Perfect Sound Whatever
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*The Sunday Times Bestseller* The brand new memoir from James Acaster: cult comedian, bestselling author of Classic Scrapes, undercover cop, receiver of cabbages. PERFECT SOUND WHATEVER is a love letter to the healing power of music, and how one man's obsessive quest saw him defeat the bullshit of one year with the beauty of another. Because that one man is James Acaster, it also includes tales of befouling himself in a Los Angeles steakhouse, stealing a cookie from Clint Eastwood, and giving drunk, unsolicited pep talks to urinating strangers. January, 2017 James Acaster wakes up heartbroken and alone in New York, his relationship over, a day of disastrous meetings leading him to wonder if comedy is really what he wants to be doing any more. A constant comfort in James's life has been music, but he's not listened to anything new for a very long time. Idly browsing 'best of the year' lists, it dawns on him that 2016 may have been a grim year for a lot of reasons, but that it seemed to be an iconic year for music. And so begins a life-changing musical odyssey, as James finds himself desperately seeking solace in the music of 2016, setting himself the task of only listening to music released that year, ending up with 500 albums in his collection. Looking back on this year-long obsession, parallels begin to grow between the music and James's own life: his relationship history, the highs and lows of human connection, residual Christian guilt, and mental health issues that have been bubbling under the surface for years. Some albums are life-changing masterpieces, others are 'Howdilly Doodilly' by Okilly Dokilly, a metalcore album devoted to The Simpsons' character Ned Flanders, but all of them play a part the year that helped James Acaster get his life back on track.
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Some things about this book bothered me...writing style in some cases, the way the interviews were done...but overall it's well done and inspiring to see someone discovering music in this way. 3.5 stars.
one of the most niche books i've ever read but also one of the realest. it's one of those books that's extremely hard to sell to other people because of its framing but i've never related more to someone's verbalised anxieties and terrible breakup coping mechanisms.
the music is also fantastic.
As someone who also masks his life problems by obsessively discovering and collecting music, I can heavily relate to UK comedian James Acaster. Following the mental and emotional breakdown he had in 2016, James started to obsess over finding great music specifically from the year 2016 and 2016 only. His obsession over collecting, listening to, and diving into 2016 album releases was an emotional crutch to him that kept him moving forward and I find that extremely fascinating. Not only that but I found it extremely entertaining throughout too. He's definitely the kind of guy where discovering music excites him, no matter how experimental or weird it may be, and once he discovers something he loves, he has to tell everybody. I totally feel the same way. I love that about this book and I feel like it was written personally for music nerds like myself. How he weaves each album's origin stories with his own personal dilemmas and situations is awesome. We all need to be more like James. This really is the 2016 of books.
Even though he did not mention some of my favorite 2016 releases, including M. Ward's “More Rain,” Yesasyer's “Amen & Goodbye,” and Bat for Lashes' “The Bride,” I will cut him some slack. I do hope he's at least listened to those but that's okay if he hasn't, since he owns 600+ 2016 albums in his library at this point lol
