Links Roundup

All the reviews, interviews and other media I know of about Let's Talk About Love, to be updated regularly. I'm quoting some of the "blurb"-ish things that can be pulled from them, but there are more substantial discussions amid them.
Updated: March 26/08 (new additions starred).

Reviews
New York magazine ("this book goes very deeply right")
The New Yorker's Alex Ross (on the Book Critics Circle blog, since Alex is a nominee for this year's Book Critics Circle Award in criticism)
Bookforum (Feb/Mar 2008 issue; "an important study — not just of Dion and pop music but also of the changing nature of criticism in the popular realm")
The Telegraph (UK) ("intelligent and often moving")
Montreal Gazette ("rigorous, perceptive and very funny")
Flavorpill NYC (Alex Abramovich, Jan 22/08: "Despite the abundant preconceptions surrounding Wilson’s ostensible subject (or, perhaps, because of them), the results are subtle, and startling enough to give the most jaded of readers pause.")
* Heather Mallick for CBC.ca (Feb 25/08; scroll to end of column) ("Wilson has written an elegant, informed, witty essay ostensibly about the awfulness of Dion but in fact about snobbery, inconspicuous consumption, subversion, schmaltz, the power ballad, coolness, the globalization of pop music and the skinny woman herself. ... Music criticism is often just guy-world. Wilson's the real thing. I can't praise this small book enough. Smart, but humane")
* The Glasgow Herald, "The Titanic Struggle Between Love and Hate" (Keith Bruce, Sat March 8/08, not online) ("Wilson's approach to Celine Dion stands out [in the 33 1/3 series]... Wilson packs an enormous amount into what is one of the longer books in the series... Clever and witty, it almost made me seek out the album. But not quite.")
* Portland Phoenix (Christopher Gray, March 19/08) (as well as the Phoenix blog) ("it makes a convincing (and, to my mind, pretty harrowing) argument")
Douglas Wolk/Savage Critic.com ("excellent book")
The Globe and Mail ("insightful, engaging and unexpectedly moving" - spoiler alert here: the review quotes a few crucial passages that you might prefer to read in context)
Exclaim! (Cross-Canada music monthly) ("Balancing theoretical analysis with deeply personal asides and entertaining colloquial anecdotes")
Eye Weekly (Toronto) ("the work of a cultural warrior gone soft")
Denver Post (reprinted in the Providence Journal and the Hudson Valley Times Herald Record) ("razor-sharp and unerringly intelligent")
Amanda Stern ("a truly thoughtful, engaging and surprisingly funny book")
* Conscientious (Jorg Colberg) ("very well written and full of surprises") (later ran a giveaway of the book as a contest)
* The Uncut blog (UK) (John Mulvey, March 7/08) ("constantly interesting and thought-provoking... a sophisticated polemic")
Hipster Book Club ("one of the most interesting and erudite books on why people love and hate certain kinds of art")
Zigzigger ("Wilson is a critic in the best sense")
Bohemian.com ("digs up all kinds of fascinating issues about the nature of taste and the hierarchy of pop culture")
Erasing Clouds ("an illustration of the best side of music criticism")
Moot Point (Feb 6/08: "I’m really thrilled to report that the book ... lived up to the hype")
The Moviegoer ("I'll never look at Céline the same way again")

Interviews (text)
* The Onion AV Club (Steven Hyden, March 6/08)
Las Vegas Review Journal (Mike Weatherford, Dec. 16/07)
Crawdaddy (Feb 6-12 issue, "Tastes Are Composed of a Thousand Misunderstandings" by Jake Swearingen) (extensively commented on by The Music of Unemployment, Feb 16)
Washington Post "Express" (Feb 12/08) ("... its principal points are consistently thought provoking while they simultaneously make some of contemporary pop music's gatekeepers seem like sourpusses")
Exclaim!
The Tyee
Elle Magazine (July/07, "Celine Dion... Rocks!"; not online)

Other Press
The Globe and Mail (adapted excerpt)
Macleans
Michigan Daily
Metro (Boston)
New Bedford Standard-Times/South Coast Today (TV column on Celine special, Feb 15/08, New Bedford, MA)
Las Vegas Weekly (Frank Kogan)
Quill & Quire (December, 2007: Not online. Owen Pallett [Final Fantasy] names LTAL as a book to watch for in '08 as part of year-end issue)
Black Book ("Five Surprising Facts About Celine Dion," Jan 21/08)

Radio and TV
Soundcheck (WNYC/NPR, New York, Jan 3/08)
To The Best of Our Knowledge (Wisconsin Public Radio/PRI, program on the theme "Musical Taste," Jan 27/08)
The Bryant Park Project (NPR, New York, interview)
Fair Game (New York, Public Radio International, interview)
CBC Radio Q (or podcast mp3) (CBC Radio One, Toronto, interview Dec 14/07)
USA Today 'Pop Candy' Blog Podcast (interview)
Too Beautiful to Live with Luke Burbank (710 KIRO in Seattle, interview)
The John Moore Show (CFRB, Toronto, drive-home show, interview; not online)
Definitely Not The Opera (CBC Radio One, national; interview clip in item on Crocs, podcast here)
Here and Now (CBC Radio One, Ontario, drive-home show, Jan 9/08; interview, not online)
Talking Books with Ian Brown (Dec 29, 2007) (CBC Radio 1 national book-club panel; not online)
SexTV's new program "Shag" (not yet broadcast)
Book Television interview (aired Feb 29 on CTV and March 6 on Bravo)
Star TV "Inside Story of Celine Dion" special (Not yet broadcast)

Online Discussion
Said the Gramophone's beautiful series of posts on taste in response to the book: part 1, part 2 and part 3
Carl's LTAL contribution to Largehearted Boy's terrific "Book Notes" series
Powells (my contribution to the bookstore site's 33 1/3 guest series)
Jim Emerson of the Chicago Sun-Times on his "Scanners" blog (Feb 15/08, with extensive comments)
Simon Reynolds' Blissblog (best-of-2007 lookback)
Richard Gehr on AARP "Music for Grownups" column ("fascinating meditation on aesthetics, fandom, and loathing")
Idolator.com preview ("one of the most interesting music books you'll read this year")
FourFour (creator of the "Celine Dion is Amazing" viral video, in part a response to the book) ("read this book and prepare to have your expectations blown and mind expanded")
Alex Ross (The New Yorker/The Rest Is Noise) ("brilliant")
Coke Machine Glow (reviews the book-launch event: "Carl Wilson is a man who knows his moment. He has written likely the most talked-about book in 33 1/3, a series of small volumes celebrating prominent albums in the rock canon. After the initial double-take, his choice of Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love appears inspired and poised to pull off the greatest critical recovery since Justified. Luckily, it doesn’t end there...")
Mother Jones' "Riff" blog
Las Vegas Sun Culture blog ("Celine Dion is finally cool" - hmm)
Seen Reading
Utopian Turtletop ("The conversion narrative is beautiful")
The Cure for Bedbugs has issues with the book, and again here (with extensive comments sections in each case)
Viriconium"
Word Things ("a pure delight")
Assorted Phonemes
Scrolling Eye ("The attention from either side of the border ... was unprecedented for a volume in the 33 1/3 series...")
Blue On One Side ("I'm blown away by this book. I can't recommend it highly enough.")
Brijit ("this is a bold step for a music critic, and should be applauded")
Gawker ("what a cool idea!")
Richard Florida ("fascinating")
Heteronormativity and Performativity ("the kind of fast read that forces one to ask lasting questions")
Drift ("top of my reading list")
Radio Free Canuckistan ("absolutely brilliant")
In a Second If You Wait ("It’s impossible to read Carl Wilson’s terrific Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste without reflecting on your own personal history of preference..." - interesting post)
Freakytrigger ("I’ll be buying his Celine Dion book too, as will most of the cerebral wing of critland I’d guess" - debates place of the book in the series)
Confessions of a Cultural Idiot (launch report: "After this hectic, jam-packed evening of music, analysis, and talk, do I want to read Wilson’s book? Yes, a thousand times yes.")
Clap Clap Blog
Largehearted Boy (preview)
Torontoist
Flavorpill (promoting Word bookstore reading in Brooklyn)
Moving and Shaking (passage from book)
Quill and Quire Blog 1 and 2 ("the book is getting the kind of mainstream media attention that other books in the 33 1/3 series ... can only dream of")
CBC Radio 3
Mud-Luscious and Puddle-Wonderful
Pretty Goes With Pretty
Steve Krause
Just Above Sunset
The Omniscient Mussel
Between Adam's Ears
My Tragic Right Hip
Paper Pills
Jezebel
Good Reads
A Cup of Tea & A Wheat Penny
Soundscapes
Guardian Unlimited (quick mention)
CBC Arts (in passing)
Pulpwood Queen
S.N.O.B.
Jmiestarsafreak
Chart Attack (mention of launch)
Steve Krause

When We Talk About Let's Talk About Love

Welcome to This Is What We Talk About, a new page to keep track of reviews, media and readings for "Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste," by Carl Wilson (aka Zoilus, aka me) part of the 33 1/3 series of books on albums. This is just the traditional "testing, testing" inaugural post. Substance to follow.