"This book is very engaging! Joel Heng Hartse gives a heartfelt apologia for writing about music. He suggests that the writer is not merely a commentator but an artist himself crafting and responding to the art with something new and creative. An inspiring book. I strongly recommend it for music fans and musicologists alike." --Christopher Foley, Bass Player, Luxury "I enjoy Joel's thoughtful perspective and casual profundities, of which there are plenty. But to me, what makes Joel a great music writer is the fact that he spent an entire semester abroad hunting down a single used CD from an obscure indie band. It's what any reasonable person would do." --Drew Dernavich, Cartoonist, The New Yorker "This book is about the love of music.

At times, it is a love poem to music. At other times, it is an exploration of our humanity, why and how we seek meaning through music. Above all, at a time when we are overwhelmed with musical content and noise, Heng Hartse's book grounds the reader with a tangible sense of the richness and wonder that is music." --Alan Noble, Oklahoma Baptist University "In this wide-ranging book, the relation between criticism and composition . is set aside for something emergent and difficult. Something verging on ineffable. The lack of aesthetical pretension, the presence of real examples and first-person experience--all of this and more make reading this book, as a scholar and musician, exciting and, dare I say, joyful. The meaning of the word finds itself 'worlded' within its own being, told to us in witty, warm prose.

" --Sam Rocha, University of British Columbia.