ABBA Gold.(Book Review)

ABBA Gold. By Elisabeth Vincentelli. New York: Continuum, 2004. (33 1/3.) [131 p. ISBN 0826415466. $9.95.]

Electric Ladyland. By John Perry. New York: Continuum, 2004. (33 1/3.) [132 p. ISBN 0826415717. $9.95.]

Sign 'O' the Times. By Michaelangelo Matos. New York: Continuum, 2004. (33 1/3.) [121 p. ISBN 0826415474. $9.95.]

The Velvet Underground and Nico. By Joe Harvard. New York: Continuum, 2004. (33 1/3.) [152 p. ISBN 0826415504. $9.95.]

Unknown Pleasures. By Chris Ott. New York: Continuum, 2004. (33 1/3.) [xvi, 117 p. ISBN 0826415490. $9.95.]

Continuum's 33 1/3 series is a collection of short books dedicated to rock's essential albums. The canon of rock music is a slowly evolving list perpetuated by magazines like Rolling Stone and MOJO, books like Dave Marsh and Kevin Stein's The Book of Rock Lists (New York: Dell, 1981), classic rock radio station playlists and countdown programs on music channel VH1. Author Nick Hornby humorously captured the personal implications of this musically obsessive pastime in his novel and the movie High Fidelty.

Books in the 33 1/3 series focus on one album each and are 100 to 150 pages in length. Each author has chosen a record they love from the past forty years to write about. The books are highly personalized, but all follow the same basic structure: part 1 is dedicated to the author's personal connection to the record and why the record is significant in the artist's catalog and in the broader context of rock music history; part 2 documents the making of the record; part 3 is a song-by-song analysis of the album. Authors for the series are musicians and/or writers for notable popular music publications.