Spiderland

Over break I chose to read a book in the 33 1/3 series, a line of books that focuses on the making of an album, I read the edition fir one of my favorite albums, Spiderland by Slint. Criticism of music is not a hard area to be interesting in, writer's can choose almost any format to make their point in from an essay to a fictional piece and they can be funny, touching, or insightful. But when it comes to writing about actual events in a rock band's history, the writing can lose its creativity and become just a list of dates and things that happened. Scott Tennent, the man who write the book chronicling the events around the making of the album Spiderland falls into this trap. The book is supposed to focus exclusively on the making of one album and it seems as if Mr. Tennent didn't have enough to work with for he reaches into the history of the band's creation and other album. I found myself waiting to get to the chapters about Spiderland, which is the only reason I read the book and while informative everything that came before those chapters was a bit dull. But when it came to talking about the album I actually wanted to hear about I was entertained and the album he is writing about is known for being mysterious and not having a lot of history, so I can forgive Tennent for not having too much to work with. If you are interested in reading a book on an album that the 33 1/3 series has covered I would advise making sure it's one that has a lot to say about the album you are interested in.