Books: The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion

Edited by Jim Irvin

Canongate Press $45

Reviewed by Graham Reid


It's a measure of the leisure time available in the Western world since the end of the Second World War that books on popular culture now cram the shelves of bookshops.

Where once the letters of W.H. Auden were given prominence, today scripts from The Brady Bunch are considered worthy of being reproduced and bound into volumes. Television sitcoms and trash culture are seriously studied, and popular music from Frank Sinatra to Eminem is discussed at great length, if not always intelligently.

The Mojo Collection, a brick-sized, 900-page paperback, is another manifestation of our earnest preoccupation with the recreational arts. The editors of Mojo, a monthly British music magazine that has the Beatles on the cover with alarming frequency, have compiled a chronological selection of synopses of the greatest record albums (LP and CD) since the 50s.

Each single-page synopsis of an album - from Peggy Lee's Black Coffee of 1953 through to Travis' The Man Who of mid-1999 - offers a little background, recording details and the considered opinion of the magazine's staff writers and resident experts.

The book includes nearly 600 of the most enduring and important albums recorded, as well as useful sections of compilations, 100 great soundtracks and easy-listening music.

In other words, it's trainspotter stuff, but diverting enough, and it usefully tells whether these albums are available on CD.

There is a typically British skew to the selections, however. White guitar bands are obviously of more interest to Mojo's writers and readers than rap and hip-hop artists. Soul is represented by only its most prominent practitioners.

The short section on the 50s is strange. The title page has a picture of Elvis but not one of his albums is deemed worthy of mention. The 50s were jazzy and cool (two Miles Davis albums, three by Sinatra are among the 18 included), yet jazz albums rarely rate from then on, especially after 1969. It's hard to believe only one by John Coltrane - none by Weather Report - would be included when Aztec Camera's 1983 debut is considered worthy.

But The Mojo Collection is another of those books to be argued with while providing some useful reference material.

It will be a hefty shelf-filler for those who really need to read, again, about the merits of the Beatles' Revolver, Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream and Radiohead's OK Computer.

* Graham Reid is a Herald feature writer.