A Series of OBSESSIONS

[January 5th, 2005] Vinyl, the long-player CD, the downloadable digital release, the dubbed tape from your cousin: Music comes in many forms, but no matter the name or format, the effect is the same. The modern album can turn a normal, healthy human being into an obsessive nut. Case in point: Continuum Books' 33 1/3 series, a collection of novella-length pocket books, each pairing a single writer with his or her most cherished album.

Taken at face value, the series might seem like just another series of boring music bios. But it isn't. Continuum editor David Barker sets this series apart from most music books taking up shelf space by putting the emphasis on the writer, allowing each scribe to explore a chosen album any way he or she wishes, and turning the series into an exploration of the many different ways we relate to music, rather than simply how the music was made. The results range from Douglas Wolk's historical analysis of James Brown's Live at the Apollo to Joe Pernice's fictional coming-of-age novella centered on the Smiths' Meat Is Murder.

"This all stems from my own experience of becoming completely obsessed with certain albums," writes Barker via email from his office in New York. "I suppose I wanted some of these books to explore that very personal level of obsession."

In each of the series' 16-and-counting books, Barker's chosen music geeks subject themselves to endless listening sessions on their bedroom, car and office stereos, quickly becoming capable of such oddities as complete memorization of lyrics, devotion to the minutiae of recording technique, the reinvention of the self in accordance with a musician's idea of reality and, in the most extreme cases, physical addiction to the music. Scary, but true--and, in most cases, fascinatingly entertaining.

Only a handful of the books are written as personal memoirs--and they aren't always successful--but no matter the approach, each book carries with it the unmistakable mark of its author, the album viewed through the idiosyncratic gaze of its devotee.

"It can be scary giving writers so much freedom--especially as a lot of these writers have never written a book before," says Barker. "But that's part of the fun of it, for me."

The four 33 1/3 writers who will read from their works at Powell's Books Monday represent only a few of the distinct ways an album can be discussed. Here is a brief cheat sheet for three of their volumes:

Live at the Apollo by Douglas Wolk, writer for the Village Voice, Slate, Rolling Stone, The Nation and Willamette Week

Short Take: This dissection of James Brown's Oct. 24, 1962, show at the Apollo and the resulting album is a resplendent work for both the amount of research and the passion Wolk provides. This short album history is not only a vivid recollection of Brown, but a colorful illustration of the time.

Snippet: "THE HARDEST-WORKING MAN IN SHOW BUSINESS: You thought that was just a slogan. Live at the Apollo was at least James Brown's twenty-fourth show of that week. The Apollo Theater had four or sometimes even five shows a day, starting in the early afternoon, and the revue had been playing there since Friday the 19th."

Sign 'O' the Times by Michaelangelo Matos, music editor for Seattle Weekly

Short Take: Both a student and fan of Prince, Matos integrates the particulars of Prince's rise to fame--including the release of the double LP Sign 'O' the Times--with an endearing and at times hilarious telling of his own coming of age in the suburbs of Prince's Minneapolis.

Snippet: "If I had a dollar for every woman who's told me that the fastest way to get into her pants was to play her 'Adore,' I'd have almost enough money to buy me a clue that they were trying to maybe hint at something."

Let It Be by Colin Meloy, lead singer of the Decemberists

Short Take: Meloy skirts any sort of criticism or analysis of the Replacements' Let It Be, focusing instead on how the album fueled his love for music and performance in a memoir of his Montana childhood--guaranteeing frustration for Mats fans and glee for Decemberists fans.

Snippet: "I listened to Let It Be endlessly. The record seemed to encapsulate perfectly all of the feelings that were churning inside me. The leap from seventh to eighth grade had felt like a quantum shift and my head was reeling from the changes. My eccentricities were becoming more and more pronounced against the status quo of my schoolmates."