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Perfect Sound Whatever
- Narrated by: James Acaster
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
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Summary
The brand-new memoir from James Acaster: cult comedian, best-selling author of Classic Scrapes, undercover cop, receiver of cabbages.
Perfect Sound Whatever is a love letter to the healing power of music and how one man's obsessive quest saw him defeat the bullshit of one year with the beauty of another. Because that one man is James Acaster, it also includes tales of befouling himself in a Los Angeles steakhouse, stealing a cookie from Clint Eastwood and giving drunk, unsolicited pep talks to urinating strangers.
January 2017
James Acaster wakes up heartbroken and alone in New York, his relationship over, a day of disastrous meetings leading him to wonder if comedy is really what he wants to be doing anymore.
A constant comfort in James' life has been music, but he's not listened to anything new for a very long time. Idly browsing 'best of the year' lists, it dawns on him that 2016 may have been a grim year for a lot of reasons, but that it seemed to be an iconic year for music. And so begins a life-changing musical odyssey, as James finds himself desperately seeking solace in the music of 2016, setting himself the task of listening only to music released that year, ending up with 500 albums in his collection.
Looking back on this yearlong obsession, parallels begin to grow between the music and James' own life: his relationship history, the highs and lows of human connection, residual Christian guilt, and mental health issues that have been bubbling under the surface for years. Some albums are life-changing masterpieces, others are 'Howdilly Doodilly' by Okilly Dokilly, a metalcore album devoted to The Simpsons' character Ned Flanders, but all of them play a part the year that helped James Acaster get his life back on track.
Audible Sessions with James Acaster
What listeners say about Perfect Sound Whatever
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Overall
- K. Richards
- 05-09-19
The clues were there
I love James Acaster. Have seen him live several times, watch anything he's on, on TV, and Classic Scrapes is by far the funniest book I've read and/or listened to. This audiobook, I pre-ordered, but each interview given about the book after that, increased the dread. It is, literally, about the CD's released in 2016. To be fair, I was warned. I expected humour. I really thought it would be, somehow, amusingly done. Unfortunately, I should have picked up on the warnings. Not just extremely tedious, but interspersed with frequent clanging, tinkling sounds to denote, "between chapters". I regret and resent buying this audiobook.
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20 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 23-08-19
Loved it!
Ahh, I listened to this book so quickly and now I’m sad it’s over! I would consider myself a casual music fan, I’ll find a few songs I really like and listening to them over and over until I get sick of them. But I’m happy to say that this book made me to find a new found excitement for music. You can hear James Acaster’s passion for every song he writes about and although my taste in music is slightly different to his, this book made me share this passion. As for the storyline, he managed to make it reasonably light and got a few good laughs out of me, despite talking about a very difficult period of time for him. The openness he approached every story with was great as I felt like it made it easier to relate to the problems he was dealing with. For some weird reason I also really enjoyed when things were changed slightly to make the book more audio book listener friendly.
James Acaster truly held nothing back in this awesome book which I think everyone should give a try.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Rhys Clark
- 27-08-19
I LOVE JAMES ACASTER! A GREAT LISTEN
Now I have loadw of albums to listen to! a really good, enthralling yet easy listen/binge listen over the August bank holiday weekend. it's always great to learn more about James' life. Truly one of the most unique and hands down my favourite comedian! 😍😍😍
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3 people found this helpful
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- diane
- 30-11-19
Brilliant
Loved it. Loads I could say about it but I don't have time as I am off to listen to some music from 2016
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 12-05-20
Good listen
An interesting listen and worth it just for the band Okily Dokily.
James is very funny and there are some good tales in there as well as a serious overall theme. I not a big music person but that doesn’t matter. Don’t let it put you off.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Cece P
- 18-04-20
Half biography, half musical review, wholly great
It is splendidly well-written and being narrated by its author is certainly a bonus. He delivers a heartfelt performance and certainly helps land his own material exactly the way you'd expect. It actually saved me reading this book while hearing his voice.
The book itself is just wonderful to listen. He weaves in and out of the thread of his own story to create a parallel or link to the music he then goes on to describe. The very personal nature of his relevelation mirroring the intimacy of the each of the artist's work.
I wasn't sure I'd like this book, I'm not into music theory and can't under in depth analysis so this felt like a Gamble. Perhaps it was the fact this is an audio book, but you fell that much closer to the author as he goes over some of his most painful thoughts and emotions. I hope opening up about this all was as cathartic for him as it was for me to listen to so so many testimonies on feelings and experiences I can absolutely relate to (excluding shitting my pants in a public place.)
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1 person found this helpful
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- Pepper
- 18-12-19
love James
to be honest, I'm not that interested in music and literally I had heard of only 1 of the artists he mentioned...but I had to keep listening cos I didn't want to upset James by stopping early ....you never know if he knows....and after the year he had in 2017, I just couldnt handle the responsibility of adding to that...anyway, he kept teasing the end of chapters with updates on his life and that was enough to keep me hooked.
Having said all that, if he does a second version "2019 was the greatest year in music", I would be the first to buy the audio version!! love James, he's a good man and a funny man.
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1 person found this helpful
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- ross
- 11-09-19
Wasn’t for me
Loved his last book. This wasn’t for me.
Sent it back.
Shame. Wanted to like it
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jim
- 17-03-24
Repetitive list
Just a list of songs and albums with stories about the musicians. The first audiobook I haven't finished in a very long time.
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- Rose
- 28-01-24
Fascinating, hilarious, moving
James acaster’s unique project was an absolute joy. Do yourself a favour and download it now.
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