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Nov 01, 2008 Year End 2008 - Best of 2008 By Paul Bullock

Veteran music critic Dave Thompson’s angry little book is a sometimes mystifying, often hilarious journey through “rock’n’roll…not rock AND roll…or rock & roll” from the late ’60s to the mid-’70s. It features a superb list of the author’s top 100 classic rock songs, an irrational love for Elton John, and the truly bizarre statement that John Mellencamp’s Scarecrow is “the finest slice of modern Americana there is.”

Thompson’s selective memory of music history can be frustrating, and his almost pathological denial of the importance of the independent rock revolution is downright strange. Its roots during the featured time period and results from the mid-’70s on surely merit some consideration. I’d love to hear a conversation between Thompson and Michael Azerrad (coincidentally both authors of significant titles on Nirvana, Never Fade Away and Come as You Are, respectively) about punk. Still, I Hate New Music is definitely worth the read. (www.backbeatbooks.com)

Author rating: 6/10