Best books of 2022: Pop music

Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me from Success
by Miki Berenyi, Nine Eight Books £22

An odd London childhood leads to wayward young adulthood in the band Lush in Miki Berenyi’s memoir, a portrait of 1980s and 1990s indie music etched with wit and mixed emotions. A memory rush back to shoegaze and Britpop for those who were there; others will relish her sharp writing.

Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm
by Dan Charnas with Jeff Peretz, Swift Press £20/Macmillan $30

Cut short in his prime by ill-health in 2006, J Dilla changed the course of time. The Detroit producer devised a new rhythm for hip-hop, mixing even and uneven patterns of beats to create an innovative time signature. Dan Charnas adeptly recounts his life, with musicology from Jeff Peretz.

Good Pop, Bad Pop: An Inventory
by Jarvis Cocker, Jonathan Cape £20

In advance of Pulp’s reunion next year, Jarvis Cocker has written an entertaining quasi-memoir based on decluttering his loft. Hoarded objects from his past, from jumble sale relics to manifestos scrawled in schoolbooks, spark droll memories of Sheffield youth and his band’s frustratingly slow path towards Britpop fame.

The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond
by Chris Blackwell with Paul Morley, Nine Eight Books £22/Gallery Books $28.99

Chris Blackwell cuts to the chase in his vividly told memoir: “There is no two ways about it: I am a member of the Lucky Sperm Club.” Raised in the Anglo-Jamaican elite, he founded Island Records, a linchpin between Kingston and London with a roster going from Bob Marley to Traffic.

Orlam
by PJ Harvey, Picador £16.99/$26.95

PJ Harvey swaps songwriting for poetry in Orlam, a magical-realist coming-of-age story about a nine-year-old girl in a West Country village told in an impressive series of allusively linked poems. The verse is written in traditional Dorset dialect, digging into the lexical roots of Harvey’s rural upbringing.

Books of the Year 2022

All this week, FT writers and critics share their favourites. Some highlights are:

Monday: Business by Andrew Hill
Tuesday: Environment by Pilita Clark
Wednesday: Economics by Martin Wolf
Thursday: Fiction by Laura Battle
Friday: Politics by Gideon Rachman
Saturday: Critics’ choice

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