Rob Sheffield uses fifteen physical mix tapes to structure the story of his marriage to Renée Crist, a fellow music critic who died suddenly from a pulmonary embolism at age thirty-one. The narrative documents their life together in the 1990s, anchored by specific songs from artists like Pavement, Big Star, and Aretha Franklin. Sheffield explains how plastic cassettes functioned as personal archives, capturing the specific texture of their shared domesticity, their professional work in rock journalism, and the early years of their relationship in Virginia.
Music historians and fans of nineties indie rock read this to see how specific tracks function as external memory storage for human grief. The book appeals to anyone interested in the technical act of sequencing music to communicate emotion. Readers finish the text with an understanding of how pop culture artifacts serve as chronological markers for personal loss and how hobbyist obsessions provide a framework for navigating mourning after a sudden tragedy.
- Published
- 2007
- Language
- EN
