Alex Ross, Listen to This ***

Listen to This is a collection of essays from the music writer for The New Yorker and author of The Rest is Noise. Ross primarily covers classical music, but this book covers topics ranging from Mozart and the conductor Esa-Pekka Solonen to Radiohead and Björk. 

Each piece is a pleasant profile, and most have an interesting insight or two, but they lack a clear point or point of view. "I Saw the Light," about Bob Dylan, is emblematic. Ross describes the scene at contemporary (circa 1999) Bob Dylan shows, provides a potted history of his career, and quotes a few Dylanologists. Then he notes that "Dylan is seldom talked about in musical terms. His work is analyzed instead as poetry, punditry, or mystification." Ross spends a page analyzing Dylan's musical approach, then returns to the pablum. In my opinion, he squandered his unique angle.

I found Ross to be at his best when describing the day-to-day life of classical musicians: touring with a string quartet, searching for a conductor with an orchestra's board of directors, attending a summer camp "finishing school for gifted young performers."