33 1/3 Greatest Hits, Volume 1: v. 1

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Geeta Dayal opens her book on Another Green World by admitting that she had trouble writing it. She penned and discarded multiple chapter drafts, then found her momentum flagging. Finally, she decided to let Brian Eno’s set of Oblique Strategies cards direct and inspire her work. It’s an apt move, as Eno often foregrounds the creative process himself, and it results in a probing and thoughtful book that never falls into formula. Instead, Dayal portrays her subject as a deft artist embracing studio technology and balancing his past accomplishments with all the endless possibilities of the future. A: Yes. There are two albums by Radiohead, two by the Beach Boys, two by David Bowie, and two by The Rolling Stones in the series already. That such a lively collection of beats and samples—as cerebral as they are physical—was created by a dying man ensures that Jordan Ferguson’s book will be poignant, but his clear storytelling and direct prose allows producer James Yancey to emerge as a complicated, contradictory character. The first half is the most extensive biography we have of the man, from his childhood in Detroit to his death in Los Angeles, just three days after the release of Donuts. The second half grapples with the album as a meditation on mortality, which only shows what an immense talent the world lost. The most unlikely album made the best 33 1/3: Celine Dion isn’t usually afforded the same respect as a Bob Dylan or a Joni Mitchell, but Carl Wilson uses her populist art and personal history to ask questions about class, taste, and race in an effort to figure out how one of the most popular singers in the world could be loved and hated in equal measure. The answers he finds aren’t always comfortable, but that only makes them more important and crucial to criticism in the 21st century. The original Smile album remains unfinished; not to be confused with The Smile Sessions (2011) box set

In its initial decade, I was obsessed. Reading them like monthly music magazines. I bought every single title for a while there – I had most of the first 100 and I read them all too (at one crazy point in my obsessive-collector-gene life I briefly envisioned having the matching album on vinyl – even if I wasn’t the biggest fan of the work). Instead, I opted for one of my “spiritual cleansing” rituals and promptly sold the whole set, moved them on and out of the house – and didn’t really regret it at all.

The first great title in the 33⅓ series paints a vivid picture of Los Angeles in the 1960s and Arthur Lee’s place in it—or, more accurately, just outside of it. While writing and recording Forever Changes, the Love frontman rented a house high in the hills above Los Angeles, where he could look down on the city and its music scene. His songs comprise an “ode to paranoia” that reveals the decay afflicting the hippie generation even before the fabled Summer of Love. Andrew Hultkrans paints Lee as an American prophet—not predicting the future but passing judgment on society. It’s perhaps the finest piece of writing on one of the finest psychedelic albums of that tumultuous decade. By far the biggest name in the 33 1/3 roster of writers, Jonathan Lethem is no music critic, but an award-winning fiction writer whose novels Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude indulge long passages about pop music. His take on Talking Heads’ 1979 album forgoes fiction for first-person criticism, in which Lethem’s teenage self acts as a sympathetic protagonist. Even as he plumbs each song on Fear of Music for meaning and significance, he uses the album as a point against which he can measure his own growth as a listener, becoming older and wiser and hungrier for connection with each year and with each listen. Q: There is already a book in the series by the same artist as the one I’m proposing, will you consider two albums by the same artist? A: Yes, in our textbook How To Write About Music there is a chapter titled “How To Pitch a 33 1/3″ that is worth reading. Help us support independent bookstores and record stores. Buy the latest 33 1/3 books at one of the fine stores listed below!

A: This time around we’re asking that you do not re-submit proposals. However, feel free to submit one on a different album. Maria Callas's Lyric and Coloratura Arias (33 1/3) Ginger Dellenbaugh: Bloomsbury Academic". Bloomsbury Publishing.Q: I would really like some advice on which album to write on, or constructive criticism on my proposal. Can I write to you about this?

New to this submission round*: A one-line description of the book summing up its scope and content.

Yellow Magic Orchestra (October 3, 2024) by Toshiyuki Ohwada, on the album by Yellow Magic Orchestra (1978) [28] Here you’ll find the full list of albums already covered in the 33 1/3 series, from the very first book published in 2003 to today. Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version by Jarett Kobek on the album by Ol' Dirty Bastard (1995) [24]

We are so excited to finally be able to announce our selections from the 2022 33 1/3 open call. We know that it feels like a long time since the submission window closed, but we’ve been hard at work reading through proposals, sending them on to external advisors*, discussing internally, getting in touch with authors, and making the projects official. So without further delay, here is the list of new titles: I still buy the occasional one. I still read them online or from the library. I haven’t kept up with the series in the way I once did, and it’s unlikely I’ll now cover that lost ground. But I’m still in the race, somewhat. The last one from the main series I read was Sequioa L. Maner’s excellent assessment of Kendric Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly (166). The last one I bought (and will soon read) is Steve Tupai Francis’ look at Kraftwerk’s 1981 gem, Computer World (163). I’d like to read the book about George Michael’s Faith (165), Madvillain Madvillainy (171), Wendy Carlos’ Switched-On Bach (141), and, well, there are of course heaps of others.Zaleski, Annie (January 1, 2016). "The lost pop genius of Scott Miller". Salon. Archived from the original on January 6, 2016.