Best Books of Fall — Time
"The triumph of Listen to This is that Ross dusts off music that’s centuries old to reveal the passion and brilliance that’s too often hidden from a contemporary audience. It’s a joy for a pop fan or a classical aficionado." — Alan Light, New York Times
"Brilliant." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Vibrant ... A celebration of what it means to be alive in a world of great music." — Kirkus Reviews
"Indispensable, erudite... [spans] the aural universe from Schubert to Radiohead." — Entertainment Weekly
"It is rare to find a music critic who can write as authoritatively about Mozart and Schubert as he can about Radiohead and Björk.... [Listen to This] is a reminder that a love of music need not — nay, should not — be bound by category." — Vit Wagner, Toronto Star (one of the ten best books of the year)
"[Ross] avoids jargon, he explains, he writes in real language. He reminds me of my other favorite music critic, Bernard Shaw." — Roger Ebert
"Absorbing, illuminating, exciting.... Listen to This deserves to stand next to the best-written modern books on music." — Tom Nolan, San Francisco Chronicle
"Lively and fascinating ... Ross has a wonderful knack for catching the human gesture embedded in a musical phrase." — Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph
"The most elegant and engaging of writers." — Conrad Wilson, The Herald Scotland
"Eloquent, thoughtful, full of revelations and fresh discoveries. — Bill Marvel, Dallas Morning News
"Hugely enjoyable ... offers fresh and unexpected stimulation at every turn." — Charles Hazelwood, The Guardian
"A must-read for anyone with an interest in music of any kind." — St. Louis Post-Dispatch (best books of 2010)
"A love letter to sound.... Undeniably essential." — Doyle Armbrust, Time Out Chicago
"Erudition is rarely so lightly worn." — Details
"Running through every piece is a spirit of adventure, common sense, joy and, ultimately, engagement." — Alan Moores, Seattle Times
"A thinker with style and a stylist who thinks.... Alex Ross is one of the great civilized pleasures anywhere on any subject." — Jeff Simon, Buffalo News
"So graceful, so pithy, so thoughtful and full of insight." — Christian Science Monitor
"He [brings] to Radiohead the same articulate intellectual intensity commanded by Beethoven and Brahms." — Amanda Heller, Boston Globe
"Ross has established himself as one of today’s most valuable cultural critics for one particular reason: he can not only show you the qualities of music, but makes you understand why the qualities matter. He makes believers out of know-nothings." — Jessica Freeman-Slade, The Millions
"Ross is that perfect sort of music critic — already carrying a huge amount of knowledge in his head, he's constantly re-thinking what he knows in light of new evidence and experience." — Steve Pick, Blurt
"The must-read of the autumn." — Bjork.com
"The substantive, passionate writing contained in this book is a strong argument against the ossification of 'classical music.'" — Geeta Dayal, BookForum
Praise for The Rest Is Noise:
"A benchmark book that should eventually become a classic history of the 20th century." — Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"The best book on what music is about — really about — that you or I will ever own." — Alan Rich, LA Weekly
"A work of immense scope and ambition.... a great achievement." — Geoff Dyer, New York Times Book Review (cover review)
"Just occasionally someone writes a book you've waited your life to read. Alex Ross's enthralling history of 20th-century music is, for me, one of those books." — Alan Rusbridger, The Guardian
"Ross is a supremely gifted writer who brings the political and technological richness of the world inside the magic circle of the concert hall, so that each illuminates the other." — Lev Grossman, Time
"The Rest is Noise grapples with the actual stuff of music as few other books have done." — Ian Bostridge, Times Literary Supplement
"By far the liveliest and smartest popular introduction yet written to a century of diverse music." — Michael Kimmelman, New York Review of Books
"Warm, joyful and unfailingly adroit.... Best of all are the moments when Ross really strikes you dumb with wonder, moments when the author’s passion for the supreme significance of music raises his erudition to a new level." — Bryan Appleyard, The Sunday Times (UK)
“There seems always to have been a ‘crisis of modern music,’ but by some insane miracle one person finds the way out. The impossibility of it gives me hope. Fast-forwarding through so many music-makers’ creative highs and lows in the company of Alex Ross’s incredibly nourishing book will rekindle anyone’s fire for music.” — Björk
"This is the best general study of a complex history too often claimed by academic specialists on the one hand and candid populists on the other.... an impressive, invigorating achievement." — Stephen Walsh, Washington Post
