Every Song Ever

A music appreciation guide for our era … Brilliant – Dan Chiasson * New York Review of Books *A remarkable new book … [Ratliff] goes leaping from Beethoven to Big Black, from Morton Feldman to Curtis Mayfield, identifying continuities while delighting in contrasts – Alex Ross * New Yorker *The spectacle of an active mind processing a world in constant flux … Maybe, as Ratliff beautifully argues, the brooding aggression of metal obscures a deeper melancholy – Hua Hsu * New Yorker *Incisive … Thanks to Ratliff’s vast knowledge, what could have been a dry academic exercise is more like a trip into the world’s coolest record store – David Browne * Rolling Stone *

Ben Ratliff has been a music critic for The New York Times since 1996. His book Coltrane- The Story of a Sound was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He lives with his wife and two sons in the Bronx.