the cat: how chief mouser 'won the nation's hearts'
Why Everyone's Talking About Downing Street says resident pet is 'healthy' despite reports of contingency plans for his death
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
The daily business briefing: October 2, 2023
Business Briefing Late-night talk shows return after writers end strike, student loan payments resume, and more
By Harold Maass Published
-
Also of interest...in picture books for grown-ups
feature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”
By The Week Staff Last updated